By John Estridge
Usually when insurance is discussed at governmental entity meetings, the discussion is very dry and boring.
That was not the case Friday morning, September 4, at the Union County Commissioners’ meeting. Commissioner Howard Curry had to strongly tell everyone to stop as the bickering between representatives for two different insurance companies got out of control.
The entire meeting was different. There were three topics, which brought out crowds, emotions and passion: ambulance bids, insurance bids and a recent decision to move all of the county’s polling places to the 4-H building in Liberty for the Nov. 3 general election.
With social distancing and a small meeting room, people had to enter the meeting room when a subject came up they were interested in. The first was the ambulance bids, the second was the insurance discussion.
At the August 7 commissioner meeting, RMD Patti placed a bid, but explained the company had not received the information it needed – the county’s claim history – until the day before the meeting. Thus, it was unable to make a firm bid.
Because of the late nature of getting the information, at the Aug. 7 meeting, commissioner Tim Williams bumped up the RMD Patti bid by 20 percent to compare it to the other bid.
Friday, Sept. 4, Jenni Kress, representing RMD Patti, said the firm figure was up 19.9 percent from RMD Patti’s original bid, which is where Williams figured the bid, at $357,994, and it actually came in $1 higher at $357,995.
Prior to RMD, the insurance company holding the health insurance bid was VanVleet Insurance. Its bid for this year was up 0.8 percent over the previous year and was $500,629.60. Kyle Zajdel represented VanVleet.
At the Aug. 7, meeting, Williams said the savings for the county, with taking the RMD Patti bid, was a $140,000 per-year savings, which came down to $256.88 per-month per-employee savings for the county.
But, at the Sept. 4 meeting, there were some very hard feelings on display.
It started when Kress was answering a question from auditor Cheryl Begley about if county employees, who have met their deductible, are able to carry that over with the new insurance. Kress said they would be able to carry it over.
Zajdel disagreed.
“Just to be clear not just the deductible will carry over but also out-of-pocket maximum?” Zajdel asked.
Kress said when her company received a report from Zajdel’s company, it will give employees credit for the amount of deductible and out-of-pocket already accumulated under the old insurance plan. But another Zajdel question about the insurance carrier led to the ensuing exchange.
Apparently, when RMD Patti bid the contract, the carrier was going to be Medova but now RMD is going with another company.
“Isn’t that different than what you proposed before?” Zjadel asked.
“No, it’s the same type of plan, but it doesn’t have some of the restrictions and doesn’t have the caps on the balances,” Kress said.
“I was just wondering last time you proposed it was Medova,” Zjadel said.
“Actually, we didn’t talk about the carrier,” Kress said.
“We talked about the benefits,” Zjadel countered.
“You assumed about who we were going with,” Kress said.
“We both talked about the benefits,” Zjadel said.
“Yes we did, and I said there would not be any exclusions, there would…” Kress said.
“What’s the ACA out-of-pocket match on your policy?” Zjadel interrupted.
“We match United Health Care so everything is straight off of the renewal and the deductible so … are you going out of network or in network?” Kress asked.
“I want the ACA, out of network …” Zjadel said.
“Well, it’s the ACA, so it’s $6350,” Kress said.
“Ok because what you proposed before was over $8,000,” Zjadel said.
“Individual in network out-of-pocket match was $5,000 for an individual and $10,000 for (unintelligible),” Kress said.
“But the proposal you submitted during the RFP (Request for Proposal) process showed $8,000,” Zjadel said. “So, you brought in a company after the RFP process.”
“That’s right, and I disclosed that to the commissioners, because the motion was not on who the carrier was but on the premium,” Kress said.
“OK…,” Zjadel said.
“And we are doing the best that we could for the commissioners and for the Union County employees,” Kress said with a raised voice.
“Sure,” Zjadel said.
“And so we came in and said ‘we did not have all the information,’” Kress said. “We did not receive the applications…”
“I submitted those applications to you the minute I received them,” Zjabel retorted.
“I’m sorry; I’m not blaming you…”
“Within one day, within one day of receiving those applications, I was sending them out…”
“OK we’re going to stop here,” Curry said. “I think we’re going to stop here. If you have a problem with RMD, you should visit one of their locations and feel free to talk to maybe their proprietor there…”
“I have (unintelligible because Curry was still talking),” Zjabel said.
“I don’t feel it’s in the best interest of our meeting to have a debate here with you and RMD,” Curry said. “That’s between you guys. We (unintelligible as Zjabel was talking) process and go on.”
“That’s fine,” Zjabel said while Curry was still talking. “What I would like … what I would like then is the same level of exception. Can I have another two weeks to come up with a carrier?”
“Not as far as I’m concerned,” Curry said. “We’re very content with where we’re at and moving forward.”
“They came in without firm rates when you asked them to submit it,” Zjabel said. “And then you gave them two weeks to find a new carrier. I don’t feel I was given the same opportunity.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way,” Curry said.
Diane Bourne, the local RMD agent, then spoke.
“I don’t think the issue was the carrier,” Bourne said. “The issue was our bottom line. And you knew it wouldn’t go over a certain amount.”
“That’s right,” Curry said.
“It didn’t go over,” commission president Paul Wiwi said.
“That’s what we brought to the table,” Bourne said.
“I didn’t know who the carrier was,” Curry said.
“It was the same benefit with the same amount of premium or less, and I think we fulfilled that,” Bourne said.
“So, the typical RFP program has a certain process that you typically follow,” Zjapel said. “And that’s usually supplying firm rates on the date. And it’s usually defining what company’s parameters on the RFP date. I guess my only frustration is I wasn’t aware of all these special rules involving your RFP program. It wasn’t clearly stated in the statement.”
“OK,” Curry said.