The Saline Reporter
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
City employees get a new health plan
By Sue G. Collins, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: April 12, 2007
A change in heath care coverage for city of Saline employees will expand their physician choices to both area hospital networks statewide and offer chiropractic coverage while saving taxpayers $94,000 annually as of May 1.
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The city has traditionally offered Blue Cross-Blue Shield plans, as well as two HMO plans, from M-Care and Care Choices. In a his four-page memo to Saline City Council members who last week approved the benefit change, City Manager Larry Stoever explained that because of restructuring within provider companies, his department had to examine a new plan while working under the city's tight budget constraints for the coming year.
"We realize medical insurance is a key employee benefit, one that employees and their families greatly rely upon and one that is included in existing union agreements. We have carefully reviewed the all-blue plan and feel that it will offer as good as, if not better, benefits that employees have been receiving through current group medical insurance plans," Stoever said.
Without these changes, the annual medical insurance costs for the city would increase 9.4 percent, from $943,663 to $1,032,387.
For the upcoming fiscal year, the city will pay $957,278 for the new plan. Plus, five retirees will switch to the Blue Care Network Advantage plan, which is wrapped around the benefits already offered by Medicare and result in a savings to the city of another $19,000 per year.
City Treasurer Mickie Jo Bennett and her husband, Dan Bennett, who is parks, forestry and cemetery foreman for the city, are among the people who will be affected. Last year, Mickie Jo Bennett recalls the push for staff to move from Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO to HMO coverage. Non-union employees who chose to "stay blue" were required to pay the 25 percent difference and were offered a pre-tax savings account to ease the pain.
Stoever said the city has worked hard to contain group medical insurance costs and last year also adopted a prescription drug co-pay plan that resulted in an annual savings in excess of $100,000.
Bennett said this meant she had to copy and fax the bills for her daughter's brand name prescription for reimbursement, but the city did provide a fax machine for this purpose.
"You learn how to ask for generic brands and when that's not an option, you pay the extra and get reimbursed," she said.
Since reviewing medical insurance issues last year, Blue Care Network has purchased M-Care and Care Choices is being purchased this year, Stoever said.
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