Health Insurance Committee

City of Norman & Employee Represented Health Insurance Committee

Health Insurance Committee Meetings: Scheduling of meetings will be monthly as opportunities for such meetings arise.

UPDATE: What Does Health Reform Mean for Fire Fighters?

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City of Norman Health Committee Plans "Wellness Program"

March 6, 2010 - The Health Committee is currently working to establish a City/Employee Wellness program. The IAFF is fully in support of this important addition to our own membership, in addition to all those participating in our insured, health-policy group. (Wellness Program Presentation...) (February 22, 2010 Health Committee minutes...)

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Seasonal Flu Vaccinations Postponed
Vaccine shortages to blame...
(The City of Norman, OK)

October 29, 2009 - The seasonal flu shots to be given to City employees next week have been postponed due to vaccine shortages. Norman Regional Hospital has assured us that we will be contacted as soon as they receive their allotment of the vaccine. Upon notice of their arrived allotment a revised schedule will be redrawn.

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H1N1 Vaccinations
(The City of Norman, OK)

October 19, 2009 - The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has asked employers, insurance carriers and providers to take proactive action to ensure individuals have easy access to the H1N1 vaccine, in an effort to lessen the potential consequences of a pandemic.
 
Based on the potential health implications of a widespread outbreak, UMR (the City’s health plan administrator) will process H1N1 vaccination claims as a covered service, with no co-pays, deductible or co-insurance fees and no charge to the City plan. This means that City of Norman employees and their covered family members may go to their doctor, use their medical ID card, and receive the vaccine at no cost. It can be a provider that is in or out of network for this particular claim.

The timeframe for this service is October 1, 2009 thru September 30, 2010. If you or a family member has already received an H1N1 shot, you may have that provider process the claim with UMR and you will receive a reimbursement.
 
At this time, there are no local pharmacies participating in administering the H1N1 vaccine, however, when updated information is received pertaining to pharmacies, we'll try to forwarded it to you as soon as possible. 
 
Also, you should contact your doctor ahead of time to be sure they have the H1N1 vaccine and enough supplies to give you the vaccine. If you have questions or concerns about this process, please contact Judi Price at the City of Norman.

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Summary of Health Insurance Committee Meeting - October 13, 2009

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Summary of Health Insurance Committee Meeting - August 17, 2009

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EOB Statements via e-mail

April 8, 2009 - UMR offers you the option to go paperless and receive an e-mail notification whenever an explanation of benefits statements (EOB) has been posted online. (See attachment....)

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Health Insurance Committee Meeting Update
(submitted by Butch Crawford - IAFF Committee Member)

February 26, 2009 - Good News! We are finally in the black on the Insurance Fund! (January, 2009 Insurance Analysis Report...)

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Health Insurance Committee Update
(submitted by LeRoy Lukinbill - IAFF Committee Member)
(Minutes...)

January 18, 2009 - There was very little to report from the Health Insurance Advisory Committee meeting on January 15, 2009. Jerry Guy, with Gallagher, reported that claims remain flat and with the new network in place, things should begin to look even better. He has encouraged everyone to continue to be good consumers and let him know if any individual issues arise with the new network. Also mentioned was reference to the NPHO “network” being "not real happy" with our move to change networks with perhaps an impression with attempts of making things difficult in some situations during the transition. Other than that, it should be business as usual. (December, 2008 Insurance Analysis Report...)

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Health Insurance Update
(City of Norman via the Employee Health Insurance Advisory Committee)

November 20, 2008 - During the last several months our employee health insurance advisory committee has researched and evaluated the City’s insurance plan, exploring opportunities to reduce our claims costs, which in turn, helps control our health insurance premiums. The result of the committee’s efforts was a recommendation to obtain network coverage through a provider that offers greater discounts than we are currently receiving. For that reason, effective January 1, 2009, the City will replace its current network providers, First Health and NPHO, with the United Health Care (UHC) Options Network.

