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Madison County renews medical plan, switches pharmacy vendor; insurer changes projected to save money
Summary
Board renewed UMR medical coverage with no rate increase, approved switching pharmacy administration to Optum with projected savings, and accepted new dental/vision/life carrier Sun Life effective Oct. 1.
The Madison County Board of Supervisors on Aug. 4 approved renewals and vendor changes for the county's employee benefits package, including a rate-hold on the UMR medical plan, a pharmacy contract move to Optum, and new dental/vision/life coverage with Sun Life.
Angela White of Fish Brown Bothell, Marsh McLennan Agency told the board the county had a rate hold on the UMR medical renewal and after reviewing other carriers the recommendation was to "renew as is" with UMR for medical. White also briefed supervisors on a pharmacy-market review and recommended moving pharmacy administration to Optum; she said the broker is "predicting about $800,000" in savings from pharmacy discounts and rebates.
The board approved reinsurance (stop-loss) renewal after the broker reported a small increase but removal of a previous laser, resulting in an essentially flat renewal. Supervisors also approved marketing the dental, vision and life lines and moving those to Sun Life; the broker said the dental in-network availability would increase from about 70% to 79% locally, that members would receive new ID cards, and that the new plan would allow new hires to obtain up to $200,000 in life insurance without medical underwriting at initial enrollment. The broker said the overall change across ancillary plans produced an average savings of about 18%.
The board approved the insurance recommendations by voice vote. The Sun Life ancillary changes were scheduled to take effect Oct. 1 for plan participants.
No detailed dollar amounts for the county budgetary impact beyond the pharmacy savings estimate were provided in the meeting materials.
