Vanderburgh County commissioners on Oct. 21 approved moving the county health plan to a self-funded proposal from Anthem (Option 1) after a presentation from consultant Chris Maynard of Shepparton Insurance.

Maynard said the county currently has a fully insured plan with UnitedHealthcare and a supplemental “difference card.” The proposed self-funded Anthem plan would have Anthem as claims payer, stop-loss carrier and pharmacy benefit manager. Maynard said if claims run as expected the county could save roughly $700,000; including expected drug rebates he said the net savings could exceed $1 million. He emphasized that deductibles, out-of-pocket maximums and copays would remain the same for employees.

Maynard said about 278 employees are covered by the plan; when spouses and children are included the count “gets upwards of 600.” He described stop-loss protections: a per-claim maximum exposure of $100,000 (the county would be responsible for the first $100,000 of an individual's claim, with stop-loss insurance covering amounts above that) and a stated aggregate limit for the plan year that was described in the meeting with a numeric value that was unclear on the record.

The presentation also included a gene therapy rider, which Maynard said would cost the county about $13,000 annually and place gene-therapy claims in a separate pool so those extremely high-dollar claims would not count against the county’s standard claim exposure.

County and council members had been briefed earlier, Maynard said, and he reported no substantive pushback at those meetings. Commissioners asked questions about employee protections; Maynard reiterated that the stop-loss insurance would cover amounts above the per-claim and aggregate thresholds.

Commissioners moved to approve Option 1 (the Anthem self-funded plan) and recorded yes votes from Commissioners Gable, Canterbury and President Elpers. The board also directed staff to complete enrollment steps and to return with vision-plan and other ancillary proposals at a later meeting.