During the first week of December HR will meet with employees at their work-site to discuss the new network, distribute network directories and answer questions. Until that time if you would like to view the physicians/hospitals, etc. currently in the UHC Options Network you can do so by:

1. Logging onto www.umr.com
2. Click on Find a Provider
3. Click on Medical
4. Click on U
5. Click on United Healthcare Options PPO
6. Choose Medical and click on UHC Provider Search Application

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A Quick Message from the Health Insurance Committee - GOOD NEWS in the future!
(submitted by Butch Crawford - IAFF Committee Member)

September, 16, 2008 - Provided is the August, 2008 Insurance Analysis Report. It is declared that things are looking much better this month and is estimated to achieve even a more welcomed status next month. This is good news for the Group Health Insurance plan.

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August Report from the Health Insurance Committee
(submitted by LeRoy Lukinbill - IAFF Committee Member) (July, 2008 Insurance Analysis Report...)

August 28, 2008 - The following is the 'committee-report' from the Local 2067 delegation to our Health Insurance Committee. The meeting was held on Tuesday, August 26th:

The insurance meeting was pretty uneventful this month leaving the committee not much new to report. Representatives with UMR (formerly Fiserv, our third party administrator, which was purchased by United Health) and Catalyst Rx were present during the meeting. They spent most of the meeting going over year end reports, which basically showed what we already knew. Overall, medical claims were basically the same as the previous year, while prescription costs were up about 8%. ( It was reported that drug companies normally raise their price 3%to 5%, so some of the increase cannot be controlled.)

The rest of the meeting was spent updating the committee on the negotiations with some of the large providers who are not in the United network that we are looking at switching to. The negotiations seem to be going well and it appears that the new network is going to meet the majority of our needs.

Mr. Guy closed with stating that things were looking good, but there still remains many areas that we can “fine tune” our insurance. In the following months we will be looking at some of these that we have talked about, such as a consumer driven plan as an option and tweaking our prescription plan to control cost and stay up with inflation. The big thing will be moving to the United network, which might possibly happen as soon as November.

(Members having any questions about Health Insurance and/or the Health Insurance Committee and its meetings, please contact LeRoy Lukinbill or Butch Crawford.)

The next scheduled Health Insurance Committee meeting is slated for Tuesday, September 30, 2008 at 1:30 p.m.

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Report on Insurance Committee
(submitted by Butch Crawford - IAFF Committee Member)

July 23, 2008 - The city held a Insurance committee meeting on July the 11th at city hall. The Insurance consultant passed out documents showing the condition of the Insurance fund and projections to show how the fund will be affected if we change our provider network to United Health Care; from our current provider network NPHO. It will save our plan approximately 1.1 million per year.

This is the network that was forwarded to all three crews to look at and see if there are any providers not in the new network so as to inform committee members, Leroy or Butch, letting them know in efforts to get them added to the new network.

Our plan is turning around to the good for a change because of wiser choices and getting better discounts from our providers. The Firefighter representatives, Butch Crawford & Leroy Lukinbill, made two (2) recommendations at this meeting

1. To change our network provider based on the information given by the Insurance consultant (Gallagher Consultants)
2. To recommend NO premium increase for the FYE 09 year and see how the positive savings of the changes affect the fund balance.

At the current trend it will take approximately 3.5 years to gain a fund balance of 2.5 million for suggested reserves. This is conditional based upon trends in the market and consumerism. (Meeting Minutes...) (Related Documentation...)

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Reestablishment of Employee/Employer Health Insurance Meetings Restart with Welcomed News
(submitted by LeRoy Lukinbill - IAFF Committee Member)

June 13, 2008 - We had some good news in the meeting on Wednesday for a change. Jerry Guy with Gallagher (our insurance consultant) led off with the news that the claims for the last year have been trending flat and the “fund” has improved from about $1,000,000 to about $600,000 in the red instead of the $1.3 million that was projected by the city. This is according to the city’s insurance analysis cash basis statement that is provided to us monthly. He thought employee education has led to more prudent usage and the some of the changes we have made have helped keep claims down.  

Mr. Guy also informed the committee of the purchase of Fiserv (our third party administrator) by United Health Care. This is what caused some of the glitches with claims when the change of ownership was taking place. He also stated that this will not affect the way our claims are currently processed.  

