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City covers employee prescriptions after transition to new pharmacy benefit manager causes brief disruption
Summary
City staff said a new prescription insurance vendor failed to add employees to the system during a New Year transition; the city temporarily covered prescription costs while the insurer corrected the error and digital/mailing cards were issued.
City staff reported a temporary disruption in employee prescription coverage after the city switched to a new pharmacy benefits manager. Officials said the insurer failed to add employees to the system, which caused problems for employees attempting to fill prescriptions early in the new year; city officials said the city covered prescription costs while the insurer corrected the issue.
A city staff member (Jade) told the Common Council the problem was identified by the city’s broker (USI) and that Human Resources and staff worked with Prime Therapeutics, the city’s new prescription drug administrator, over the weekend to resolve the issue. She said, "We did cover employees script costs from the city standpoint so that they didn't have to pay out of pocket... now being rerun through the credit card system and countered back and processed through the normal insurance channels now that Prime is up and running."
Why it matters: The city covered costs temporarily to prevent employees from facing out‑of‑pocket expenses, and staff said they are working to ensure the new plan is fully operational and that employees receive ID cards.
Staff said the city is rerunning charges through normal insurance channels now that Prime is operational and that digital cards have been provided with physical cards to follow in the mail. The city committed to making affected employees whole for any costs incurred during the transition.
Provenance: Report to council appears in the meeting reports portion of the Jan. 6 transcript.
