Employee Benefit Trust Minutes - 05/07/1997 CITY OF WICHITA FALLS
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS TRUST MEETING
MAY 7, 1997
present:
Greg Humbach, Chair
James Berzina, City Manager
Jan Stricklin, Employee Benefits Administrator
Gail Garmon, Employee Benefits Coordinator
The meeting vas called to order by Mr. Humbach at 2:10 PM.
The minutes of the JULY 11, 1996 meeting was approved with no
corrections.
Agenda Items:
Financial Statement:
The first item presented by Ms. Stricklin vas the
Claims Comparison. Claims paid for the period of 10/01/96 through
03/31/97 were: Dental - $78,577.01 and Medical - $1,161,337.51 for
a total paid of $1,239,914.52. Ms. Stricklin noted that the total
for this same time period last year was $1,390,584.31.
She then presented charts showing the amount of claims
submitted and paid for employee, spouse, and dependents for the
period of 07/01/96 through 03/31/97. She explained that the In-
Hospital expenses continue to be the largest benefit to be paid.
She noted that for this period of time, the total submitted was
$3,034,252.89 and the total paid out was $1,803,616.39. The
difference of 1,230,636.50 not paid out by the City is due to case
management of claims, deductibles, occurrence fees, out of pocket
expenses, and the Prompt Payment Provider discounts. Ms. Stricklin
also presented a comparison of the total amounts paid by Employee
Benefits Trust for the previous five year period as follows: 91/92
$1,900,000.00; 92/93 $2,800,000.00; 93/94 $2,200,000.00; 94/95
$2,300,000.00; 95/96 $2,700,000.00. Mr. Humbach asked if anyone
had met the $150,000.00 Stop Loss specific for the current period.
Ms. Stricklin said that no one had met the specific as of this
meeting, but that there is the potential for a dependent reaching
that amount before the end of this fiscal year. Motion vas made
and seconded to accept the Financial Statement as presented.
Motion vas passed unanimously.
Ratification of Stop Loss
Ms. Stricklin asked the Board to accept and award the
Stop Loss Renewal to US Benefits, our present carrier. This was due
to the fact that US Benefits vas giving us the same rate as last
year. A bid from American Stop Loss was a lower bid as far as the
monthly rate, but their projected annual maximum that they would
pay out vas $3,631,092.00 and the same figure from US Benefits vas
$4,078,000.00. Motion was made and seconded to accept the Stop
Loss bid from US Benefits for the fiscal year 96/97. Motion passed
unanimously.
Ratification of Prompt Payment Agreements
Ms. Stricklin presented the Board with a list of current
Prompt Payment Providers and reported that a new Prompt Payment
Provider booklet is being printed and should be ready to send out
within the next fey weeks. She stated that we are still in the
process of sending out and accepting new agreements from providers.
She also noted that last year we had agreements with 196 providers,
and that thus far this year we have 321 agreements. The primary
reason being that a Fee Schedule agreement had been negotiated with
Texoma Total Care, which includes about 125 providers from Wichita
-Falls and the surrounding area. Motion vas made and seconded to
accept the Prompt Payment Provider list. Motion passed
unanimously.
Old Business
Ms. Stricklin reported that Employee Benefits Trust had
changed software companies from Employee Benefit Plans in
Minneapolis to a company called RIMS (Resource Information
Management Systems) in Chicago. She further reported that she had
been approached by Texas Municipal League with a proposal for them
to adjudicate our claims for us through a time share agreement.
TML is also on the RIMS system so it would be of no benefit for us
to join their system. It would, in fact, cost us a sizable amount
of money to do the same thing we are doing now on our own.
Ms. Stricklin then reported that she is ready to ask the
eye doctors from here and the surrounding area to join us in our
effort to again obtain eye exams and eye year at discounted rates.
Letters will go out to the providers in June, with services to be
provided in July and August. She expressed hope that we would be
able to obtain rates as good as we had a year ago. She then stated
that one of our Prompt' Payment Providers, Dr. Suggs, will do RR
surgery for City employees, dependents, and retirees at a discount
rate of $1350.00 for both eyes, including post exams and
enhancements.
Ms. Stricklin reported that we had just finished another
successful campaign for PSA exams and Mammograms through our On
Site Medical Clinic.
Rev Business
Ms. Stricklin reported that the terminals being used in
Employee Benefits Trust for the processing of the claims were
obtained years ago from Employee Benefit Plans. These terminals
are no longer functional and for the time being, PC's have been
borrowed from Data Processing and have been converted to use as
terminals. She stated that new terminals for that office would
need to be added to the next budget process. Projected cost of
those terminals is $4,000.00.
Ms. Stricklin stated that she is putting together a
proposal to present to the County to administer their health plan.
Mr. Berzina stressed that if this takes place, the City of Wichita
Falls needs to make sure that the agreement with the County vill
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cover the cost of additional staff, equipment, etc. that will be
needed to take on a group as large as the County.
There being no further business to discuss, the meeting was
adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
J- tricklin
Em. oyee Benefits Administrator