County gets insurance proposals

Physicians Health Plan wants to keep providing health insurance for Jay County employees.

Insurance consultant Jessica Clayton told county commissioners Monday that Fort Wayne-based PHP had dramatically dropped its planned rate increase for 2019.

“They want to keep you as a client,” said Clayton of Platinum Benefit Services.

Clayton said that based upon the county’s high claims rate this year — with seven “high-cost claimants,” one with claims in excess of $415,000 — the insurer had originally projected a 37-percent rate hike.

That was revised downward to 17 percent Friday, then dropped to 5 percent today.

“Financially it does not make sense on the PHP side,” said Clayton. “They want to keep you guys as a client.”

Commissioner Barry Hudson responded, “It’s an old rule in business that it’s cheaper to keep your customer than go get a new one.”

“I really, truly believe this is the way to go,” said Clayton.

Commissioners expect to make a decision on next year’s employee health insurance at their meeting Oct. 22 and will also review proposals from Anthem put together by two other insurance benefit consultants, Ertel and Company and USI.

“It doesn’t look as dire as we expected,” said commissioner Chuck Huffman.

PHP’s good news came after more than an hour of presentations by Ertel and USI on how those firms might take Platinum’s place in the role of finding the best coverage and providing service to those covered by the plan.

Clayton also reviewed a proposals from IU Health, which she called “a narrow, high performance network.”

While the IU Health plan appeared competitive for those in-network, it would be costly for those going out of the network for care.

“There’s a good portion that would be out of network,” Clayton said.

She also indicated that Anthem’s proposal would not be competitive with PHP’s.

Clayton said one way for the county to control insurance costs would be to increase employee participation in wellness programs under PHP’s coverage.

“Employees are leaving money on the table by not participating,” she said, noting there are financial incentives involved.

USI and Ertel both cited their business track records during their presentations to commissioners.

USI purchased the insurance business of First Merchants Corporation about three and a half years ago but is not affiliated in any way with First Merchants today. Both Hudson and Huffman have ties with First Merchants.

Ertel, which provides insurance consulting for Randolph County, stressed its unique wellness program that includes its own staff physicians performing physicals on county employees at least annually.

“The impact on claim costs has been tremendous,” Ertel’s Chris Burton said of the wellness program. “Longterm. you’ve got to get your workforce healthier.”