Commissioners vote to keep current health insurance provider

Highland County Commissioners voted unanimously to remain with the county’s current medical insurance provider during their Wednesday, June 24 meeting.

As previously reported in The Highland County Press, commissioners discussed the issue at their June 17 meeting, as they debated whether to renew with Brown/Raybourn of Ashland, Ky., with United Healthcare for a proposed 4-percent reduction, but lose in-network coverage of 21 local doctors; or seek additional bids and see potential increases of $77,000 or more.

Commissioner Shane Wilkin asked Tom Horst and Jeff Duncan if they had gotten any feedback on the issue.

Horst said that he had spoken with a broker on a “partially self-insured” package, but that he hadn’t heard from any employees.

“I’ve only had a couple, and all of my comments have simply been ‘We don’t want to pay any more,’” Wilkin said. “We also got the information from our current broker of the utilization for the doctors that will be out of network.

“For the claims year last year, it would have been $16,000 and change. Considering our last three months we’ve paid $184,000, $188,000 and $255,000 in claims, as I’m looking at it, it’s a pretty small number.”

“We could keep going the way we are and at least give our employees peace of mind we’ll be covering something,” Horst said. “In the meantime, we can look at these other options and go back and discuss that later.”

Horst said that the “partially self-insured” option “looks pretty good,” but that the commissioners would need to see more numbers.

Wilkin asked Highland County Auditor Bill Fawley if he had any knowledge of other counties using the partially self-insured plan.

“Some of the counties that started doing the self-insured plan left it,” Fawley said. “Some of the smaller counties that did it left it because it was costing them too much up front, so they went back to normal insurance.”

“When self-insurance was first pitched to us, even if we wanted to do it, we simply did not have the funds to even attempt to do it,” Wilkin said. “Since then, we’ve had pretty good renewals. Since 2010, our rates have not increased a whole, whole lot.”

Wilkin also said that the service at Brown/Raybourn has been “very, very good.”

“It’s never been a service issue,” Wilkin said.

Wilkin said that a local private employer called him to warn him that his company switched from United Healthcare after receiving a rate increase and it was “a nightmare.” Hillsboro City Schools Superintendent Jim Smith told Wilkin that they were going to continue with United Healthcare as well, he said.

Horst made a motion to renew with Brown/Raybourn and United Healthcare for the present time. The motion passed, 3-0.

• • •

Commissioners met with Highland County Dog Warden Cathy Seifer, along with Gwendolynn Guthrie of the Highland County Dog Pound, to review quotes for a new restroom for the facility.

Seifer brought two separate quotes for a restroom to be built in the office, with an individual offering to pay for half of the project.

“Last year, we had power go out and we lost our heat, we had no water, we had no facilities to go to the bathroom,” Seifer said. “This person approached us about putting a restroom in our office, which would be great for us.”

The individual has already bought a commode and sink and gathered two quotes, Seifer said. The quotes include the carpentry and work on the water line.

Wilkin said there was a difference of $196 between the two quotes, at $5,604 and $5,800.

Horst asked the dog pound representatives if they had a preference between the two quotes. Seifer said the two offers were similar, but that the donor would likely prefer the lower option.

Horst made a motion to accept the $5,604 bid, which commissioners approved, 3-0.

Seifer also asked commissioners about purchasing dividers for the kennels at the pound. Wilkin said that they would look into the costs and asked her to send them a detailed list with the number of dividers needed.

• • •

Wilkin said that commissioners heard a PowerPoint presentation on building efficiency last week and asked Horst and Duncan for their opinions on pursuing this opportunity.

“I know there’s some new financing options to this,” Wilkin said. “If this would be anything the board would want to consider, I know one of the groups that I was really impressed with when they were here last time, we just couldn’t do it, was Honeywell. They put in a lot of work before they realized that we just simply couldn’t afford to do it.”

Wilkin said that he thinks that they should first “see how we get through this fall with Children Services issues that we might have coming up,” along with building repairs.

