Insurance Commission Minutes 11/28/2012
TOWN OF SIMSBURY
INSURANCE COMMITTEE
DRAFT
Minutes of Regular Meeting
Board of Education Conference Room
November 28, 2012
The meeting began at 7:35 a.m. Committee members Nick Mason, Ed Sparkowski, Paul Mikkelson, Peter “Chris” Peterson and Jack Sennott were present. Burke LaClair, the Board of Education Business Manager, and Tom Cooke, the Director of Administrative Services for the Town of Simsbury were also present. Robert Lindberg of Lindberg and Ripple and Carol Fitzsimons of CIRMA (Connecticut Interlocal Risk Management Agency) were in attendance as well.
Mr. Sparkowski made a motion to approve the September 2012 draft minutes. Two changes were suggested by Mr. LaClair and Mr. Cooke. The motion to approve the amended minutes was seconded
by Mr. Mikkelson. The amended minutes were unanimously approved.
1. Employee Benefits Update - Robert Lindberg
Mr. Lindberg submitted a 5-page Insurance Advisory Committee Financial and Activity Overview Report.
Discussion included the following points:
• Even though there have been only 4 months in the 2012-2013 plan year thus far, Mr. Lindberg reported that the actual numbers for medical claim activity are coming in below the projected numbers. He is still waiting to receive the actual numbers for dental claim activity.
• YTD, Simsbury’s plan continues to perform better than the market trend expectations.
• Insured Medicare renewals for January 1 are below expected for employees who are Medicare eligible.
• The overall market trend rate among carriers for health care cost increases in the coming year is fairly consistent. It’s running about 10% for medical.
• Mr. Lindberg reported that Lindberg and Ripple is currently conducting a competitive market review and has asked for proposals for the provision of health insurance to Town and Board of Education employees. Mr. Lindberg expects that the five largest carriers in the state will respond. The deadline for responses is December 19, 2012. He expects to discuss the results with the Insurance Committee at its January 2013 meeting.
• Mr. Lindberg notified the committee that fees and surcharges will become part of the town’s overall insurance cost structure beginning January 1, 2014. This is as a result of National Health Care Reform assessments. Some fees are meant to be charged for only 3 to 5 years. The extra fees could add up to about 1.5% to 3% of the town’s total insurance cost. The town will start to see half of the impact of these new fees in the July 2013 - 2014 plan year reports. He also noted that a re-insurance fee will be added to self-funded programs under the Affordable Care Act. The costs will vary from about $13 to $16 per employee, per month, to help build up the reinsurance pool. This fee will not be pro-rated by group size
.
• Mr. Lindberg noted that Connecticut will proceed with its own insurance exchange plan, which will be fully operational by January 1, 2014. It will be available primarily as an option to individuals and smaller employers. Many of the details and requirements of this plan still need to be determined.
• The state partnership plan has not generated overwhelming interest from municipalities. Currently, only 72 lives from new municipal partners are covered. United Healthcare is the only healthcare provider offered by the plan.
• Mr. Sennott asked Mr. Lindberg to provide the committee with a cost analysis chart of the 6 different insurance plan designs that the town provides to its employees. Mr. Lindberg noted that the underlying language of all the insurance plans would be the same, but that the cost shares would be different. He agreed to do a summary by cost shares so that the committee could determine if there might be any internal administrative savings by considering consolidation.
2. Property Casualty Insurance Issues - Carol Fitzsimons of CIRMA
On behalf of CIRMA, Ms. Fitzsimons presented a report detailing the town and BOE loss ratios from 3 and 5 year perspectives.
Loss experiences. Since the last meeting in September, there was very little change from a loss standpoint. No new losses over $25,000 for WC or LAP.
Risk management. The town’s middle science school labs were inspected for safety. The procedure for contractual risk transfer of liability to third parties was discussed with the town and the BOE.
CIRMA update. The claims from Storm Sandy were not as bad as anticipated. From CIRMA’s standpoint, the insured loss estimate for the state of Connecticut was $2.5 million.
3. Other Insurance Matters
The proposed dates for the Insurance Committee’s 2013 Meetings were distributed. The meetings will take place on the fourth Wednesday of the month in the BOE Conference Room at 7:30 a.m. on the following dates: January 23, March 27, June 26, September 26, and November 27.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 a.m. The next Insurance Committee Meeting will be January 23, 2013.
Respectfully submitted,
Lorrie McElligott