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Employee Benefit Trust Minutes - 12/05/2006 J CITY OF WICHITA FALLS EMPLOYEE BENEFITS TRUST MEETING December 5, 2006 Present: Bill Sullivan, Chair Darron Leiker, City Manager Jim Dockery, Finance Director David Winney, Director of Human Resources Gail Garmon, Employee Benefits Coordinator Cassie Stennett, Broker The meeting was called to order at 2:00 p.m. Agenda Items: Approval of Minutes Darron Leiker made a motion to accept the minutes of the last meeting. Jim Dockery seconded the motion. Motion carried. Discussion of Actuarial Study Jim Dockery reported that he, David Winney, Director of Human Resources, and Gail Garmon, Employee Benefits Coordinator, had recently attended a meeting held by the North Central Texas Council on Governments in Carrollton, TX, regarding the GASB requirements. The meeting was attended by representatives of cities interested in using the actuarial firm of Gabriel, Roeder, Smith & Company, to fulfill their requirements for GASB. The purpose being to determine the City's current and future liability with regard to retirees. Jim stated that as a result of the meeting, he had received contract documents from GRS that needed to be signed and returned along with certain information regarding employees and retirees that would enable GRS to begin determining the City's liability. He stated that the cost to the city for the study would be $8,500 and that a new study is required every two years. He said that in the coming weeks, Information Systems, Employee Benefits Trust, and Finance would be compiling the information needed by GRS and that he planned to forward this information to GRS in February. He hoped to have a report back from GRS by early April. It was agreed that the City of Wichita Falls would enter into a contract with Gabriel, Roeder, Smith& Company for an actuarial study. 1 • • Blue Cross and !NG Renewal Cassie Stennett was present to report on the Blue Cross/Blue Shield and ING Stop Loss renewal rates, effective January 1, 2007. She reported that the stop loss renewal contract with ING came in higher than the previous year rates with the stop loss specific remaining at $200,000. ING had presented a rate increase as follows: New Old Aggregate 6.10 6.10 Individual 9.63 7.73 Family 28.53 22.91 Based on an estimated total of 1162 employees aggregate, 713 individual, and 449 family,the total estimated monthly new premium would be approximately $26,763.00, $321,156. for the year. After some discussion, the board elected to accept the ING stop loss contract, leaving the stop loss specific at $200,000. Cassie then presented the Blue Cross/Blue Shield proposed renewal as follows: New Old Medical Admin 33.97 31.51 Dental Admin 4.12 3.54 Based on an estimated total of 1159 employees for medical and 982 employees for dental the total administrative cost with Blue Cross for 2007 would be $524,341. After some discussion, the board elected to accept the Blue Cross renewal. The meeting was adjourned at 3:30 PM Respectfully submitted. At_A__401AA0 Gail Garmon Employee Benefits Coordinator CITY OF WICHITA FALLS HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT INTRA-OFFICE MEMORANDUM DATE: February 26, 2007 TO: EBT Board Members FROM: David Winney,Human Resources Director RE: Daron Campbell,New Employee,Exception to 30-Day Rule to Signup or Decline Health Insurance Daron Campbell is now an Automotive Service Worker in Central Services. He started to work with the City October 31 at MPEC. He has a wife and one seven month old child. His current department director and supervisors are attempting to help him correct a problem in his benefit registration that resulted from his nonattendance at the New Employee Orientation in December and not attempt to get into EBT or HR to sign up for benefits until a need arose for health care for his family. It was at that time he realized that he had not signed up for health insurance. After looking into this, it was found that his lack of attendance at NEO in this case was not solely his fault. He had applied for more than one job with the City in the fall of 2006. He was first selected and hired by MPEC as a building maintenance worker in late October, and he signed in on October 31, 2006. The P-17 showed an effective date of employment of Wednesday, November 1, 2006. It would not have been a problem for Human Resources to have put him in that NEO. That should have been the day that he was scheduled for attendance at the NEO. The idea of the NEO is to get all employees who have processed into work in the past 30 days to the first Wednesday of the month NEO through the program. He was in that window of opportunity to be placed in the November 1, 2006, NOE. This is done for various reasons: to help new employees understand city policy and employee handbook, expectations of proper behavior as employees, complete some basic required training, and being able to have questions addressed about benefits and health insurance sign up requirements. He was not there for that NEO. Of course this would have been the most opportune day for him to have attended that and sign up for employee benefits and get started in the job well, but he was not scheduled for that day. He was scheduled for the December 6, NEO. Looking back at that scheduling decision, this actually put him over the maximum 30 days from his first day of employment to sign up for health insurance. He would have had to come back in to sign up for health insurance prior to the NEO. This was not thought of and not caught and follow-up action was not taken to get him in for that requirement. This was merely a lack of experience and situational awareness by the Senior Administrative Clerk working this on that day. Putting him into the December 6, NEO,jeopardized his ability to sign up for health benefits within the time frames the City EBT has established with CITY