“Our Capital Improvement money is disappearing,” Wilkin said.

Horst said that he would have deputy clerk Candy Matthews provide spreadsheets to commissioners on savings to their office from changing to energy-efficient lighting.

• • •

Horst told commissioners that the Highland County Sheriff’s Office is seeking assistance in funding repairs to a truck, after the office has dealt with several auto repair issues in the past week.

“They had two transmissions go out, which has cost them almost $1,000 each to put back in,” Horst said. “His maintenance budget is being hammered.

“The four-wheel drive, four-door truck they use for pushing snow and cleaning parking lots out here and the other maintenance they do with that has about a $2,000 bill on it right now. It’s out being repaired. The exhaust system and converter went out on it.”

Horst said that Highland County Sheriff Donnie Barrera is looking for assistance in paying for the truck repairs.

• • •

Commissioners also discussed other ongoing repairs and other local projects.

Horst reported that he had spoken with the general contractor for the Highland County Justice Center roofing project Wednesday morning and that the project is anticipated to be “two weeks ahead of schedule.”

“He’s going to be there to meet with someone from the jail to get on the roof and do his final walkaround,” Horst said. “He’s looking at starting the job next Monday to take the rock off and will start probably working on actual construction the week after.

“He’s about two weeks ahead of what he thought he was going to be, because the company that has the rock vacuum was only going to be available next week.”

“They called at one point and said if they didn’t get it now, it wasn’t going to be [done] until the end of the year,” Wilkin said.

Wilkin and Horst also announced that updated safety surveillance equipment was also recently installed at the Highland County Courthouse.

Duncan said that he has spoken with contractors regarding the Hi-TEC building and will be meeting with another one later on Wednesday.

Horst said that he and Duncan also recently visited the Carl Smith-Hobart Drive project site, which is making progress.

“They have curbing in from Hobart all the way to Careytown,” Horst said.

“They have stone down on one side,” Duncan said.

Duncan also said that he called A-1 Tree Service about taking down the trees in front of the courthouse before the Festival of the Bells, but they said they would not be able to.

• • •

In other action, commissioners approved the following resolutions:

• A request from the Probation Department for a modification to the Probation Budget in the amount of $25,000 and an advance from Probation Budget to cover expenses until grant funds are received from Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, for a total amount of $25,000.

• A request from the Probation Department to establish a new fund Jail Diversion and appropriate to those line items. Estimated revenue for the first half of fiscal year 2016 is $87,011.

• A request from the Probation Department requests to establish a new fund Prosecutorial Diversion and appropriate to those line items. Estimated revenue for the first half of fiscal year 2016 is $39,424.50.

• A request from the Probation Department to establish a new fund Pre-Trial Diversion and appropriate to those line items. Estimated revenue for the first half of fiscal year 2016 is $47,282.50.

• A request from the Probation Department to establish a new fund PSI Writing and appropriate to those line items. Estimated revenue for the first half of fiscal year 2016 is $13,032.

• A request from Highland County Department of Job & Family Services for a reimbursement from WIA Administrative Account to Public Assistance in the amount of $30,000.

• A request from the Engineer for an additional appropriation from unappropriated funds to Engineer Budget, Other Expense in the amount of $48,740.

• A request from Recycling for an additional appropriation from unappropriated funds to Recycling Grant in the amount of $957.88.

• A request from the Board of DD for an additional appropriation from unappropriated funds to Board of DD, Transfers Out in the amount of $300,000, as well as a transfer from Board of DD, Transfers Out to Capital Improvement Permanent DD, Other Expense for $300,000.

• A modification within the County Budget from Transfers Out to Court Stenographer in the amount of $2,000.

• A request from the Engineer for a modification of appropriations within the Engineer Budget from Equipment to Materials in the amount of $50,000.

• A modification of appropriations within County Miscellaneous from Transfers to Advances Out in the amount of $40,000.

• An advance from County Advances Out to Debt Retirement - Mowrystown Sewer in the amount of $40,000.