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Westford trustees weigh removing GLP‑1 drugs, study GIC move as health‑plan fixes advance
Summary
At a June 23 joint session, the Health Insurance Trust and Select Board reviewed consultant work and several cost‑saving options, including removing GLP‑1 weight‑loss drugs from the formulary (effective Nov. 1, 2026) and further study of joining the state Group Insurance Commission. The trust also tentatively agreed to return a $950,000 town contribution for plan reserves.
The Select Board met jointly with the town’s Health Insurance Trust on June 23 to review consultant analyses and narrow options to rein in rising benefit costs while maintaining coverage for employees and retirees.
Town Manager Kristen presented a June 22 memo summarizing work by Lockton and HUB that the trust will continue to refine. She said the trust is examining plan‑design changes and stop‑loss adjustments, benchmarking Westford against 20 comparable communities and modeling cohorts of employees and retirees to estimate impacts. “We are currently working on those cohorts with HUB,” she told the board.
A major near‑term change the trust plans to implement is the removal of GLP‑1 medications prescribed for weight loss from the town formulary, timed to the November 1, 2026 renewal. The town’s staff estimated roughly $1.2 million in cost avoidance tied to that change. The memo also noted HUB’s preliminary projection of approximately a 5% premium increase for the Nov. 1 renewal, down from 7% last year.
Trust members described a stepwise approach. The trust plans to present proposed plan‑design scenarios to the board after additional analysis; any design changes would be negotiated with the Public Employee Committee and would trigger a 30‑day negotiation window and, if necessary, state arbitration. As Kristen summarized: the options include internal plan redesigns and a possible move to the state Group Insurance Commission (GIC), but staff emphasized there is no requirement to make an immediate decision. If the town chooses the GIC route, formal paperwork would be required by Dec. 1, 2026 for a July 1, 2027 enrollment date.
Select Board members pressed the trust on timing, employee and retiree impacts and communications. Chief points raised by board members and speakers at the meeting included: whether benefit changes would shift costs to workers (one audience speaker noted current plans have no deductibles), the need for clear, accessible comparisons to benchmark communities, and better outreach to retirees and employees so they can evaluate tradeoffs. Kristen and Human Resources staff said they are expanding email outreach and will provide targeted materials — including an executive summary of the Lockton benchmarking work and side‑by‑side visuals comparing plan options.
Several board members and public speakers urged further study before any final action. The trust agreed to continue evaluation and return to the board with clearer cost and benefit comparisons, a recommended mitigation approach should savings be realized, and communications materials for employees and retirees. The trust also scheduled an additional meeting the next day and planned to vote the return of the $950,000 town contribution at its following meeting.
What’s next: the trust will present concrete plan scenarios and employee/retiree impact analyses; staff said that those options will then be negotiated with the Public Employee Committee and potentially brought back to the Select Board for direction. No formal plan design changes were authorized at the June 23 session.
