Employee Benefit Trust Minutes - 07/11/1996 CITY OF WICHITA FALLS
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS TRUST MEETING
JULY 11 , 1996
Present:
Greg Humbach, Chair
James Berzina, City Manager
Fred Werner, Director of Finance
Jan Stricklin, Employee Benefits Administrator
Linda Meunier, Personnel
The meeting was called to order at 3:30 PM by Fred Werner in
the absence of Mr . Humbach. Mr . Humbach joined the meeting
at 4:00 PM.
The April 4, 1996 minutes were approved with no corrections.
Agenda Items:
Financial Statement:
The first item presented by Ms. Stricklin was the
claims analysis where she explained for the period of 10/95
through 5/96, the Employee Benefits Trust Fund is
approximately $300,000.00 behind in funding compared to the
same period of time a year ago. She explained that this is
due to the fact that there were ten large cases processed
during this period of time. Three of those were closed
prior to April of this year and during the month of May,
four more cases were closed, leaving three of the large
cases still active. She explained that if the trend
continues, we could still be the $300,000.00 behind at the
end of the year. She feels that, due to the number of cases
already closed, it will be not be that strong. She feels
that we may be as high as $150,000.00 behind at the end of
the year. Mr. Berzina questioned if by saying behind, she
meant as opposed to last year. Ms. Stricklin said yes. She
noted that last year, we saved approximately $150,000.00.
Ms. Stricklin noted that medical costs continue to rise. We
do have discount providers to offset some of this increase.
Ms. Stricklin then presented the analysis of claims
submitted and claims paid. For the period of March 1996
through June 1996, we had a total of $1 ,577,465.82 in total
medical and dental claims submitted. Of this, the Trust
paid $972,795.95. She explained this does not mean that the
employees were totally responsible for the remaining
$604,669.87. Some of this amount is written off by the
providers in the form of the PPP discounts given to City
employees and their dependents. Also, many employees have
which picks up some of this remaining cost . Ms. Stricklin
explained that she is working with a representative of AFLAC
to give us a proposal for a voluntary cancer policy that
could be purchased by employees at a reasonable rate. It
would coordinate with what we presently have.
Mr. Werner said that the shortage anticipated at the end of
the year would need to be presented to the budget office for
funding consideration. Ms. Stricklin had a question as to
what happened to the approximately $150,000.00 saved last
year . Mr. Werner explained that it went into the equities
and might not be there because there had been a shortage
from previous years.
Ratification of Time Share Agreement:
Ms. Stricklin explained that Employee Benefit
Plans, the company we have been using for software and
hardware for processing claims, has changed . They will now
be RIMS, which in reality will be better for us because the
RIMS system will be more updated and will make processing
easier. We were not notified until the first of June that
Employee Benefit Plans would no longer exist so there was
no opportunity to look for other alternatives. There will
be some costs involved with the change. In October or
November we will need two new monitors and another modem.
The savings will be a decrease in the amount we are paying
in per person time share. This decrease will not take place
for the first six months. For the present time we will be
working with our present equipment but will have to be
changed over by October or November. She e.plained that the
monitors we now have are outdated and will not work with the
new RIMS system which we will be using . Our present modem
is not strong enough to transmit the new system. The new
equipment is being purchased out of the Trust. Mr . Werner
asked that the Board be given copies of the written
agreements with ,RIMS. Ms. Stricklin said that these would
be provided . Mr. Humbach made a motion to accept the time
share agreement with RIMS. The motion was seconded by Jan
Stricklin. Motion passed.
Old Business:
Ms. Stricklin explained that the Mammogram and
Prostate screenings had gone very well and had been a real
benefit to several of our employees, with malignancies being
located and treated in time.
She further explained that she will again set up
vision testing for employees, retirees and their dependents.
She will be going out to local providers to see if we can
get a discount on eye wear and eye exams. She explained
that she now wants to include contacts in the benefit as
well as RK surgery. Mr. Berzina expressed how valuable the
eyecare program can be for the City employees and
dependents.
Ms. Stricklin expressed a desire to have the
prostate and mammogram screenings on a yearly basis and
possibly on a six months basis.
New Business:
Ms. Stricklin advised that she is working with a
couple of the smaller cities (Holliday and Henrietta) to
begin administering their health plans. They have expressed
a desire to join us as soon as possible. She will have more
information, possibly by the next meeting.
The meeting was adjourned by Mr. Werner.
Respectfully submitted,
Jan Stricklin
Employee Benefits Administrator