04/29/13 — High dollar claims pushing up city health insurance costs

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High dollar claims pushing up city health insurance costs

By Matt Caulder
Published in News on April 29, 2013 1:46 PM

The Goldsboro City Council approved the 2013-14 health insurance budget at a special City Council meeting Thursday.

The total cost budgeted rose from $3,070,548 for the 2012-13 fiscal year to $3,522,876 for the 2013-14 fiscal year.

This is an increase of $452,328 over the current fiscal year.

The increase comes from a rise in the premium due to an unexpected number of high cost claims.

The city expects four to six high dollar claims a year, but this past year there were eight, with the highest being $1.5 million.

The city formed a committee encompassing representatives of different departments of city employees to discuss options for retaining coverage while keeping the increase to a minimum.

At the meeting future strategies were discussed to minimize the cost of health insurance to the city but for this year the plan proposed by City Manager Scott Stevens was approved.