Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Human Resources topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Board reviews first readings of HR benefits changes and HIPAA policy updates
Summary
First readings were held on proposed HR policy changes to benefit premium administration and on HIPAA/business-associate updates; supervisors asked questions and the items will return for final consideration.
County staff presented first readings of proposed changes to the HR policy manual related to employee benefits and to the county’s HIPAA policies.
Tony, a county HR presenter, explained the health-insurance and payroll-deduction updates. Because the county is moving to four insurance tiers and changing supplemental vendor plans, the proposal makes payroll-deduction scheduling and minor vendor adjustments discretionary at the direction of the county administrator and finance and HR directors. Tony said the change is intended to avoid returning to the board each time a vendor or deduction timing changes. "Because every time you make a vendor change, we might have to come back to the board to make the change," Tony said, summarizing the rationale.
The HR proposal would also restrict dual coverage for spouses who are both county employees: two employees who are married would need to choose one of them to carry the employee/spouse or family plan rather than both carrying separate single plans. Tony said the change follows a review of peer counties and internal analysis.
On HIPAA, staff said the county must correct prior policy language to reflect an existing business associate relationship with a regional human-services consortium (RWC). The corrections update the business-associate agreement, incident response and applicability language across IT and HIPAA policies. A staff member said Microsoft Teams is the county’s current remote-meeting tool and that IT policy language was tightened to reflect security and business-associate requirements.
Both items were presented for first reading; no final votes were taken. Staff indicated the specific payroll-deduction schedule and supplemental plan details will be posted to the employee portal and will be provided to supervisors when the items return for final action.
