Franklin BOC Considers New Insurance Broker

 

Franklin County commissioners could soon be looking for a new insurance broker.

At their work session earlier this week, the board once again heard from disgruntled county employees unhappy with how the terms of their policies are being disclosed.

Franklin County Rec Director Randall Gailey said he was  charged double his deductible for a recent hospital stay.

“I had the misfortune of going into the hospital on December 31,” Gailey said. “I stayed in the hospital through January 2 and now I’m going to be charged two deductibles. Instead of it being a $1,250 deductible, it’s going to be $2,500 deductible just because of the timing.”  

Gailey is one of a number of county workers upset with the how the deductibles are being charged.

Under the new health insurance policy, the deductible workers must pay now starts at the beginning of the calendar year on January 1, instead of the fiscal year, which is July 1.  County employees claim that bit of information was never explained to them by the broker.

New county insurance broker Pat Rising blamed the new date on the health saving account attached to the new insurance policies.

“The deductible piece we discussed earlier is because of the high-deductible plan we discussed earlier,” Rising said. “So if you have a health savings account attached to your health care, the deductible has to run that way.”

Rising said the mandate comes from the new Affordable Healthcare Act, and he said  that was explained to county workers last fall.   But Franklin County Tax Commissioner Bobby Martin who also attended Tuesday’s meeting, said the double deductible was never explained to employees in the beginning.

“I was on the insurance committee and we had several meetings but that was never discussed,” Martin told Rising.

Commissioner Clint Harper said it is not fair to county employees to charge them a deductible twice in one fiscal year.

“It’s been kind of a confusing mess up from day one,” Harper said. “It’s not right that the deductible starts again on January 1,” Harper said. ” You had a six month time period for the deductible. Now if we ever change, the employees will be messed up.”

After hearing more complaints from other county workers, Harper suggested the board consider changing insurance brokers.  No vote on the matter was taken, but the board plans to address the issue again at its regular meeting next Monday.