EBS tells Jefferson County health-plan renewal will be largely flat for 2025

Denise Ballas of EBS briefed Jefferson County supervisors on March 10 about the county’s employee-benefits renewal for plan year 2025, reporting little change to premiums and no benefit reductions if the county chooses to keep current plan designs.

Ballas said IGHCP (the joint purchasing trust) serves 54 entities and about 13,000 members; at the Wellmark (fully insured) level the renewal was 0% for the upcoming year and the IGHCP board approved a modest fee increase that, if absorbed, would yield an approximate 0.39% county renewal if the county makes no plan design changes.

She walked supervisors through the county’s self-funded design: three plan tiers with differing deductibles (example: plan 1 single deductible $250; family two‑unit limit), the Wellmark stop‑loss/shop thresholds (examples cited during the presentation), and an exposure calculation showing county self‑fund liability for plan 1 at approximately $402,000 and a combined worst‑case exposure of $814,800 (five‑year average claims cited as ~$141,000 annually). Ballas said Jefferson County’s 2024 loss ratio was 57%, substantially better than the trust average.

Ballas identified optional cost-savings measures — moving employees to higher deductibles or building the county plan on a different Wellmark chassis — but cautioned those choices would reduce benefits (higher copays or altered drug tiers). She also described a voluntary telehealth app and an All Health preventive benefit rolling out July 1 (no cost to employees) and said EBS will provide educational sessions this spring.

Supervisors asked about budgeting and reserve balances; one supervisor reported a reserve balance in the neighborhood of $200,000 and said the board would discuss billing and paperwork arrangements with EBS outside the meeting.