Employee Benefit Trust Minutes - 10/08/2010City of Wichita Falls
Employee Benefits Trust Board Minutes
October 8th , 2010
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
Becky Chapman, Employee Benefits Coordinator
Agenda Items:
i. Call to Order- Meeting was called to order at 9:00 am.
ii. Approval of Minutes-Motion was made by Miles Risley to approve the
September 22nd, 2010 minutes, second by Jim Dockery. The motion
carried unanimously.
iii. Consideration and possible approval of IPS Advisors final offer - IPS
took into consideration the employee surveys for the final proposal.
a. The self funded Best and Final Offer included Blue Cross and
Blue Shield (BCBS) as the third party administrator, Humana
as the stop loss carrier, and CVS/Caremark as the Pharmacy
Benefit Manager (PBM). IPS renegotiated the administrative
fee with BCBS, resulting in a $27, 204 reduction from that last
quoted due to BCBS agreement to maintain current rates. The
new PBM has offered lower rates and an increase in rebate
credits. Walgreens was unable to lower their rates due to the
contract being national. Prior to the addition of a stop loss
carrier the new self funded expense will be $101K less than
last year. With the addition of the stop loss carrier (with a
$500K deductible for health and pharmacy claims), the new
expense is an additional $12,797.
b. The employee survey’s top suggestion was vision coverage.
IPS proposes to add vision coverage at the employee’s cost.
Block Vision had the most competitive proposal guaranteeing
quoted rates for 36 months. It covers contacts, eye exams,
frames and lenses and has 12 network providers within five
miles of the city hall.
c. Changing the City’s life insurance provider was also a
recommendation. Sun Life had the most competitive coverage,
covering everybody, including the Fire department at 1X
annually salary at rates of .09 for basic and .02 for EMD. Jim
was concerned in having everybody else covered 2X due to
TMRS coverage and firefighters only 1X. If firefighters are
also covered 2X that will increase the cost from $36,000 to $
54,000. Also included in the proposal is long-term disability. It
would offer a core and buy-up program. The core would be
funded by the City and offer a benefit at 40% monthly earnings
replacement up to $7,000 per month. The elimination period
would be 180 days. The employee has the option of buying up
to 60% monthly earnings replacement and it would bring the
elimination period down to 90 days. The cost would be
approximately $43,969 annually for the City and .37/$100 of
monthly pay to the employee. IPS strongly recommends a
long-term disability option for the employee, 95% of employer
clients offer it. Darron questioned whether we could drop the
1X annual salary with TMRS for active employees and retirees
and go with Sun Life for both. Jim stated that he would look
into the possibility to see if it wo uld be cost effective. It was
recommended that Section 125 Administration remain with
Bentley-Yates and the Employee Assistance Program remain
with Deer Oaks.
d. A motion was made by Jim Dockery to accept the IPS Best and
Final Offers as presented, with the caveat that the life insurance
(for 1X annual salary) would only be changed for all
employees if the City could opt out of the TMRS benefit at a
savings or budget neutral level and provided no coverage was
compromised, second by Tammy Guerra. The motion carried
unanimously.
e. Plan design changes recommended for savings by IPS will be
considered at the next EBT meeting.
iv. Open Session.
v. Adjourn at 10:45 am.
________________________________________________________________________
Miles Risley, Chair man Date