Franklin BOC to Review New Health Plan

Franklin County Commissioners plan to look at changing or adding more insurance brokers to administer their new employee health plan after complaints from some county employees and department heads.

Last year, the board voted to change insurance plans in an effort to save money, but with the change came a new insurance broker.  While the county is saving considerable money on the cost of the new plan, it is causing some confusion among county workers.

At their work session last week, the board heard from Franklin County Clerk of Court Missy Holbrook.

Holbrook said the current broker changed the employee deductible time line from the start of the fiscal year, July1 to the start of the calendar year, January 1.  She said that resulted in many county employees losing deductibles they

Holbrook said most employees have no problem with the new plan overall, but some had problems getting their claims settled.

“We have people who  had scheduled procedures over the holidays during down time,” Holbrook said. “And they discovered their deductible was not paid even though they had paid it earlier in the year.”

She suggested the board use more than one broker to assist employees with their insurance questions.

“After we spoke with the broker, we don’t have a lot of confidence in the broker, we’ll just lay it on the table,” Holbrook told the board.

Commissioners noted the new plan is much more cost effective, noting deductibles and costs were skyrocketing. Commissioner Jeff Jacques said the current issues just need to be ironed out.

“The insurance rates were spiraling out of control,” Jacques said. “For four years straight we had double-digit increases, copay increases and huge deductibles. Comparing what we have now versus what we had, I think this is a much better plan for our employees once we get through these bumps in the road.”

Jacques said issues brought by the employees last week should be brought before the broker and addressed.

No vote was taken by the board, but commissioners agreed to look into the problems addressed by Holbrook.