The cost of providing health insurance to Leflore County’s 159 employees will rise by $98,000 in the coming year, due in part to the group’s expensive health-care problems.
Bobbie Sue Stone, a broker with Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi, told supervisors on Monday that the county had one claimant with more than $200,000 in medical costs over the last year, three others whose costs added up to $238,000 and 79 claimants with $5,000 or more in medical costs.
That adds up to an 86 percent loss ratio for the insurer, based on their ongoing medical assessment of the group, according to Stone. A four-year cost analysis shows a significant increase in payouts from year to year, while premiums paid by the county increased for the first time last year, then again this year. Prior to last year, the county saw a series of decreases in how much they paid for the county plan.
Blue Cross was the only insurer to bid on the county’s business.
Stone and County Administrator Christine Lymon told supervisors that Humana declined to bid on the health insurance contract because it has no network here, and Cigna and Aetna declined because they could not offer competitive bids. United Health Care also declined to bid.
District 2 Supervisor Robert Moore asked how the county could know whether Blue Cross’ analysis was accurate and whether any other agent besides Stone from the company had given an estimate on the same plan.
Stone explained that federal regulations prohibit any insurer from naming claimants with high-cost claims and that any Blue Cross agent would be crunching the same numbers and come to the same conclusion.
Supervisors approved the new health insurance bid as well as renewal of life insurance for county employees. Dental and vision policies remain unchanged.
Supervisors also approved the real and personal property assessment rolls for 2017 presented by Tax Assessor Leroy Ware, including reductions on the value of individual properties totaling around $273,000.
Those reductions were based on discussions between the tax assessor and property owners who presented evidence that they either purchased their property for less than the county’s valuation, or that they rented to people with low incomes and could justify a reduction in value based on the amount they could charge for rent.
The county, as required by state law, has been conducting a reappraisal of all property. The county still has to determine what tax rate to apply to the new values in the upcoming year.
In other county business:
•Jimmy Gibson of the county’s Solid Waste Division presented a plan to meet the new safety requirements established by the Mississippi Department of Corrections when state inmates held at the Greenwood Restitution Center and the Technical Violations Center are used to help with county garbage collection.
The death of an inmate from a community work center in another part of the state prompted the Department of Corrections’ new safety guidelines, which include standing cages on the truck to protect offenders from falls, use of reflective vests, emergency reflective lights in the rear of the truck, a monthly review of safety equipment and local policy ensuring the accountability of drivers. Gibson said the county has already met most of these requirements and he is working on fabricating protective cages that will meet the state’s standards.
He told supervisors his department’s smooth functioning depends on being able to use these workers.
•County Road Manager Jerry Smith told supervisors his department has a problem throughout the county, especially along Money Road from the Tallahatchie Bridge in Greenwood to the Tallahatchie County line, with road signs being vandalized or stolen. Smith said poles are bent and county road markers removed at nearly every intersection along Money Road.
Smith asked for assistance from the Leflore County Sheriff’s Department in dealing with the problem.
•The board approved inventory clerk Lashandria Young’s request to delete a number of items from the county’s inventory because they are inoperable or obsolete. These items included generators, tools, electronic items, pressure washers and lawn tools that, if usable, will be sold at a later date.
•Contact Kathryn Eastburn at 581-7235 or keastburn@gwcommonwealth.com.