With this new ownership arrangement, United Health Care is offering their PPO network to us instead of the Norman PPO. This sounds a little scary, but the two networks are not that much different. It appeared that 95% of the doctors and all of the major hospitals in the Norman PPO are in the United PPO. What made this very interesting are the overall discounts that United is able to negotiate with providers. Mr. Guy and his staff ran a year of our claims as if they were filed through the United PPO to see what the benefit might be. This analysis showed that with the United PPO discounts would have been closer to where they should be at 50% instead of 35%. This would have saved the “fund” a mere $1,000,000. We will obviously have to take a closer look at this possible opportunity.

Also, Mr. Guy had initially recommended a 7% premium increase beginning next fiscal year to build reserves to where he believes they need to be. But with claims trending flat and the opportunity to change PPO’s and save a million, he recommended  moving to this new PPO and the 7% would not be needed.

Some other things brought up by Mr. Guy as possible objectives to consider, and are not new considerations, were to implement a wellness program, implement the Consumer Directed Plan as an option, and implement a Co-insurance based Rx plan.

We are going to have another meeting in about a month. In the mean time, the committee is going to take a closer look at the United PPO and see if we want to recommend making this move. This appears to be a good opportunity if we can get it to meet all of the employee’s needs. If there are any questions call me.

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Wal-Mart Expands Low-Priced Drug Program
Retailer to offer 90-day prescriptions for $10
(MSNBC)

May 6, 2008 - BENTONVILLE, Ark. - Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, announced Monday it would expand its discounted prescription drug program to offer 90-day supplies for $10 and add several women’s medications at a discount. It also said it would lower the price of more than 1,000 over-the-counter drugs.

The move marks the third phase of a company program that began in 2006 to provide a 30-day supply of generic prescription drugs for $4. Wal-Mart said the program has saved customers more than $1 billion.

With the expansion, the company began filling prescriptions Monday for up to 350 generic medications at $10 for a 90-day supply at Wal-Mart, Neighborhood Market and Sam’s Club pharmacies in the U.S. Almost all the prescription generics in the company’s $4 program were included in the expanded $10 offer, said Wal-Mart senior vice president John Agwunobi. (Read More...)

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Wal-Mart Expands $4.00 Prescription Drug List

October 27, 2007 - On September 27, 2007, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. announced the expansion of its $4 generic drug program.  The company will extend its low-cost generic drug coverage to include more medicines in more categories and will provide faster savings on new-to-market generics. (See Expanded Drug List...)
 
In total, 24 new prescriptions have been added to the $4 drug list, including prescription medications used for the treatment of glaucoma, attention deficit disorder/attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ADHD), fungal infections and acne.  Fertility and prescription birth control will also be included at $9, compared to national average prices ranging from $24 to $30 per month.  In addition, several “new-to-market” generics are being added to the $4 drug list which could result in substantial and immediate savings to clients and their members. 
 
Wal-Mart’s expanded $4 prescription program now covers 157 generic drugs of varying strengths and dosage forms (361 products in all).  With these changes, as of September 27, 2007, $4 prescriptions are now available for most commonly treated medical conditions. This represents up to 95 percent of the prescriptions written in the majority of therapeutic categories and thus represents significant cost savings opportunities. You may have access to the list of $4 prescriptions at www.walmart.com.

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May, 2007 Health Advisory Committee Update

June 27, 2007 - Posted here are the minutes to the May, 2007 Insurance Advisory Committee meeting. The June, 2007 meeting has been canceled/postponed.

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March, 2007 Health Committee Update

April 25, 2007 - Posted here are the minutes to the April, 2007 Insurance Committee Meeting.

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September, 2005 Health Committee Update
submitted by Butch Crawford, IAFF Representative

October 10, 2005 - The months of September and October have been interesting months for the Insurance Committee to say the least. After breaking even in the FY04 insurance cost have risen during the first quarter of the FY06 contract year. Our insurance fund has decreased from a 1.2 million surplus to an approximately $900,000 fund balance as we have had a couple months of heavy usage and we are still feeling the effect of the reduction in the City's premium contribution that we agreed to in the FYE06 contract agreement.

