Putnam County will cover annual health-insurance increase; plan tweaks raise some drug copays for employees on most-used plan

Putnam County Mayor Randy and the county commission voted to have the county pay the full 6.3% increase to the county's group health-insurance premium while approving a narrow change to prescription tiers on Option 1, the plan used by the majority of employees.

The commission's insurance committee recommended that the county absorb the full increase, and county officials and broker Sean Bennett presented an alternate drug-card structure for Option 1 that reduces the county's additional cost from roughly $400,000 to about $180,000 while raising some prescription copays for employees who use certain nonpreferred generics and brand-name drugs.

County Mayor Randy opened the discussion by describing elevated claims the past year and saying the county had worked with Blue Cross to lower an initial projection. "We started out at about 25%. We've worked it down now to about 6.3%," he said. Sean Bennett, the county's insurance broker, summarized plan enrollment and the proposed change: "Option 1, if you renew as is ... would be around the $400,000…