Douglas County HR committee recommends Holmes Murphy as preferred health benefits consultant

The Douglas County Human Resources Committee recommended Holmes Murphy as its preferred health insurance benefits consultant after interviewing four finalist firms, committee members said.

Committee members said Holmes Murphy’s presentation, larger local staffing commitment and training offerings made it the strongest candidate. Staff will bring the recommendation to the full Douglas County Board of Commissioners for discussion and potential approval at the board meeting on July 8.

The committee met in room 903 and limited the agenda to one item: selection of the county’s health insurance consultant broker. Commissioner Mary Anne Borgeson, who chaired the meeting, said the county had engaged its current consultant, Lockton, for about five or six years and conducted an RFP to reassess options. “We were really probably most impressed with the Holmes Murphy presentation,” Borgeson said, adding that Alliant would also be an acceptable choice if the board preferred a different vendor.

Colleen Fredericksen, benefits manager, summarized common services in the proposals: proprietary data-modeling tools included in the annual fee, open-enrollment assistance, compliance calendars and benefit booklets. She said most firms may charge additional fees for mailings and customized IT products. “All provide a proprietary data modeling tool included in the annual fee,” Fredericksen said.

Staff described four firms that were interviewed after an initial pool of six respondents was narrowed to four finalists: Alliant, Lockton, Holmes Murphy and Hub International. Fredericksen and other staff noted differences in local staffing and office presence: Alliant assigned one local staff member to Douglas County; Lockton had two staff assigned and an Omaha office with about 60 associates but has experienced higher turnover in recent years; Holmes Murphy proposed six assigned staff plus specialty support and an Omaha office with roughly 50 employees (about 40 dedicated to service); Hub International proposed four assigned staff. Cost proposals ranged from about $40,000 to $58,000 annually, with a roughly $2,000 difference between Holmes Murphy and Alliant/Lockton, staff said.

Nick Long of Alliant, who participated by phone, said Alliant values its work with counties and highlighted the firm’s relationship with the National Association of Counties. “We have enjoyed working with Douglas County on your enrollment and ancillary lines, and we’ll continue to work with you in any way that we can,” Long said.

Staff noted that an internal comparison spreadsheet summarizing the six original responders and the four interviewed firms exists for committee review; parts of some proposals were marked proprietary and cannot be distributed. Committee members confirmed that the public RFP and non-proprietary proposal materials are available per standard purchasing rules, subject to redaction where vendors requested confidentiality.

No formal vote was taken at the committee meeting. The recommendation to select Holmes Murphy as the county’s consultant (with Alliant as an acceptable alternative) will be forwarded to the full Board of Commissioners for consideration on July 8. If additional review is needed, staff said there is capacity to delay final action until a later July meeting.

The committee thanked staff and the vendor representatives for their work on the RFP process and interviews and closed the meeting with no further questions.