The Ridgewood Village Council on Oct. 22 approved a professional services agreement to let the village offer employees an optional high-deductible state health plan paired with an employer-funded reimbursement card. The move follows a Sept. 24 announcement from the New Jersey Division of Pensions and Benefits of a 36.5% increase in premiums for municipal members of the state plan, the village manager said.

Village Manager Keith said the council’s proposed approach would “significantly reduce our health care contributions while maintaining access to quality coverage for our employees.” Under the plan, employees may elect the high-deductible option; the village will prepopulate a reimbursement or “difference” card to cover out-of-pocket costs up to the deductible. The council authorized a not-to-exceed professional services agreement to engage EB Employee Solutions to administer the reimbursement card and related services.

Manager Keith and the village’s risk manager, Brown and Brown, briefed union representatives and are holding employee information sessions during the council’s open-enrollment period. Keith told the council the high-deductible premium is roughly half the cost of the Direct 10 family plan that many employees currently use and that the village expects substantial employee interest.

Council members pressed for follow-up figures and asked for a post-enrollment briefing to quantify the budget effect. “We are gonna see a substantial reduction in what the potential increase would have been for next year,” Keith said, while noting final budgetary savings depend on how many employees enroll. He said the $118,000 figure in the resolution represents the maximum administration cost to the village for the first year if every eligible employee enrolled, and that the village does not expect to pay that full amount.

The council adopted the professional services contract by consent vote during a special public meeting called to address the time-sensitive open-enrollment window. Officials said the measure is intended to blunt the planned state premium spike without forcing employees to accept materially different networks or plan access.

Council members and staff said they will continue to examine alternatives—pooled funds, group insurance funds and other options—but called the chosen strategy a pragmatic step to limit the budgetary impact in the short term.

Manager Keith said the village will invite Brown and Brown back after open enrollment to give the council a clearer projection of net savings and costs going into the 2026 budget.