Berkeley council approves joining MyLife consortium to make Marathon Health clinic available to employees

The Berkeley City Council unanimously approved a joinder agreement on June 1 to join the MyLife health-care consortium and a contract with Marathon Health to offer an on-site primary-care option to city employees.

Council member Patterson moved to approve the joinder and the fourth amendment to the interlocal agreement and authorized the city manager to sign; Council member Black seconded and the motion passed on a roll-call vote with all members recorded as voting yes.

City staff said the MyLife consortium is an established partnership of neighboring municipalities that operates a clinic model intended to reduce overall health-care costs and increase access to preventive care. A Marathon Health representative told the council that the consortium’s clinic reopened under new management April 8 and that Berkeley’s membership could be loaded into the system and ready for employee use in about "30 to 40 days," targeting "the week after the July 4" holiday as a reasonable launch window.

"We're kind of targeting, like, the week after the July 4 is a reasonable time frame to get your membership loaded in the system," said Mark Manquin, the representative introduced by staff.

Staff described program incentives designed to encourage use of the clinic, including no co-pays for visits and offering employees a paid hour to attend appointments instead of using personal leave. The city will receive monthly, de-identified utilization reports and an annual forecast showing projected savings; staff said Blue Cross data will be merged with clinic data to identify members overdue for preventive care.

Jessica Stover, identified in the presentation as part of staff, said the benefit would cover the city’s insured group of "about 80" and that the consortium will hold recurring monthly meetings among member cities to review utilization and address issues.

Council members pressed staff on financial risk and cost controls. Manquin described quarterly claim reporting and recommended stop-loss limits to cap exposure to catastrophic claims: "We provide a stop loss, but we recommend stop-loss limits for every one of our cities," he said, describing how stop-loss insurance limits a city’s liability above a set threshold.

Advocates said the model can steer employees to lower-cost providers and catch otherwise missed preventive care, which staff said can reduce long-term costs. Staff also noted participation is voluntary and does not replace existing insurance; Marathon’s clinic is offered as an additional primary-care option alongside the city’s Blue Cross coverage.

The council voted to approve the joinder and interlocal agreement. Staff said next steps include finalizing enrollment materials, internal communications with employees, and listing the program in the next fiscal-year budget cycle for any incentive funding.

The item passed; no public comment was recorded on the agenda item.