Park County staff ends agreement allowing small treatment center on county health plan; commissioners briefed

Pam Walling, a representative of the county’s health insurance administrator, told the Park County Board of County Commissioners on April 10 that an agreement allowing Southwest Chemical Dependency Center to participate in the county group health plan has been discontinued and that staff helped remaining covered employees transition to other coverage.

Walling said the agreement, made years earlier between Park County and the treatment center, had left the center with very few employees on the county plan. “For the Health Care Trust, we require that you maintain 75% of your eligible employees either have other group or government insurance or they’re on the health plan,” Walling said, and she described staff work to move the last covered employee to different coverage. She told commissioners the administrative transition was finalized effective Jan. 1, 2025.

Walling said the county’s records show only two participants from the center in recent years, one of whom retired last year; after the remaining employee was transitioned off the county plan, Walling said the county discontinued participation for the center. She also told the commissioners that the center has since obtained a new plan for eligible employees.

Walling referenced a Montana statute as the legal basis that allows counties to include certain nonprofit or health centers in group plans when those employers lack other options, but she did not specify a section number and said the exact citation would need to be looked up. She said the original agreement with the county dated back several years — “I’m gonna say it was in 2016” — but did not give a precise date.

No formal vote or policy change by the commissioners was recorded on the matter; Walling described the termination of the agreement as an administrative action she carried out and notified the commission for the record. The brief item drew no follow-up questions from Commissioners Vermillion or Wells during the meeting. The commission then moved to adjourn.

The action affects a small number of employees who had been eligible under the earlier agreement; county staff described the impact as limited because the center has secured alternate coverage and staff helped the remaining covered employee transition off the county plan. The commission was informed of the administrative change, and no further direction or referral was recorded.