With all this in mind the Insurance consultants from Gallagher are projecting a deficit fund balance by July FY07, the Insurance committee has been discussing proposals made by the consultants for implementation of the three tiered plan that I outlined in a previous Insurance updates.

A motion to go forward with this implementation prior to the 07 negotiations was voted down by all three bargaining groups in the October meeting. The Unions felt that given the current contract agreement where the Council agreed to NO benefit changes during the FY06 contract year, and that it would not be productive to consider those recommendations until the FY07 contract year. This would allow the respective Union representatives to educate their members and receive direction from those members towards what changes they would be willing to consider. Although there has been little talk about a premium increase this year it is always a possibility that it would be necessary to keep the Insurance fund in the black until other alternatives can be agreed upon. We must all become better educated in the condition of our Insurance program including the rising Health care costs and how we can become better users of our plan benefits. I will be posting updates ASAP.

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Health Insurance Committee Meeting Summary
submitted by Butch Crawford, IAFF Representative

June 22, 2005 - Representatives from the Consulting firm of Gallagher Benefit Services, Inc Jerry Guy and Anna Holt passed out a Financial Summary analysis showing the Plan cost from 7-1-2000 to 5-31-2005 including Medical, RX, Dental and Administrative cost also included were Stop loss Insurance Costs. The following are the NET Plan Cost for particular years:

• FYE 2001 - $4,580,205
• FYE 2002 - $5,126,728
• FYE 2003 - $6,290,002
• FYE 2004 - $6,360,866
• FYE 2005 - (05 as of 5-31-05) $6,602,475

According to Jerry Guy the plan will break even for FYE 2005 (total contributions less total expenses). The actual Insurance Fund balance as of June 1, 2005 is $1,245,748.40.

The consultants then passed out the comparisons of the three plans that they are suggesting we implement ASAP, or at least by January of 2006, which would be for the FYE 2007 negotiations. The base plan is called the "Core Medical Plan", the middle Plan is called the "Consumer Driven Plan" and the current plan we enjoy now would be called the "Premium Plan". The first two plans include some reductions in premiums in exchange for a benefits reduction down to a 80%/20% Plan. To keep this "Premium Plan", it would cost our membership approximately $100 more in premiums for a family and $50 more for a single employee more than we are currently paying under the current plan system.

Some of the questions asked of the Consultants were:

1. If we could just raise the premiums what the city budgeted (9.5%) and not change anything? (Answer: YES).
2. Could the Unions tweak the plans different than what has been proposed and still affect the Plan positively? (Answer: YES).

Questions we are asking ourselves:

1. Why should the IAFF accept the same decreases as the other groups when we as a group are the least users of the Health Insurance Benefits?
2. Why would the IAFF members trust any advice or be willing to give up More Benefits when just last year they were promised one thing by the CON’s representatives in mediation and then given something else?

This representative’s position is that if the CON wants us to lower the value of our Benefits Package then they must first be willing to settle some issues on the wage side of the Total Compensation package. To ask us to reduce our benefits and fall farther behind in our market on wages is like asking me to put a saddle on a Donkey and sell it as a Horse. It’s just not the right thing to do!

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Insurance Committee Meeting Information Update for April 27th 2005
submitted by IAFF 2067 President & Committee representative Butch Crawford

May 3, 2005 - During this meeting the CHPA consultants made their recommendations for the FYE 06-07 contract years. Some of the recommendations were to implement a wellness program and a Managed care program both which are volunteer programs and would help guide those that are chronic users of the Health Insurance as well as attempt to discover signs or symptoms in other members to help mitigate problems early and avoid developing chronic health risks. While these are steps in the right direction they are also voluntary and must be accessed by the individual members to have any long-term affects.

The CON’s consultants passed out their future projections for the Health Insurance Fund and as we have seen in the past they are projecting a severe deficit in the next couple of years unless we look at tweaking our benefits. When ask if instead of benefit reductions could we look at premium increases to avoid this Projected deficit the CON’s consultant said YES. The current fund balance in the Insurance fund including the FOP’s is still around 1.2 million to the good and this is due to the last Premium increase along with the benefit tweaks that the Unions agreed to last year, and that is including the CON decreasing their agreed amount of premiums by about $400,000.00 a year. We suggested that we allow the fund time to adapt to the changes made in January before we make any other changes and continue to research options for the future.

