Budget Meeting Minutes 05/11/05 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Ms. Rygas reiterated that. new revenue sources were needed. She asked if the Budget Committee should explore some options. Mr. Mulligan believed there were a couple of issues on the work plan that ident~ed needs. Mr. Taylor stated that the City Council was scheduled to go on a retreat at the end of the month to determine its goals and strategies. He said alternative revenues would be discussed. Mr. Mulligan invited Risk Services Division manager, Myrnie Daut, to the podium to discuss employee. health benefit costs. Ms. Daut reported that eight claims in 2004 had exceeded $100,000. She said the high cost of medical care and prescriptions were driving the increase in employee rates as was the State mandate that required public sector employees to be able to continue their medical benefits into retirement. She provided graphs of the cost increases in the packet and in a presentation. She stated that while medical costs were trending down, "down" was still around 13 percent. Ms: Daut explained that retirees purchased their insurance at the group rate, as mandated by law, but their claims exceeded the premiums paid. She said the Government Accounting Standards Board (GASH) was changing its rules regarding accounting for retiree benefits and the City would be required as of FYQ8 to book that subsidy as a liability. She clamed that people like herself who were still working would have to have their retiree benefits measured while they were still working. This information would be important for the labor unions to understand. She noted that the Benefits Study Group included members from all of the labor unions. Ms. Daut pointed out that non-Union represented employees were paying an eight percent contribution to their health care costs. Ms. Daut reported that she was co-chair of the Governor's Medication Roundtable which sought to work at a State level on prescription drug cost containment. Ms. Daut stated that all of the employee groups were committed to paying a portion of the health care premium and other angles were being explored to reduce health care costs. She cited the pedometer "First Step" program as one health promotion program, in which approximately 600 employees were wearing pedometers and measuring the steps they took in a day. Ms. Daut said the City of Eugene was partnering with the City of Springfield and Lane County to work with the Oregon State University on development of a diabetes prevention program. She explained that people with diabetes received cost-free services and had their co-payments for prescriptions waived but ultimately the prevention was acost-saving. Mr. Mulligan asked if collaborations with other employees, such as group purchasing, were being explored.. Ms. Daut responded that a committee in Lane County had recommended some collaboration, . but the City of Eugene did not think it would reap significant savings from it at this point. Mr. McDonald remarked that there was not an employer in Eugene that did not hate this discussion regarding health care costs. He sympathized with the City. He wondered if the system would not be characterized at this point as apay-as-you-go system, not unlike the Social Security system. He asked if the City had considered going to a catastrophic system, not unlike general health insurance. Ms. Daut said the City had one self-insured plan which insured the first $100,000 of insurance. claims and then also purchased insurance from PacificSource. She related that the City was looking into consolidating the two under the administrative auspices of ODS to save money. MINUTES-Eugene Budget Committee February 7, 2005 Page 14