During a recent government meeting, Michelle Dempster presented a significant change in the city's health care self-insurance process, which is expected to appear on future consent agendas. The proposed budget amendment aims to increase revenues and expenditures in the health care self-insurance fund by the amount of stop loss reimbursements received.

The city has been self-insuring its health, dental, and vision insurance since 2004, covering claims directly rather than paying premiums to an insurance company. This model allows the city to retain unspent funds and manage risk through stop loss coverage, which limits liability for individual claims exceeding a set amount. Currently, the stop loss threshold is $140,000.

For the past six years, Aetna has provided stop loss coverage, but a recent renewal proposal included a steep 30.5% increase in rates. In response, the city explored other options and ultimately transferred its stop loss coverage to Sun Life, resulting in a $400,000 savings. Under this new arrangement, the city will pay claims upfront and receive monthly reimbursements for amounts exceeding the stop loss threshold.

Dempster emphasized that this change will allow for a more efficient budgeting process, cycling reimbursements back into the health care self-insurance fund. The city council will be asked to approve the budget amendment to facilitate this new process, which is expected to enhance financial management and provide significant savings for the city.