Health Insurance Changes Pay Off for County
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Representatives from the County's Health Insurance Provider, Snedeker Risk Management reported that the changes made last year to save money.
Alex Snedeker presented a graph showing the cost of health insurance in 2009 was $1,260,280. So far this year, Perry County has spent $680,479 on health insurance and is on track to spend an estimated $906,474- a savings of $353,806 over the previous year.
Perry County is partially self-insured.
The in-house attorney for Snedeker Risk Mananagment, Jason Boothe, updated the board on the effects of the health care reform bill.
Snedeker is suggesting that their clients avoid some of the headaches involved with health care reform by obtaining grandfather status. As long as Perry County does not make changes to benefits, co-insurance, co-payments, deductibles or employee contributions that exceed the limits set by the government, they can obtain grandfather status.
Boothe suggested the commissioners discuss changes with Snedeker to make sure they fall within limits. He also updated the language in the insurance booklet for Perry County to reflect changes required by the health care reform bill.
Employers must begin reporting the total cost of health insurance per employee in 2011 on W2 forms. Beginning in 2018, the government will tax employees who have "cadillac" plans that exceed a certain limit.
County Clerk Kevin Kern said that as the 2011 budget stands, there is a very modest surplus. However, he cautioned the board that they might consider reducing the expected revenue for salary reimbursements from the state. The budget will be placed on file at the Nov. 4 meeting.
In other business, the board:
heard from Commissioner Sam Robb that the County Board needs to put in place a policy or procedure covering which employees are allowed to represent Perry County when speaking to the media. Robb's comments were made in response to a recent comment on the television news by an unnamed Perry County Employee. "I don't think we need a loose cannon speaking for us," Robb said. "We're neutral on this issue."
Neither Robb nor Commissioners Bobby Kelly or Jim Epplin addressed the specific issue. However, County Engineer Doug Bishop spoke to Channel 3 News on Oct. 18 about the referendum advising dissolution of the Unit Road District and a return to the previous system.
heard from State's Attorney David Stanton that Sheriff Keith Kellerman saved $16,000 on the jail roof project by activating a clause in the contracts that provides reimbursement if the project was not finished on time. The roof was finished 15 days late. Each contractor agreed to refund a certain percentage because the project for a total of $16,000. Perry County agreed to cut the checks immediately for the amount owed.
The county awarded bids for the jail roof construction project to the low bidders in December 2009. Re-bidding the project in four separate categories was effective. The total cost for the bids was $319,928, which was under the estimated cost of $330,000. The low bidders were: Litteken Construction Company of Breese at $189,600 for general work, F.W. Plumbing & Heating Inc. of Benton at $15,240 for plumbing work, J & J Sheet Metal of Pomona at $66,600 for HVAC work and F.W. Electric Inc. of Benton at $48,488 for electrical work.
authorized Commissioner Kelly to sign the necessary documents to award the bid to Dee's Construction on the Farmer's Market Road bridge reconstruction project. The extimate on the project was $122,575. The bid from Dee's Construction was $91,633.
placed on file for public inspection a 2010 emergency appropriation and budget ordinance amendment increasing the health care claims reimbursement line item in the Health Department buget from $50,000 to $100,000 to allow additional reimbursements to the County's General Fund.
passed a resolution approving tranfers of 15 County Trustee-owned surplus properties to successful auction bidders. The total amount generated was $8,937.