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Johns Creek council approves Cigna renewal for employee health benefits, 6-1
Summary
After a staff presentation on plan design and projected savings, the council voted 6-1 to renew medical, vision and dental coverage with Cigna and disability/life coverage with The Standard and to implement a level-funded structure and a health reimbursement account administered by Garner Health Technology.
The Johns Creek City Council voted 6-1 on Nov. 3 to approve renewing the city's employee health, vision and dental contracts with Cigna and short-term disability, long-term disability and life insurance with The Standard, following a staff presentation on plan design and projected budget impacts.
Assistant City Manager Love told the council the renewal moves the city from a fully insured plan to a level-funded model to gain pharmacy benefit flexibility and better reporting. Love said the proposal would add a health reimbursement account (HRA) administered by Garner Health Technology and would add coverage for some GLP-1 prescription drugs that were not previously covered. "There is an additional cost to the city for us implementing that. It's $143,767," Love said.
Love said the city's wellness initiatives contributed to an improved claims experience and that the level-funded option produced a roughly $1,000,000 savings on health and vision compared with budget assumptions based on August enrollment numbers. He also provided examples of employee cost impact: a high-deductible family plan could increase by about $19 per paycheck, while dental changes would be less than $1 per paycheck.
Council members asked about how the proposed HRA would interact with the existing HSA seed money and whether the city could move to a self-funded model in future years. "So we review it every year," Love said, adding any decision to pursue self-funding would depend on claims experience, setting aside seed money and the number of covered lives.
Councilors also discussed the idea of placing any shared savings into a separate fund to smooth future spikes in claims and to support wellness initiatives. During questioning, staff cited 195 public safety positions as a core driver of benefit costs and noted claims-ratio figures improved from prior levels (a past period with roughly 340% in the transcript to about 70.71 for Jan'July 2025 for the comparison period cited in the presentation).
A council member moved approval of the agenda item M1, the motion was seconded and, after no further debate, the council approved the renewal by voice/hand vote recorded as 6 in favor, 1 opposed. The measure is effective per the terms in the city's renewal documents and staff will proceed with open enrollment and implementation steps described in the packet.
