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Todd County told Blue Cross to become the pool's TPA; board delays final plan selection to Oct. 15
Summary
A Gallagher Benefits consultant told the Todd County Board that Sourcewell's pool selected Blue Cross Blue Shield as its new third-party administrator and that Todd County received a 12% rate cap for 2025; commissioners agreed to delay selecting specific county plans until an Oct. 15 board action so employees can be informed and the committee can review details.
Colleen Schumann, benefits consultant with Gallagher Benefits, told the Todd County Board of Commissioners on Oct. 1 that the Sourcewell/Better Health Collective pool's RFP selected Blue Cross Blue Shield as the third-party administrator (TPA) effective Jan. 1, 2025. Schumann said the pool will continue to pay claims but the network, stop-loss placement and formulary will switch to Blue Cross.
Schumann presented claims figures and renewal context: "we paid $3,100,000 in premium, and the Better Health Collective ... has paid out $3,200,000 in claims," she said, describing a loss ratio of about 101 percent for the most recent 12 months and 122 percent for the previous rolling 12 months. She said the collective issued a 12 percent rate cap for Todd County for 2025; the county's overall premium renewal equals that cap.
The consultant said the pool's renewal scorecard weights the most recent 12 months of claims at 80 percent and the prior 12 months at 20 percent and identified employee wellness participation as an area to improve. Schumann warned that moving the county to market outside the pool could remove an issued rate cap and expose the county to a broader market renewal.
Commissioners discussed what plan designs the county should carry. The board briefly made and then rescinded a motion after recognizing the presentation was for discussion. The board directed staff to prepare a formal board action for the Oct. 15 meeting to select which of the available plan options (the county currently offers three) to continue and to allow time for additional review and employee outreach.
Next steps: county staff will circulate plan details to commissioners and return with a board action form at the Oct. 15 meeting so the board can formally select plans and authorize enrollment communication to employees.
