Employee Benefit Trust Minutes - 11/16/2005 CITY OF WICHITA FALLS
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS TRUST MEETING
November 16,2005
Present: Bill Sullivan, Chair
Darron Leiker, City Manager
David Winney, Director of Human Resources
Jim Dockery, Director,of Finance
Gail Garman, Employee Benefits Coordinator
The meeting was called to order at 1:30 PM
Agenda Items:
Discussion and Possible Action on Contract for Clinic Services
Dr. Tom Talbert was present to visit with the Board concerning his association with the
clinic, as well as his association with Joe Bryan, PA and Ken Phillis, PA. Dr. Talbert
reported that Joe Bryan had pioneered the City's On-Site Clinic concept many years ago
and that over the years it had grown and expanded to the level of what it is today;
meeting the needs of the City as far as pre employment physicals, return to work, etc. as
well as seeing many of the City's employees and dependents for sick visits. Dr. Talbert
serves in a supervisory position to the PA's and the clinic. He further explained that Joe
Bryan is a very competent PA with credentials in Family Medicine while Ken Phillis
holds credentials in Family Medicine as well as Surgery and is probably in the top 5% of
the PA's in the nation as far as expertise and experience. He stated that Ken Phillis adds
more value and credibility to the clinic than a typical PA with the ability to add more
services to the clinic.
Bill Sullivan stated that as a part of the review process, the Board wondered if the clinic
was operating efficiently and it would be better to continue charging a fee for the clinic
services or offer them free of charge. Dr. Talbert's personal opinion was that the clinic
needed to be available for easy access and well as affordable. He felt that charging a
small fee would help keep down over utilization.
Jim Dockery stated the possibility of there being less use of the clinic with the new
insurance plans soon to go into effect. Dr. Talbert felt that with Ken's credibility the
clinic would still sell itself as a convenience.
When asked about the technicians currently working in the clinic, Dr. Talbert noted that
they perform a really good service and are a valuable part of the clinic operation.
This concluded Dr. Talbert's participation.
The Board then asked Ken Phillis to come in for a second interview. Bill Sullivan noted
that the average PA's salary appears to be around $80,000-$100,000 per year. Ken
acknowledged that this would be with benefits and the job at the City's clinic offers no
benefits. He stated that contract workers are usually paid more to compensate for no
benefits and to take into account inflation of costs. Jim Dockery asked whether or not
Ken would be providing his own malpractice insurance, which Ken stated he would.
Ken further stated that, if awarded the contract, he plans to spend $10,000-$15,000 on
new equipment and modernizing the clinic. He also stated that there is some expense
involved in providing disposables (throw away supplies).
Jim Dockery asked if Ken would be willing to have the clinic hours reduced to around 30
per week. Ken stated that he would be agreeable to the reduction in hours. He suggested
that the hours be changed to 7am— 2pm on Monday through Thursday and 7am — 11 am
on Friday, amounting to 32 hours per week still allowing the clinic to be open each week
day.
Jim then inquired as to the current bookkeeping and billing practices used by the clinic.
Ken stated that it would remain the same. He stated that the technicians in the clinic
could handle the scheduling of appointments but that he would prefer to have the office
visit fees paid in Personnel as always.
When asked about the handling of work related cases, Ken agreed that they would be
worked in immediately if they had just happened. Those happening previously, would be
seen by appointment. This is the way they are currently handled.
This concluded the Boards interview with Ken Phillis.
Jim Dockery made a motion to enter into a contract with Ken Phillis for clinic services
for 2006, specific terms to be determined at a later date. Darron Leiker seconded the
motion. Motion carried.
Discussion and. Action on Contract and Prescription Plan Benefits with
Pharmacare
Pharmacare, the City's prescription coverage, had made several suggestions regarding
changes to the prescription plan. Darron Leiker made a motion to adopt the
recommended changes as submitted by Pharmacare, with the exception of the $50.00
deductible, which he did not recommend adopting since it was suggested as an option
only in the event the Board did not adopt the new generic copays. The suggestions
included: changing the generic copays to $10.00/retail and $20.00/mail order, $0.00
copay for Prilosec OTC, the renewal of coverage for the generic drug Omaprazole, and
the implementation of a specialty drug program. Bill Sullivan seconded the motion.
Motion carried.
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Discussion and Possible Action on Contract with Alt Benefits for Section 125
Plan.
Bill Sullivan stated that the board had previously entered into an agreement with Alt
Benefits to administer the City's 125 Plan, and that he had received the final document
with needed revisions. Darron Leiker stated that he had also reviewed the final
document.
Jim Dockery made a motion to accept the corrected contract document from Alt Benefits.
David Winney seconded the motion. Motion carried.
Discussion and Possible Action on Employee Meetings
A proposed schedule of employee meetings was distributed to the Board. After some •
discussion, it was decided that a notice would go out to all employees, retirees, and
COBRA participants announcing mandatory meetings to be held in early December
regarding the coverage changes and the new Section 125 program. Representatives from
Alt Benefits and Blue Cross/Blue Shield would be present to explain their programs and
help with enrollment. A memo would also go to the City Council.
Discussion and Possible Action on Agreement with BlueCross/BlueShield
Bill Sullivan reported that he had received the documents from BCBS that needed only a
few minor changes and that he had notified Cassie Stennett of these changes. Darron
Leiker made a motion to accept and sign the BCBS agreement. Jim Dockery seconded
the motion. Motion carried.
Discussion and Possible Action on Health Plan Premiums
Jim Dockery presented a proposal for new premiums based on assumptions as to how
many participants are enrolled in the current plans and how many would enroll in each of
the two plans to be offered. He stated that the expected revenue to be generated, based
on approximately 800 employees and 300 retirees, would be:
Employee premiums 1,161.000.
Retiree premiums 568,000.
City contributions 5,050,000
Other (dental, interest) 65,000.
Total $6,844,692
Darron Leiker made a motion to accept the premium structure as presented. Bill Sullivan
seconded the motion. Motion carried.
Jim Dockery suggested that the $10.00 copay for clinic visits be lowered to $5.00 for
anyone (employees and dependents) covered by the plan and a $25.00 copay for
employees (full and part time) not on the plan. The clinic would not be available to
dependents not covered by the plan.
Bill Sullivan made a motion to accept the new clinic copays as outlined by Jim Dockery.
Darron Leiker seconded the motion. Motion carried.
It was then decided that Bill Sullivan would notify the Iowa Park City Manager, Mike
Price, of the City's decision to inter into the agreement with BCBS, thus ending the
City's administration of the Iowa Park Employee Benefits Trust plan, effective June 30,
2006, which is the end of the contract year. Jim Dockery would notify Joe Bryan in
person and Family Health Center by letter that they had not been selected as the City's
clinic services provider.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 PM.
•
Respectfully submitted,
AL/L.0,ccau._
Gail Garmon
Employee Benefits Coordinator