The CON’s consultants suggested Major changes in the prescription plan along with offering three different benefit packages that members could fit to their individual needs and possibly save themselves some money if they don’t have to use their insurance that particular year. Included in these proposals is the reduction of the co-insurance from 95%-5% to 80%-20%. I will be sharing more information on these options in future updates. The IAFF 2067’s position for FYE 06 is that we agreed with the CON to “NO insurance changes for FYE06” but we will continue to monitor the fund and research ideas that will help us maintain a healthy fund balance while protecting the benefits that we all enjoy.

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Summary of Insurance Committee Meeting
submitted by IAFF 2067 President & Committee representative Butch Crawford

March 22, 2005 - The consultants working for the CON presented claims analysis showing the current fund balance for all city employees, except the FOP, to currently be at approximately $800,000.00. The FOP’s fund balance is $348,000.00. The combined total would be $1,148,000.00. The CON has chosen to split the FOP out of the fund because they won their arbitration thereby giving them better benefits than the other groups that were told that if accepting the CON’s offer they would not get the worst deal. Shame on us for trusting!

The consultants passed out claims information on National trends and the projected effects on our plan if we do not change things by creating better management of our benefits. Medical management is used to help members with chronic disease move from intervention into prevention. If we put more effort into wellness then it becomes better for the employees future health and at the same time helping the Insurance plan to avoid the effects of the National trends of higher Healthcare cost: or at least lessen the effects on our plan. The consultants passed out their projections showing that if nothing is done over the next two years the plan will draw down our reserves and eventually be in a deficit balance.

The CON’s consultants made some recommendations for the committee to consider for FYE06 and FYE07 in the form of benefit adjustments on drug co-pays, implementing a Disease Management Program and implementing a Health and wellness program. The committee members are asked to return with our recommendations to the consultants at the April Committee meeting.

As we all know the IAFF, by agreeing to the CON’s settlement offer last year, was given a two-year agreement with no benefits changes for FYE06. As we all know costs go up, thereby consideration to future options to control costs as much as possible in the future. There are various ways to do this, either by raising premiums, adjusting benefits, or a combination of both factors. Your IAFF representatives’ goal is to maintain the highest level of benefits at the lowest of cost to the employee as possible. To accomplish this task we will need support and input from all members. The information received from the consultants is available upon request from your IAFF representatives Butch Crawford or Leroy Lukinbill.

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December 8, 2004 -  The bulk of today's meeting was spent in discussion of information concerning consumer driven insurance plans that potentially put money 'back into your pocket if "use" was kept at a minimum'. But as always this would need serious discussion and investigation before serious consideration in developing such proposals could be accomplished. The indication of such a discussion in and of itself certainly benefits the City of Norman and its own budgetary check list. So, while savings would be seen from all sides of this issue, the driving force is obviously by way of the City of Norman.

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November 10, 2004 - IAFF Representatives Butch Crawford and Leroy Lukinbill attended the Health Insurance Committee Meeting today at 3:00 p.m. The following information will serve as their report on various elements of discussion at this meeting:

