Shrewsbury moves to Anthem level-funded health plan, picks Delta dental and vision for next year

Shrewsbury aldermen voted to move forward with a level-funded Anthem health plan and to switch dental and vision coverage to Delta plans, the city’s finance director said, and directed staff to start the contractual process and preparations for employee open enrollment.

The decision came after Dustin Seebel, the city’s finance director, reviewed quotes from UnitedHealthcare, Anthem and others and outlined cost and benefit tradeoffs. “It’s approximately $681,000 per year that we’re paying for this,” Seebel said of current medical premiums. He said a UnitedHealthcare renewal keeping plan design identical would raise annual costs by about $82,000; an alternate United quote with benefit changes would increase costs by about 4.1 percent (roughly $28,000). Seebel recommended Anthem’s level-funded option because…