CCP 11-25-2014 - Laserfiche WebLink

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$2,500; it is obvious these catastrophic claims are a significant cost. New Brighton will roll out a new wellness program in 2015, with the hopes of early diagnosis of some of these conditions which are causing higher claims, in order to slow or reduce the cost of these claims in the coming years. N3PA has worked with the City in order to mitigate some of the insurance increases over the last 4 years and the hope has always been next year's claims would be less costly and the City would eventually start contributing to the insurance pool as much as we have been taking. NJ PA has subsidized New Brighton's costs over the past 3 years to the tune of nearly $1,000,000. Health insurance for 2015 will have an increase of 22.3 %. This increase wasn't known to the City until September 23, 2014, after the preliminary levy and budget were set for 2015. Therefore increase in insurance was not included in the 2015 budget. Management met with the employee insurance committee when the increases for health insurance became known. Because of the underwriting and past claims, unfortunately, those employees choosing the Family and Single + I options for insurance will have increases of over 150% for their portion of the premium payment in 2015. This would be a $457.89 increase per month for employees choosing the Family option in the current $1,50033,000 deductible plan. Thirty of thirty one employees choosing Family coverage are currently in this plan. Employees will have the option to go to higher deductible plans, a $3,0001$6,000 and $5,000/$l 0,000 plan, which would decrease premium costs but would expose them to a much larger deductible. The City Manager directed Management Analyst Hatch to meet with the insurance committee to assist in developing options that would be reasonable and equitable. The insurance committee has met each week since the increases were known in order to create and develop options for the City Manager and City Council to ultimately consider. These options range from leaving NJPA and going to MNSURE or some other insurance cooperative, to completely changing the designs and fiunding numbers of the current insurance plan for employees. Management and the insurance committee will continue to explore all options to lower and minimize costs for insurance in going forward, but for now the City is positioned with a need to act since we have two open union agreements and open enrollment for insurance will be closing December 12th, 2014 for the 2015 fiscal year. Reorganization In order to more effectively deliver service for the City of New Brighton, save funds in the 2015 budget, and provide relief for the large increases in health insurance the City Manager would like to reorganize staff in the Public Works and Community Development Departments to achieve the following goals: 1. Maximize existing staffing dollars in the budget. 2. Provide budget relief by offsetting increased costs. 3. Provide for leadership advancement and growth opportunities for high performing staff. 4. Reallocating budget funds which can be allocated to alleviate large increases for health if i�1�Ti�ii[•I� 2