1. Update on negotiations with NPHO: After comparing the discounts allowed between the PPO and NPHO networks NPHO has agreed to increase their outpatient discount an additional 5% to match the PPO discount of 20% for outpatient claims starting November 1st, 2004. This should generate approximately $50,000.00 in additional savings to the Health Insurance plan this year.
2. Review of Summary Reports for Plan: From 6-30-03 to 6-30-04 the increases/decreases in paid claims only are as follows, Medical only decreased -6.57%, Rx increased 16.88% and Dental increased 6.08% from the previous year. The Health Insurance fund balance as of September 04 is $1,147,173.59.
3. There was an additional cost to revert back to the original plan design and to correct any claims paid incorrectly due to the FOP arbitration award of approximately $4,000.00. There was some discussion concerning the plan paying for the additional cost since it was part of the legal expenses incurred by the City as part of their arbitration cost with the FOP and not the other groups included in the City’s Health Plan. The City is going to discuss this issue and bring the committee back a response at the next meeting.
4. Review on Health Plan Trusts Pro’s and Cons: The consultant discussed that as long as the City accounted for the Health Insurance Monies separately and afforded the committee full disclosure of information that it in fact it gives us an advantage because the City would have to dip into it’s other reserves to pay claims if the fund went into a negative fund balance and would not interrupt any necessary medical procedures that could be affected otherwise.
5. Update of Long Term Strategy For Plan: The committee talked about various options that we might look at in the future to make the Plan more efficient and possible options that would give the plan participants more choices in their level of coverage and cost.
6. There was discussion on how the committee through informational disclosure and active participation could help improve the relationship between the City and the Unions during negotiations and lead to a more unified response concerning the Health Insurance issues that we will face as a group in the future.

The next Health and Dental Insurance Committee meeting is set for December 8, 2004 at 3:00 p.m. in the Council Study Room at City Hall.

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October 5, 2004 - It has been reported that the next Employee Health Insurance Committee meeting scheduled for October 13, 2004 will either be cancelled or postponed in light of the recent Arbitration & subsequent decisions made by the Norman City Council.

The IAFF, along with all other City of Norman employees, will be waiting patiently to see where the united Group Health Insurance plan stands. Simply stated, and because of the inability of City Staff & the Norman City Council to remain on the same page, very few know what the end position of our city Health Insurance plan will be; let alone the status of the Health Committee.

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September 10, 2004 - As the Committee itself is still in the process of organizing, and the IAFF members assigned to this committee are still getting their feet wet in terms of organization and reporting, they would like to pass along the following piece of information as a report this month. This is the same "report" the City is providing. It should NOT be considered as reported by our own IAFF members.

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August 11, 2004 - The August Insurance committee meeting was slated as a year end review. Those attending were representatives from the Gallager benefit services (our consultants), the executive VP of Benefit planners and our account manager from Benefit planners (our third party administrators) and the VP of operations and our regional director from CatalstRX (our drug program administrators). Also David Carnivale and Kay Ham have been replaced as Chair of the committee and Anthony Francisco has been appointed the new chair person.

• The catalyst representatives gave an overview of what their services are and what they thought the future holds for the drug program. They discussed the status of the Canadian drug market and why the timing is not right to become involved with it at this time (legalities of the FDA rulings). They also discussed options to look at in the future on different drug programs, on educating the employees on alternate drugs, generic drugs, preferred drugs and becoming more consumer driven in our program.
  
  We can access their website at www.catalystRX.com and see if there are other drugs within the same class that have been prescribed so that we can lessen our out of pocket and also save the plan some money.
   
• The benefit Planners reps also gave an overview of their services and their credentials. They showed statistics from the last 12 months that showed the average cost per employee for Health and dental at $702.00 per employee. Our total plan cost has declined over the last 12 months by -7%. Reasons for this are partly because we had three stop loss claims in the previous year and none last year, the stop loss amount is set at $165,000.00 per employee.
  
  We discussed the lifetime maximum amount and why they thought it should be lowered because of liability issues, so I ask them what they thought the value of lowering it was in dollar amounts because the city never gave it a value in the past. They said it was a huge value depending on the situation (i.e.: who is liable). They also passed out some comparisons of the networks negotiated charges PPO ect; but they left out our primary network (NPHO) the one that I specifically ask for last meeting so I requested that they just compare NPHO and PPO to see if we are in fact not receiving our just discounts because of The City's relationship with the NPHO network. I suggested that we might consider changing from NPHO to just PPO. The consultants said they would bring us a comparison to the next Insurance meeting.

All in all it was an informative meeting and we are looking forward to the next meeting that will be held on September 8, 2004 at 2:30 p.m. in the study session room at City Hall.

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July 14, 2004 - The following is a brief outline of the most recent Health Insurance Committee meeting held today. If you have any questions or comment on what was discussed at this meeting, contact one of the IAFF Committee members for further details.

