Health
Benefits Meeting News
Well
that was interesting. Not fun, or necessarily containing the information
being looked for… but interesting. As
it was later confirmed in the meeting, the entire thrust of the benefits
strategy was cost avoidance. Bit of a bummer, especially for those committee
members who were trying to at least see if a few benefit improvements might
be also cost effective.
It
was reported that industry trends project an 11.5% increase in cost next
year, but that H.R. is working hard to get that down to the single digits. (Ed.
Note: According to an employee who follows this stuff, the project industry
average is going to be about 9% this year. Hummmm…. )
The
good news? According to Deloitte the city is on track to meet its medical
budget goals. Whooooie!
The
bad news? Information requested by the committee was not provided due to a
‘misunderstanding’. Apparently
a take away note from the last meeting which very specifically requested
information
comparing the cost of providing ‘medical’ smoking and weight assistance
to employees vs the cost of smoking and weight related health complications
was ‘misunderstood’. This question was rolled into some kind of Wellness
Approach. So forget about getting any financial help to see your doctor
about any of these things, at least this year. But hey, all is not lost; you
can go to a
Wellness
Center
, attend
meetings and get a personal ‘plan’. Oh, and pick up a few pamphlets,
let’s not forget the valuable of those.
Good
News? We now have a very neat logo for our Wellness program.
Bad
New? Prescription co-pays increases will be proposed and most likely be
implemented as a cost containment measure
Retiree
Health Benefit Changes
Good
News? They did look into a ‘place holder’ low cost/high deducible plan
for retired employees to use in case they go to work for another company
with health insurance, but still want maintain their city eligibility.
Bad
News? The proposed ‘place holder’ plan would only be available for
employees 65 years of age or older.
Worse
News? According to H.R. Director David Ethridge, the city
attorneys are currently looking to see if the city can totally kick you off
it’s plan if you go to work somewhere else after retirement and have other
insurance.
I
know, I know… it seems so unfeeling, the possibility of
Dallas
kicking retirees to the
curb after they have given the city the best years of their life. However,
you have to look at it from
Dallas
’ point of view. Think of
the money they could save doing this. I mean really, we are talking major
bucks. Oh and less warm bodies has got to make it easier to administer the
plan and to project future benefit costs. So don’t think of it as a gross
betrayal of everything you were promised as an employee… Think of it as
saving the city money. (Ed.
Note… yes, saving money was already mentioned, but since loyalty and
gratitude to your employees can’t be plugged into a spreadsheet and
presented to council let’s not get too excited about those. ‘kay?)
H. R.
states that retirees who are herded into alternative plans will be given a guarantee
that they can later come back to the city PPO if they want to.
While this seems like a no brainer to most of us, the retirees will
need this in case some future administration or policy change does lists
them as having left the system and ineligible for return.
Smart money would get this guarantee in writing and make sure it’s
kept track of. As we all know, lots of stuff can change and no one wants to
be told, “Well this is just how it is, you could have stayed with our
plan.” – M.R.
Frey
2007
HMO Mutation?
One of the Deloitte Consulting recom-mendations that
H.R. seems to be pushing is that our current HMO possibly be eliminated and
replaced by a UHC look-a-like.
In the place of our current HMO plan we would move to a
$300 deductible/80-20 PPO plan. Which is designed to make life easier for
the city by forcing everyone to join the UHC Network, health line and
wellness program. It will also reduce the city’s administrative costs and **Trumpet fanfare please** encourage us HMO slugs to take more ownership in spending our
health care dollars! (Ed.
Note: How they figure this is an HMO equivalent I have yet to understand. It
is a freakin’ PPO for crying out loud. If we wanted to be in one of them,
we would have already jointed one.)
Of course in exchange for a lower premium up front we
will have more cost, paper work and risk on the back end, but then again so
will the city. So instead of trying to find someway to make the HMO more
attractive to bidders, the city will have to spend more money to
buy Stop Loss Insurance.
HMO’s assume all the risk for an employees care in
exchange for their monthly fee, which is why just two years ago the city was
trying to think of ways to encourage/force more employees to join the HMO.
PPO’s on the other hand are open ended. They can and often do have
enormous unexpected costs; which the city must then make up from the
employees and the budget the next year.
When is an HMO not an HMO? When it mutates into a
stealth PPO.
Snipletts!
