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Carroll Supervisors Approve Stop-Loss Insurer And Charge-Back Rates

The Carroll County Board of Supervisors were tasked with determining the adjusted health insurance rates for fiscal year 2018 at their regular meeting on Monday morning. Carroll County Auditor, Kourtney Irlbeck, outlined the suggested monthly costs between Wellmark Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and HM Insurance Group of Urbandale.

Last year, Wellmark came back with suggested rates about 10 percent higher, but six percent was budgeted by the county. The board had then approved a six percent increase and said they wanted to wait and see what this did to the fund balance. Irlbeck says it has remained solid and has been over $1 million. However, what is being charged is not the suggested rate, so she calculated a one percent increase to what the county is charging.

The county is billed back by the insurer for administrative function, but Irlbeck says this is not a big issue. The board unanimously approved acceptance of the low bid by HM Insurance for their stop-loss policy and a one percent increase to the rates. They also agreed that employees who have retired but are paying 102 percent of the premium rates will be increased by that one percent as well. The board will also be inviting an insurance representative back to discuss the option of adding a high-deductible, health savings account (HSA) policy option for employees. The idea of opting into a Naturally Slim program was discussed, but none of the supervisors were in favor of adopting that policy initiative as of yet. Neil Bock said the nice thing about Naturally Slim is that it can be added down the road at any time.

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