Commission discusses trimming employee HRA card amounts to reduce budget need

Jackson County staff told the Board of County Commissioners that the draft budget includes Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA) debit cards for employees, with the program currently budgeted at about $400,000. Staff described average per-person card balances in the meeting as roughly $1,200 to $1,500 and said the county could reduce the per-card amount — for example, to $1,000 — to lower the projected budgeted cost.

Staff explained the HRA cards were introduced when the county moved to a higher-deductible health plan; the county adopted the cards to offset employees’ out-of-pocket exposure under the high-deductible option. In the meeting staff provided figures for plan design as discussed: single coverage on the card was described as $1,250, family coverage as $1,750, and couples as $2,500; staff also said actual billed amounts vary because some employees do not use the cards and some use the full available balance, producing a budget-to-actual difference.

Commissioners asked how much of the budgeted HRA dollars are typically spent. Staff responded that recent actual usage has been about $300,000 in claims against the cards, producing carryover in prior years of roughly $100,000. Commissioners and staff also discussed options to reduce the budgeted HRA amount (for example lowering per-card limits) and asked staff to account for households where two county employees share coverage.

By the end of the discussion at the workshop several commissioners indicated a preference to keep the HRA benefit in the budget as proposed, though staff was asked to exercise discretion in implementing any changes to card limits and to return final numbers in the September budget cycle.