City
Speak
Explained
“Incentives
for employees to become engaged” This phrase from a recent H.R.
publication translates into “Transfer more costs to the employees so
they don’t seek medical
treatment as often” (Ed.
Note : This kinda flies in the face of the ‘early treatment prevents
more costly treatment at a later date’ school of thought…. but hey,
those costs have also been transferred to the employee, so it is all
good.)
When
is it not good to ‘Go with the Flow?’
Possibly
when you work for the Water Department.
As
I watched the Channel 4 “expose” on city workers (and a supervisor)
drinking on the job, and heard the knee jerk reactions of higher management
that they should all be fired. I
was appalled. How do they know
that one or more of the employees being exposed, was just not “going along
to get along?”
What
do you think would have happened to the man who reported this activity to a
higher level supervisor? The
first thing the employee would have been asked is “Have
you discussed this with your supervisor?” Which one? The one also drinking
on the job? It is difficult for an employee report “unethical” behavior
about their supervisor. Often it is your word against theirs. And should
your complaint not be upheld, that person is still in charge of your daily
activities.
Even
if that supervisor does not retaliate, word will get around to your
co-workers and crew leaders who may also be implicated. Things
could get ugly.
Although
in all honestly, even employees who keep their mouths shut, but decline to
join in on the behavior are in for a rough time. Which is why it is
important for everyone, especially upper management to understand that
employees may have been caught up in this situation who did not condone the
behavior, but just did not want to be targeted as a trouble maker by their
co-workers or supervision.
Is this right? No. Should
you do it? No. But not every employee can take the heat of “not going with
the flow, ” especially when they are standing beside their supervisor who
is!
– Upset
Steelworker
Employee
Morale?? Where??
I
noticed a Council Briefing called ‘Employee morale’.
The slides were not available, so it is difficult to guess what is on
the agenda. However, I believe that most employees’ morale would go up
considerably if the Council would do the following,
Provide
a cost of living raise across the board.
Quit
eliminating employee benefits. (they are some of the worst in the State for
medium to large cities.)
Improve
the health insurance by putting more into Employee Benefits.
No
increase in Health Insurance
However
I doubt if these items were recommended in the briefing.
The
Police and Fire uniform personnel are requesting a significant raise over a
3 year period. The last time
that happened, 15 million dollars was taken from employee benefits and our
health insurance went up significantly.
Civilian workers did NOT get any raise for four years.
The small merit increases went for increases into the pension funds.
It is grossly unfair to treat one class of employees differently from the
others. Does this happen at
other cities? I doubt it.
Civilian
workers experience the same increase in costs that uniform personnel do.
Gasoline, healthcare costs, food, housing, heating cooling have all
accelerated by a large margin. Salary
wise, civilians are still in a negative status.
The Dallas Morning News showed the top 10 employers whose employees
had their children enrolled in CHIP. The
City of
Dallas
was 10th and the only city
listed in that group.
The
City of
Dallas
can greatly improve employee morale by not
taking away anymore benefits and improving salaries.
We are NOT a private corporation and do not have a product to sell.
A committee made up of all private companies and only one public
sector member should NOT be able to determine what benefits are appropriate
for city employees. Continue to
eliminate benefits and watch the flood of employees, including uniform
personnel flee to other cities. The
City Manager and Council should be VERY CONCERNED.- Concerned Steelworker
Ed.
Note - Rumor has it that the above mentioned ‘committee’ will be
recommending changes to vacation and sick time. Advanced word is that the
recommendation made will not be anything to gladden our hearts or improve
morale.
End
of year raffle Remember at the last meeting of the year you get one
raffle chance for every meeting or work session you sign in for.
Make six meetings, get six chances. So congratulations to the
members who were present at the December meeting when their names were drawn
for the gift certificates from Target, Best Buy and Chili’s.
What have
unions done for me?
The American concept of the weekend has its
roots in labor union attempts to accommodate Jewish workers who took
Saturday instead of Sunday as their Sabbath. The first five-day workweek
was instituted by a
New England
spinning mill for just this reason. Despite a boost from the Ford
Automobile company closing
their factories on Saturdays, it wasn't until 1940 that the two-day
weekend officially began nationwide.
The Time to Join is Now!
Don’t
forget about the 30 day waiting period on certain services for new members.
We don’t want anyone to miss out on assistance should they need it. The
time to join is now, so you will already be a member before any problem that
you need help with occurs.
Meeting Date
Change!!
