Cabarrus County staff on Saturday recommended exploring a move from the county's long‑standing claims administrator, Compensation Claim Solutions, to Specialized Contractor Administrators (SCA), citing faster service, easier data transfer and comparable overall costs.

The recommendation came during a retreat presentation from a staff member identified in the meeting as the county ADA coordinator, who also explained the county's current claims profile and transition logistics. The staff member said the county currently has about 20 open workers' compensation claims, 16 open auto liability claims and nine general liability or property claims — about 45 open files in total, and later referred to that as roughly 43 claims when discussing transition planning.

The presentation said Compensation Claim Solutions has served the county since at least February 2007 and that SCA emerged as the recommended alternative after market outreach. The staff member said SCA’s advantages include dedicated claim administrators who can be reached directly and prior experience importing the county’s existing claim data from Compensation Claim Solutions’ system, which should make the technical transition smoother. “That greatly improves service and also lets them know our county operations in greater detail,” the staff member said.

Why it matters: the county’s choice of third‑party administrator (TPA) affects who manages incident claims (workers’ compensation, auto and general liability), how quickly claims are handled, what reporting the county receives for insurance marketing, and near‑term transition costs.

Key details from the presentation
- Current administration fees with Compensation Claim Solutions were listed at $34,250 annually for workers’ compensation and $24,000 for liability and property administration (about $54,250 total), plus per‑claim management fees. Compensation Claim Solutions also returns a percentage of some medical/prescription savings to the county, a benefit noted as a difference among vendors.
- SCA’s quoted annual administrative minimums were reported as $2,000 for workers’ compensation and $2,000 for general liability/property but include required minimum claim expenditures of $20,000 (workers’ compensation) and $30,000 (general liability) per year.
- Transition costs: the staff member said extracting the county’s full claim files from CentraRisk (the current vendor’s hosted system) was estimated at about $10,000; SCA charges a takeover fee of $400 per open claim; and the county estimates a total transition cost of about $35,000 that could be covered from current claim administration and claim fee accounts but may need a budget amendment.
- Contract terms: the county’s contract with Compensation Claim Solutions requires 90 days’ notice for termination; the staff member said the plan would be to start agreements and initial data pulls before an April 1 target so the final transfer period aligns with that contract requirement.
- Legal services: the staff member named the county’s long‑used outside counsel (recorded in the transcript as “McGangus, Gulak, and Curry”) and said the county can continue to use that legal team alongside a new TPA; the presenter noted legal fee trends and that those outside counsel have historically helped reduce settlement costs.

Board role and next steps
The staff member asked the Board for guidance rather than a formal vote, saying a change could be made under the county manager’s or deputy county manager’s direction and did not require a suspension of rules or a board vote. A commissioner in the meeting signaled support to proceed. The staff member said they had funding available in claim accounts to cover transition costs, but would likely seek a budget amendment to move funds into the required accounts.

Provenance: presentation and discussion on the TPA review occurred in the retreat session beginning at 00:00:15.815 and resumed through the transition‑cost summary at 00:15:07.530 (transcript excerpts referenced).