Employee Benefits Trust approves dental, vision, FSA/HSA and life/disability contracts; medical plan pulled for separate consideration

The Employee Benefits Trust voted 5-0 Thursday to authorize vendor contracts for dental, vision, flexible spending/COBRA administration, and life and disability insurance for fiscal year 2026, while removing the city's proposed medical and pharmacy plan from the package for separate consideration.

The vote covered items B through E of the presented resolution, which staff described as renewals or award recommendations for: dental insurance with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas; vision insurance with Dearborn Life Insurance Company; flexible spending account, dependent spending account, Section 125 and COBRA administration with Optum Financial; and basic/voluntary life and accidental death and dismemberment and short- and long-term disability with Dearborn Life Company and related products. "I'll entertain a motion for approval on items B through E," said the meeting chair; Council member Pilkington moved approval and Council member Kirkendall seconded. The motion passed 5 votes to 0.

Why it matters: approving these contracts allows the city to move forward with vendor renewals and administrative arrangements that staff said have existing rate guarantees or minimal changes for next year. Staff told the trust that several of those contracts still have multi-year guarantees (for example, Dearborn life and disability products retain two years of rate guarantees) and that vision plan premiums would not change for the coming year.

Supporting details: during the discussion, staff explained that the vision and life/disability products were procured through earlier RFPs (vision and life/disability RFPs conducted in 2023 and 2024, respectively) and that the COBRA administration with Optum was also a 2024 decision being renewed. For dental, staff reported a minimal increase for the buy-up family plan (a maximum of $9.55 per month) and said the plan produced a 90% loss ratio in the prior year. No separate amendments were proposed for these items during the meeting.

Meeting process and next steps: the trust approved items B through E at the special meeting; staff said the separate consideration and final decision about the medical and pharmacy plan (item A) will take place at a later continuation of the meeting, which the trust scheduled for the following day at 2:00 p.m. to allow additional analysis and a premium chart for employee impacts.

Votes at a glance: Items B'E (dental, vision, FSA/HSA/COBRA admin, life/disability) ' Motion to approve as presented; mover: Council member Pilkington; second: Council member Kirkendall; outcome: approved, 5-0.

Ending: With the non-medical items approved, staff said it will finalize vendor contracts and move forward with plan administration for FY2026 pending the trust's later decision on medical and pharmacy coverage.