• Reviewed the minutes of the previous meeting.
• Listen to the Insurance consultant, GBS (Gallagher Benefit Services), explain how they believe projections should be tabulated. [They claim "Reserves" look backward 12 months. They also use a 'Standard Deviation Method'.]
• GBS projected the amount of 'Reserves' would depend on the technology of the Provider to process claims, release monies, and what RX Claims Process is being used. They suggested in this meeting a Reserve of approximately 1.5 million dollars as the target amount for our self insured group.
• GBS also advised the committee to create a Trust Fund for the Insurance monies. The City of Norman (CON) Legal Department, under the direction of Jeff Bryant, asked the Finance Department, under the direction of Anthony Fransisco, to enter the room and refute the advice given by the consultants.
• The IAFF passed out information on the various provider organizations with a schedule of their charges for a 'normal office call'. It showed that our Insured Group as individuals are paying a higher negotiated rate through NPHO than we would through other providers. The consultants (GBS) said, "this is good stuff" and would respond to this at the next meeting. They will also bring Benefit Planners and the RX Representatives to the next meeting.
• Also discussed were possibilities of going to a Canadian Drug importation scenario that would have a direct savings to our plan of 30-70%.

The next meeting is scheduled for August 11, 2004 at 2:30 p.m. in the CON Study Session Room.

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June 11, 2004 - A good first meeting of the new City of Norman/Employee Health Insurance Committee was held yesterday. The bulk of the meeting was simply an acquaintance gathering of those members who will be working together throughout the process.

The consultants that the City hired after they cancelled the previous Employee Health Committee (CHPI) has merged with a company called Gallagher Benefit Services.

The Gallagher Consultants made some interesting statements while bringing out these points in regards to our current Health Plan:

1. Because of current technology in claims processing we do not need a three-month cash reserve in the Insurance Fund that now has over 1 Million Dollars in it.
2. The Insurance Fund should be moved into a separate account and not combined with other funds.

Were are we today as compared to last year?:

• Medical Claims have been reduced by 7.0425%.
• RX claims are increased by 13.83%.
• Dental claims have increased by 7%.
• Total claims are down by 2.9%.
• Fixed expenses are up by 27.5%. (Administrative increases 15.5%, Stop-Loss Premiums increased 36%, and the Aggregate Policy added a projected annual 2004 premium of $21, 873.)

The Committee will meet again on July 14, 2004 at 1:30 p.m.

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May 28, 2004 - The first meeting has been rescheduled for June 9, 2004 at 1:30 p.m. in the Study Session room in City Hall. At the meeting, our consultants from Gallagher Benefit Services will present information about our current health insurance plan and describe the services they provide.

The following make up the new Health Insurance Committee:

• Committee Members: Janie Minor, Police; Leroy Lukinbill, Fire; Allen Campbell, Streets; Steve Womack, Sanitation; Patrick Copeland, Planning; Loretta Harris, Wastewater Treatment; Vondale Salem, Finance; Henry Baskeyfield, Animal Welfare; Doug Cubberly, City Council Member; Keith Nelson, Fire; Kellee Robertson, Police; Wayne Stenis, Planning; Bob Post, Police; Mark Barker, Parks; Butch Crawford, Fire; Tom Easley, Police; Jim Bailey, Fire.
• Staff Members include: Judi Price, Human Resources; Becky Masters, Finance; Jeff Bryant, City Attorney.
• Facilitators are: David Carnavale & Kay Ham.

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May 3, 2004 - The first Health Insurance Committee meeting is scheduled for May 13, 2004. The time of this meeting is yet to be determined. The City of Norman has postponed this meeting until further notice. It was mentioned David Carnevale, Ph.D. and Kay Ham, MHR will serve as the boards mediators.

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April 8, 2004 - An attempt to re-organize the City or Norman Insurance Committee is being sought in an effort to primarily be of assistance in fully involving all City of Norman employees the affordability in maintaining prompt, open, and trustworthy information about Health/Dental Insurance issues. At the present time, this committee will be of an "Informational-Recommendational" purpose only.

This committee is now being formed.