Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Public Safety Benefits Firefighters topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Aurora to join state firefighter cancer/heart trust under Senate Bill 2489; city to absorb cancer costs
Summary
Staff described a state requirement to join a multi-employer firefighter trust created by Senate Bill 2489; Aurora expects state funding only for cardiac contributions while cancer costs remain a new, locally funded expense.
Renee Pattonata Mosley, identified in the meeting as a senior risk manager in the fire-related division, told the committee the city must join a state-created multi-employer trust after passage of Senate Bill 2489.
“HB 241,219 requires us to participate in a multi employer trust,” Mosley said while explaining statutory changes; she also referenced Senate Bill 2489 as one of the statutes requiring participation. Mosley said the city historically self-insured cancer and cardiac claims through workers’ compensation but that the new statute will move eligible firefighters into the trust and end the city’s self-insurance for those benefits.
Mosley said the trust treats the cancer benefit differently from the cardiac/behavioral trusts. She told the committee the state intends to provide funding to offset some cardiac contributions but “the state is not funding anything on the cancer side,” so cancer coverage via the trust will be funded by the trust participants. Mosley identified the actuary’s per-firefighter allocation for the year as $374 and said she used 300 eligible firefighters to estimate annual participation costs of about $112,200.
Mosley reviewed historical costs: Aurora has paid about $1.3 million in cancer claims through workers’ compensation since February 2008, and about $1 million on cardiac claims since 2014; she said one early cardiac claim in 2016 exceeded $800,000. Under the trust, Mosley said, “they pay out a benefit upon diagnosis, and then they pay a benefit based on the level of treatment needed,” and that the trust’s payouts are structured more like an insurance policy rather than direct payment to health-care providers through workers’ compensation.
Mosley outlined next steps: staff will present a trust agreement and a resolution to the city council for approval; verify eligible employees with fire and HR; request state funding for the cardiac portion only; and notify employees of changes to benefit administration and claim filing procedures.
Committee members asked for clarification about eligibility (five years of continuous firefighter service for presumptive benefit in many cases), coordination with health benefits and how ongoing payouts will be handled; Mosley and staff answered that those who are not eligible to join the trust could still pursue workers’ compensation under the presumptive statute but the state-provided funding does not cover cancer claims.
