Employee Benefit Trust Minutes - 03/11/2010City of Wichita Falls
Employee Benefits Trust Board Minutes
March 11th, 2010
The meeting was held in the City Council Conference Room, 1300 Seventh Street, Wichita Falls, TX
76301.
Present:
Latiham Lyne, City Mayor
Darron Leiker, City Manager
Jim Dockery, Asst. City Manager/CFO
Miles Risley, City Attorney
Tammy Guerra, Human Resources Manager
Becky Chapman, Employee Benefits Coordinator
Agenda Items:
i. Call to Order- Meeting was called to order at 2:00ptu..
ii. Approval of Minutes- Motion was made by Miles Risley to approve the
February rninutes, second by Jim Dockery. The motion carried unanimously.
iii. Consideration of medical modification of onsite clinic contract regarding billing
practices for workers compensation claims- The contract changes the allocation
of City funds for the clinic payment. Worker's compensation claims will be
paid by a third party administrator on behalf of the City and charged to Risk
Management, the other portion of the clinic payment will be charged to EBT.
Motion was made to approve these contract changes by Darron Leiker, second
by Tammy Guerra. The motion carried unanimously.
iv. Consideration and possible approval of Medicare supplemental premium
increase for retirees- The 2008 actuarial study reported that the City needed to
increase Medicare supplement monthly premiums due to increasing health care
cost for 65 and over retiree population. We currently have three Medicare
supplement categories: 1) employees that retired prior to 2009 and were already.
Medicare eligible receive $250.00 in preniturn assistance, 2) employees that
retired prior to 2009 and were eligible for Medicare after 2009 receive $ 100.00
in premium assistance, and 3) new retirees are required to pay the full premium
aniourit of $325.00. The actuarial study reconirriended that we increase the
monthly premium amount by $87.00 per month in each Medicare supplement
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category. The new rate will be effective June 1., 201.0 and communication to the
retirees will be sent out as soon as possible by the EBT staff. Motion was made
by Darron Leiker to approve the Medicare supplement premium increase by
it
$87.00 per month in each category, second by Jim Dockery. The motion carried
unanimously.
V. Consideration and possible approval of Medicare supplemental deductible
increase- The Medicare deductible for 2010 increased from $135 to $155 and in
the past the City's Medicare supplement plan has been set up to match the
Medicare deductible, The new amount will be effective June 1., 201.0 and
communication to the retirees will be sent out by the EBT staff. Motion was
made to approve the increase in the Medicare supplement deductible to $155 by
Darron Leiker, second by Jim Dockery. The motion carried unanimously.
vi. Consideration and possible approval of retaining a benefits consulting firm- The
purpose of a benefits consulting firm is to save the City money using their
expertise and advice in the area of benefits administration. The EBT staff sent
out a questionnaire to benefit consulting firms and the top three firms that
responded are: GRS, Holmes Murphy and IPS Advisors. The City has worked
with GRS in the past as an actuary and they provided the flexibility of a per
incident cost versus a contractual agreement. The City Attorney has had.
previous favorable experience with Home Murphy and IPS has worked with 12
different municipalities. All of them were highly recommended when the EBT
staff sent out a survey to other Texas municipalities. It was suggested that we
bring in the top three firms and have them present at the next EBT Meeting.
vii. Report from Employee Benefits Trust Staff- BOBS reporting shows that the
average cost per claim for both medical and dental for all participants is $154.57
(subscribers going up). The top high cost claim for 2010 is approx. $56,000 and
the EBT staff will closely monitor all high cost claim activity. Our EAP
utilization is at seven percent and we are actively promoting our EAP and
Wellness program through e -mail and the monthly wellness letter. The EBT
staff is also concentrating on working with fire and police department to utilize
EAP's First Responder program to avoid workers compensation issues in the
future.
viii. Open Session
ix. Adjourn at 2:52pm.
Submitted by:
Becky Chapman
Employee Benefits Coordinator
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