I am glad to see that the commissioners are willing to put their name to something. The fact is the commissioners are correct that Highmark is the carrier; however, Benecon is much more than a benefits consultants. Benecon gets hefty administrative fees to administer the group known as the Pennsylvania Counties Health Insurance Purchasing Cooperative (PCHIPC), which demonstrates that they have a vested interest in Clearfield County staying in the program. They administer the Claims Fund Deposit, the administrative/cooperative fees, Aggregrate Premium Fund, Specific Stop Loss Premium and Specific Side Fund. Having experience in this field, my first question is, Where does Benecon’s loyalty rest?
The commissioners state, “If other member counties in the PCHIPC co-op show much lower medical and prescription claim costs, then the problem isn’t caused by where we purchase the insurance, it is driven by provisions in current collective bargaining agreements and the actual claim costs.”. It is correct that claims drive the costs. However, if the commissioners had been monitoring the program, as they should have been, they would have known after two years that the program alone was not providing savings. Notice that they have limited their comparisons to other entities in the Benecon group. They can call it PCHIPC, but in reality it is the Benecon group. Have they made comparisons to like size entities outside the Benecon group? Obviously not! CCAPE has. Anyone care to look at the results?
I did not state that the county “refused to change carriers…….”. I said that the county was presented with information that at least one possible alternative to the current plan existed, but the county refused to entertain discussions regarding a change in carriers. Isn’t it considered good business practice to consider alternatives?
I still contend that the commissioners have not done anything in the last five years to deal with the healthcare issue. They switched in 2005. Well, we are almost seven years past that event. And if the commissioners have been so concerned about healthcare costs, why did they approve a collective bargaining agreement in 2009 with absolutely no change in the healthcare program. And when requested, why have the commissioners refused to provide claims information by bargaining groups? Why have they refused to explain why they have not made any recommendations for changes in the current plan or consider other plans?
Let’s talk about the refunds. If the taxpayers have benefitted from $2.8 million refunds being returned to the county, why are the rates so high? You cannot have it both ways, saying that the costs are so high, but we are getting these high refunds. Why give the money to Benecon and then get a refund, when the county could just lower the rates and keep the money? Unless, has anyone noticed that refunds amount to $2.8 million and the commissioners conveniently refunded $3 million to taxpayers this year, an election year. Have they been over taxing county residents to establish a political slush fund to benefit them in an election year? They argued in court and out of court that they needed the fund balance for cash flow purposes. For a county the size of Clearfield, if you have a $7 million cash flow problem, you are in trouble. Has anyone compared the fund balances of similar counties?
The issue now is transparency and accountability. Rather than do something about the highcost of providing heatlhcare to its employees, the commissioners would rather spend huge sums of money to a Pittsburgh attorney to spin the issues and cover up their mistakes. Hiring an independent benefit consultant to help them through this process would be much cheaper than paying to cover it up. The fact is, the commissioners need to be held accountable for their actions and/or inactions. No more misinformation and trying to hide the facts.
James A. Dugan
Arbitrator/Labor Consultant
State College