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Commissioners accept renewal with Granular for county self-funded health plan after high claim year
Summary
Uvalde County accepted the insurance agent's recommendation to renew its self‑funded health plan with Granular after a presentation showing a surge in stop‑loss claims this fiscal year; the court approved the renewal by voice vote.
The Uvalde County Commissioners Court on Sept. 22 accepted the county insurance agent’s recommendation to renew the county’s self‑funded health plan with the incumbent carrier Granular, following a detailed presentation on six years of claims and premium history.
Joe Yobs, the county’s agent of record, told the court the program is self‑funded with stop‑loss and aggregate protection purchased for catastrophic losses. "This year, you can see that we are scheduled to pay about $635,000 in premium. The carrier has already paid out $1,300,000 in claims," Yobs said, adding that the plan has had 33 individuals who exceeded 50% of the $45,000 stop‑loss attachment and 16 individuals who exceeded the $45,000 attachment through 10 months of the year. Yobs characterized the year as particularly active for claims compared with recent history.
Yobs explained the county’s fixed costs are annualized at about $913,000 and that paid claims for the year are annualized near $2.9 million. He presented an expectation that paid claims could settle around $3.6 million next year, after averaging the prior years’ data and reviewing high individual claims. He told commissioners that a prior carrier switch to Granular produced lower premiums in earlier years and that recent renewals have inched up; this year’s renewal included a negotiated 15% increase relative to the carrier’s requested terms.
Commissioner questions focused on the composition of fixed costs (premiums for stop‑loss and aggregate policies, administrator fees and commissions), and whether employee premium contributions had changed. Yobs said employee contributions "have stayed pretty level over the last few years" and that the county will provide benchmarking to compare contributions with similar counties.
Outcome: after the presentation and brief discussion, the court moved to accept Yobs’ recommendation to renew with Granular and the motion carried by voice vote. County staff and the insurance committee will follow up with comparative benchmarking data and the formal renewal documentation.