OF WICHITA FALLS HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT INTRA-OFFICE MEMORANDUM Blue Cross Blue Shied as a standard. To sign up for health insurance within the first thirty day of employment. He received a letter of notification for the December NEO in the packet of materials given to him. It apparently was discussed in his presence about going to the NEO the next day. For some unclear reason, a decision was made for him to go to work at MPEC on November 1 and to schedule him for the next NEO on December 6 after that 30 day period to sign up for health benefits expired by almost a week. He asked, "Will some one remind me about this?" He went on to exclaim, "Because 30 days from then I don't remember such things that well unless reminded." It was apparently stated to him that he would receive a letter or some reminder. He says he was told that he would receive a letter or notice as a reminder. He stated, "That time from Nov. 1 to Dec. 6 just flew by and I did not remember it, my supervisor did not remind me, and I did not receive a reminder that I know of." He did not think of any of that until recently when he went to get medical care for his family did he realize that he did not have health insurance and asked why not. He assumed it would be taken care of automatically when he started to work. In November 2006, he was still being considered for another job with the City in the City at Central Services. That job was actually his priority. He was offered the job and ended up accepting that job. He was then transferred from MPEC to Central Services. He was still scheduled for NEO on the first Wednesday, December 6, 2006. His supervisor at MPEC did apparently not understand that this was a mandatory meeting for Daron Campbell to attend and he had other work task for Daron. He apparently followed his supervisor's instructions and he had forgotten about NEO and he did not show up for the orientation on Dec. 6, 2006. It was not until recently when he needed to take his child for some medical health treatment that he discovered he did not have any health insurance and that he missed the opportunity to sign up for health insurance at the NEO and even the open enrollment period. This is not totally his fault as a new employee, although he was told by HR staff, he apparently did not get the emphasis from his supervisor, to fully understand the importance of attending new employee orientation and the established 30 day time limit to sign up for health benefits, although this is told to each new employee who is signed. As he said, "My Wife deals with all the paper work matters." His supervisor also do not assist him in getting to the NEO We have had some people miss NEO for a variety of reason but they are caught up and get into EBT to sign up for Health Insurance. That was not the case with Daron. Additionally, he really should have been entered into NEO on Nov. 1, 2006. I explained to him, his wife and his current supervisor, that even if he missed the orientation, we contact them and their department supervisors to let them know they need to go to EBT at that point for one-on-one counseling registering their selections for benefits in EBT. We should have • CITY OF WICHITA FALLS HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT INTRA-OFFICE MEMORANDUM contacted him and ensured that his supervisor and department director were notified of his absence from that mandatory event (for a variety of reasons to include no show supervisor counseling for a mandatory event). That contact when it could have made a difference, apparently did not occur or at least did not effectively get the word to the supervisor and employee. In that regard, not getting signed up within 30 days of employment was not his fault but he and his family suffers the consequences. He apparently was doing what he was directed to do by his supervisors at the time. That was partially, our fault in HR for not following up on this to ensure the new employee was afforded the opportunity to make a decision to accept the health insurance and other benefits or decline those benefit offerings. Additionally, if he started on November 1, to have had to wait to the December NEO would have put him past 30 days of employment with the City anyway. As John Burrus and Jeff Badder have mentioned, this is a good employee that the department hopes to retain for a long time it is in the City's best interest in this specific case for EBT Board to waive the 30-day time limit for health insurance sign up and allow this employee and family to be signed up for health insurance. Guidance has been provided to the HR Staff to better follow-up on these types of situations that will come up. Any new employee missing the New Employee Orientation (NEO) must be identified and coordination action taken by us to notify the supervisor and schedule a time for them to come in and get signed up for benefits, as well as finding out why the employee was not there and letting the supervisor know also that this was a mandatory meeting. They then should be rescheduled to attend the next NEO for the training sessions. This is a customer service issue for a new employee the customer, in this case, and this is not solely the fault of the customer. Most new employees do not understand how they are signed up for benefits and some may think that it is automatic when no one has talked to them about that. Our action in this matter also indicates or presents an impression for them on how much we care about them as employees. If we leave an employee and their family out to dry (so to speak) and do not bring them in when appropriate what does that tell them? Authorization by the EBT Board is needed to provide an exception to policy in this case to allow him to be signed up for health insurance. If you agree to do this we will contact BC/BS to get this accomplished for the Daron Campbell and his family.