Habersham faces projected $500,000 rise in employee health costs as broker urges plan changes

Habersham County commissioners heard at their April 19, 2021, work session that employee health-insurance costs were projected to increase by roughly $500,000 in the coming plan year. The county’s benefits broker responded with a package of proposed coverage and program changes, including a move from the HealthPartners provider network to Aetna, but the minutes do not show the Board taking final action.

The projected increase put a recurring county operating expense alongside decisions that could affect employees’ access to doctors, prescription coverage and supplemental care. A network change can alter which providers are available to workers, while the proposed behavioral-health and diabetes-management services would expand the support offered through the benefits program. Whether the county accepted those tradeoffs remains unresolved in the work-session record.

The discussion centered on a cost forecast for the next plan year and on steps the broker said could manage benefits expenses. The broker recommended replacing HealthPartners with Aetna, citing a 54.8% claims discount for Aetna compared with 41.9% for HealthPartners. It also recommended continuing a prescription-drug program credited with $160,984 in savings, while flagging the county’s dental high plan because claims had exceeded premiums.

The benefits broker presented the proposed changes as cost and program recommendations to the Board. Commissioners were the public body hearing the presentation, and county employees were the people most directly affected by any eventual changes in provider network, prescription program, dental coverage or added health services. The minutes do not attribute a position to individual commissioners or record employee comment on the proposals.

What is established is that the broker projected an approximately $500,000 increase and recommended the Aetna network, continuation of the prescription-drug program, new behavioral-health and diabetes-management services, and attention to the dental high plan. Those were proposals discussed in a work session, not actions shown as completed. The minutes do not state that commissioners voted, adopted or rejected any recommendation, and they do not establish final pricing or employee coverage terms.

The next public sign of a decision would be a later Habersham County Board agenda, meeting record or benefits-plan document identifying an adopted network, programs, prices or coverage changes. Until such a record appears, it is unknown whether the Board implemented the broker’s recommendations or how it addressed the projected increase in employee-benefit costs.