Town, Unions Adopt
New Health Plan
By Scott MacKeen
Staff Writer
12/1/11
The town unions have agreed to a new health insurance plan that will result in employees paying more but will allow them to keep Blue Cross Blue Shield as their provider.

It will also save the town an estimated $1 million in annual health care costs over the next three years.

Most town employees use Blue Cross, which isn’t available under the state health-care plan, known as the Group Insurance Commission, according to Town Administrator Kevin Mearn.

Mearn said new legislation passed over the summer allows communities to enter the GIC without a full collective bargaining process.

While the Selectmen have previously pushed for the unions to adopt the GIC – saying it would dramatically reduce the town’s health-care costs – Mearn said the board did not feel it was right to force town employees to adopt the plan.

“We met with all the union presidents in mid-May, anticipating that there would be a legislative change,” said Mearn. “The legislation would allow the Selectmen to go into GIC. The Selectmen felt that [idea] was a good option but that keeping control of the health insurance was a better option.”

Mearn said union leaders were asked to accept increased co-pays and a higher split of the premium in return for keeping the Blue Cross plan. Those negotiations went on over the summer, he said.

The unions voted late last month to accept a new three-year health plan that will run from Jan. 1, 2012, to Dec. 31, 2014. The Selectmen and School Committee ratified the agreement during separate meetings last month.

Under the plan, employees’ share of the premium split will increase from 15 to 20 percent. Co-pays for office visits will be fixed at $20. Currently they range from $5 to $10 depending on the type of specialist. Co-pays for retail prescriptions, which are set under a three-tiered system based upon the type of medication, will change from $10, $20, and $30 to $10, $25 and $45. Co-pays for mail-order prescriptions will increase from $10, $20 and $35 to $20, $50 and $90. Co-pays for emergency-room visits will increase from $25 to $100. That fee is waived if a patient is admitted.

Mearn said the town will retain a third-party administrator to manage a special account that employees can pay into for medical and child-care costs. He said employees will be able to set aside up to $2,500 of their yearly pre-tax salary for medical costs and up to $5,000 for child care costs.

“It was a fair process, I think, for everyone,” he said.