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NYSAC Municipal Healthcare Financing Collective
The NYSAC Municipal Healthcare Financing Collective is a shared services initiative that aims to cut healthcare costs to benefit taxpayers and counties. Representatives from Columbia County and NYSAC met to discuss the program, which is available as a NYSAC podcast.
The NYSAC Municipal Healthcare Financing Collective is a shared services program designed to benefit counties and taxpayers.
Listen to the NYSAC podcast about the program above, or click here.
Read below for a few excerpts from the podcast.
How does the Municipal Healthcare Financing Collective benefit counties?
“Even if you are large enough to self-fund and have reserves built up – a high cost claimant could run hundreds of thousands of dollars or into the million dollars plus range,” said Eric Lintala, Executive Benefit Consultant of Relph Benefit Advisors.
“That's a significant liability, so the insurance companies are willing to write that for an affordable premium. This plan allows us to get some of that fixed premium back to counties so that the money can be used for other things.”
What brought about this program together?
“We have explored health insurance for several years now, and Relph Benefits Advisors came to us last year with this idea – with a tested and proven concept where employers can pool their covered lives and lower the cost of stop loss insurance,” said Mark LaVigne, Deputy Director of NYSAC.
How many covered lives does Columbia County have?
“We have about 16 hundred covered lives in the program, so that's substantially a pretty good size for an [administrative services only program],” said Ron Caponera, Controller of Columbia County. “We're probably – with the hospital – number one/two in employees in the county.”
What healthcare savings has Columbia County had?
“We actually saved over a million dollars in our first year by going to the ASO program - we've been able to minimize the cost that we pass along to our employees,” said PJ Keeler, Treasurer of Columbia County. “The rate has been less than five percent per year compared to the average increase in health insurance which has been much greater than that, and our savings have been able to be able to put into a reserve that we could use possibly for future needs.”
Listen to the full NYSAC Municipal Healthcare Financing Collective podcast to find out more about this program, including how this program benefits counties including Columbia County, typical savings, and what the next steps for the program entail.
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