Kootenai County Saves On Insurance Reorganizing Coverage Helps Commissioners Trim Budget

Kootenai County expects to save taxpayers another $150,000 next year by reorganizing health insurance coverage for its employees.

County commissioners said Friday it’s merely the latest in their continuing efforts to reduce the cost of government.

“Like I’ve said, there’s no million-dollar savings sitting under a rock someplace,” Commissioner Dick Compton said. “You have to look in lots of little places.”

Commissioners earned high praise from county tax activists last month. Rather than collect the additional $1.1 million in property taxes allowed by law to fund the 1995-1996 budget, they hacked $58,000.

Those past savings came in spending cuts and reorganization. Commissioners saved $100,000 by changing workman’s compensation insurance and coordinating county purchasing.

The push for a change in health coverage came from Concerned Businesses of North Idaho. That coalition of area businesspeople surveyed area employers to find cheaper medical plans.

The move isn’t expected to translate directly into tax cuts, but will ensure greater efficiency and reduce the likelihood of future tax increases.

“In this day and age, with medical costs skyrocketing, insurance has become a major expense,” Compton said.

The county last year paid about $1.9 million of its $33.9 million budget in health care premiums. The more than 500 county employees chose from two carriers - Blue Shield of Idaho and Qual-Med, a health maintenance organization.

While traditional insurance often involves a deductible, it usually allows patients to choose their own physician. HMOs typically include an inexpensive co-payment per visit, but often restrict patient choices.

The new plan, under Blue Shield, comes with almost no change in cost or benefits to employees and in many ways combines the best of both insurance programs, commissioners said. Costs for most employees will drop slightly, but they can still see any doctor they choose.

“It took some arm twisting to get the costs down, but they (Blue Shield) let us write the plan the way we wanted it,” said County Commissioner Bob Macdonald.

While county premiums will drop about 9 percent - about $150,000 next year - the new plan also will return to the county any unused portion of that premium.

“If the claims come in under what we predicted for the year, we save even more money,” said County Clerk Tom Taggart, who helped designed the program.

Taggart was recently appointed the county’s first administrator and given a $12,000 a year salary increase “to take on projects just like this,” Commissioner Dick Panabaker said.

Throughout the year, commissioners will monitor medical expenses to see whether the county meets criteria needed to become its own health care insurer. Such a change, if possible under state law, could save the county greater amounts, they said.

, DataTimes