Employee Benefit Trust Minutes - 06/29/2011 City of Wichita Falls
Employee Benefits Trust Board Minutes
June29, 2011
The meeting was held in the City Council Conference Room, 1300 Seventh Street, Wichita
Falls, TX 76301.
Present: Darron Leiker, City Manager
Jim Dockery, Asst. City Manager/CFO
Miles Risley, City Attorney
Tammy Guerra, Human Resources Manager
Angela Bosma, Employee Benefits
Agenda Items:
Meeting was called to order at 2:00 pm.
II. Motion was made by Darron Leiker to approve the February 14, 2011 minutes,
seconded by Jim Dockery. The motion carried unanimously.
III. Financial report was discussed. Product encompassed three years, and a best
and worst case scenario. Jim indicated that revenues are easy to project based on
premiums and participation in benefit programs. Prior year reimbursements were
included in the invoices but now that our participation in the Walgreens pharmacy
program has ended, we are receiving rebate checks independently. In regards to
expenses, "Claims and Admin Fees" are the largest portion. We have now paid out
more than we have received in rebates by $700,000 — $900,000. Total expenses
are 9.8 million — 10 million dollars. The city finds itself "upside-down" between
$200,000 - $400,000. In the beginning and ending fund balance, best and worst
case scenario, we anticipate claims to continue to grow. Given this information, we
will probably need to look at a premium increase in CY 2012.
IV. Update to include review of requests made of on-site clinic and strategic planning.
Tammy Guerra updated the board regarding recent requests made of the
Employee Clinic.
a. It was recommended that options be explored to improve the privacy of the
clinic. Frosted glass and White Noise machines have been installed to meet this
expectation. . However, due possibly to a recent addition of a staff member in the
Property Management office, we have heard that discussions in one exam room
are now being overheard again. Building maintenance has been alerted to the
issue and is checking into it.
b. Third party vendor pre-employment drug testing was suggested for
consideration. This option was found to be cost prohibitive. The Employee Clinic
personnel chose instead to require all drug testing participants to use the latrine
available in the clinic.
c. A patient satisfaction survey was recommended. A survey has been agreed
upon but will not be implemented until the remodeling in the clinic is finished.
This project is expected to be complete by August 1, 2011.
d. It was recommended that the Employee Clinic and EBT personnel work
together to develop educational materials for the employee population
regarding the clinic. This has been implemented and will be ongoing.
e. It was requested that KPA Med formalize its HIPAA privacy and security
compliance training and provide documentation of such training to the board.
The clinic staff has now complied with HIPPA directives and provided copies of
their certificates to HR. This item is considered closed.
f. IPS recommended a number of reports be generated from the clinic for the EBT
board's consideration. The Employee Clinic staff plans to begin collection of
the data to support these reports in July.
g. The EBT board requested that KPA Med implement the use of Electronic
Medial Record. KPA declined to comply.
V. Consideration and possible approval of purchase of electronic medical records
software. IPS recommended that the City should evaluate Electronic Medical
Record (EMR) software, which could potentially supplement the reporting, provided
through the clinic. Without an EMR in place, it is difficult to discern if the onsite
clinic is cost effective. Communication between Tammy and Mr. Phyllis resulted in
a negative response in regard to his purchase of Electronic Medical records.
Tammy indicated that Mr. and Mrs. Phyllis have indicated that they were not
interested in spending the money on EMR software, but they would use it if the City
purchased it. The use of e-records is more of a "best practice" item than a
compliance issue, but the reports we could pull from the system are limitless.
Darron indicated that he could understand their hesitation, but that it was important
to start moving in that [e-records] direction. His one concern is that if the City buys
it, will the clinic commit to feeding it the necessary data. Tammy indicated that the
quoted price (which expired early June) was around $30,000, with a $5,000 annual
fee. One of the benefits of the program is that the PA's will actually be able to
enter data on a hand-held device as they meet with each patient. Jim asked if our
City IS staff had been part of the meetings to ensure compatibility. Darron asked if
this was the best recommendation (software) for our municipality. Tammy
answered "yes." Jim indicated that we have the resources so we should probably
buy the program but the contract needs to be worded to make clinic staff obligated
to populate the data, and to respond to us when we have an information request.
Miles indicated that the city needs to be the ultimate owners of the program as it
will be loaded on city computers and will contain city data. Darron concluded that
this was a necessary expenditure to get us further down the road. At that time,
Darron made a motion to "purchase E-MDS system as recommended; craft an
agreement with Ken and add language that they [Clinic staff] update data." Tammy
seconded the motion and it passed unanimously.
V. Open Session-
a. Tammy briefed that EBT is currently finishing the data collection for GASB 45 and
that we should expect an actuarial report later this summer
b. Tammy also briefed that IPS will be invited to visit within the next 30 days. She
projects that a possible "BMI attack" will be forthcoming.
c. At the next meeting of the EBT, we will likely discuss premium increases.
VI. Meeting was adjourned at 2:50 pm.