Commissioners approve higher cost employee medical plan for 2024
Richland County officials blamed soaring prescription prices in part for an expected cost increase of over a half million dollars in 2024 for health insurance for the 581 county employees and their family members who participate in the plan. County commissioners on Tuesday approved a proposal from the County Employee Benefits Cooperative of Ohio (CEBCO) to keep the current health care plan with a 13% increase in cost.
County Central Services Administrator Rachael Troyer said there were a number of factors that caused the spike in premiums, including high cost claims.
“They do go back and take a look at our previous year and what our claims were along with inflation. It’s a whole gamut of things,” she explained.
Troyer told the board that Richland County was one of eight counties in CEBCO that saw a 13% premium jump, which was the highest increase in the program. The average was 7.7%. Richland County saw a 6.7% increase this year, with premium costs relatively flat the previous several years.
Commissioners’ Chairman Cliff Mears asked Troyer if the cost of pharmaceuticals was one of if not the major drivers of medical costs.
“Of course we hear the news stories and stuff about how the pharmaceutical companies are just raking us over the coals with the costs, so yeah it is a major player,” Troyer said.
Mears also said he continues to be “astonished” with the marketing drug makers do on television of pills with names he can’t pronounce. Troyer agreed that because the ads are “in your face” people go to the doctor and say they want to try them.
“If you think of it, that’s designer jeans versus your old Wranglers,” she said. “Generic is good. Generic works but people want their ‘designer jeans’ which is the designer name. It’s a dizzy world.”
Troyer pointed out that Richland County employees always have had a good track record of asking for generic drugs. She also warned that new drugs being developed for new disorders, including a treatment for Alzheimer’s, could change the overall healthcare treatment climate.
“That’s millions of dollars and we’re just waiting for it to hit our insurance as well because we’re going to have somebody who wants that and rightfully so,” Troyer said. “If I were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and there is medicine that could possibly stop the effects of it, I would want to take it, too.”
Health insurance for county employees cost $3.8 million in 2022 and is expected to be $4.1 million for this year. The 2023 estimate represents 9.7% of the county general fund budget, a figure that is expected to go over 10% in 2024 because of the premium increase.
County employees will pick up a small part of next year’s increase, depending on their union contract and whether they are in a union. The maximum premium increases under union contracts range from $5 per month to 10% or $20 per month with non-union employees paying the larger figure.
Commissioners said on Tuesday that they will consider changes in deductibles and possible coverages for 2025.
Grant awarded for homeless response team
On a separate issue, Commissioner Tony Vero reported that Joe Trolian, director of Mental Health and Recovery Services, has obtained grant funding for a second year for the county’s homeless response team. The program was started in May 2022 with a grant from the Richland County Foundation.
The program involves a clinician from Catalyst Life Services partnering with a Mansfield Police Department law officer who do outreach and interaction with the local homeless population in street locations where homeless gather and sites providing assistance such as Harmony House, City Church and the feeding center on Bowman Street.
Vero said Downtown Mansfield, which was one of the groups that helped developed the program, has been receiving very positive feedback and has “tweaked” operations so that one of the three outreach shifts will be a foot patrol in the downtown area.
“It’s a really cool relationship now. People call in and say there are people in need here, here and here so they’ve been going to those locations,” Vero said. “You never know the one time they actually want some help. You certainly want to be respectful of their space, but let’s go out there and keep up a dialogue.”
Vero said one success story involved a hearing impaired individual who had some behavioral issues that were increasing and scaring residents. He said the response team worked with municipal and probate courts to get him into an area group home where he is “doing really well” and has a guardian assigned to him.
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Richland County to see 13% increase in employee health insurance
