By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
A labor union representing Levy County Road Department workers and other employees is trying to unravel the mystery of how the Levy County Commission uses a private company to manage its health insurance policy.
Ronnie Burris, business agent for the Laborers International Union of North America Local 630 said the union has employed an attorney to make public records requests of Public Risk Management (PRM), the company that Burris said is paid $3 ½ million annually by the Levy County Commission to manage its health insurance. It is also making public records requests of the 58 counties and cities PRM represents.
The public records requests resulted when Burris said he was unable to get good numbers from county negotiators when they met for a bargaining session on Nov. 8 and the county made its final offer regarding how much it was willing to pay for employee health insurance.
County Health Insurance Offers
In earlier negotiating sessions in August and September, the county said it would cap its total health insurance contributions for each employee at $10,000 annually, would give employees a $4,700 increase on base pay over the next three years, but in the future employees would pay for any increases in health insurance costs. The $4,700 included $1,700 to cover the increase in employee health insurance costs for the 2018-19 year, according to Burris.
The county gave a final counter offer on Nov. 8 to modify the cap on insurance costs. Negotiators said employees would have to pay any future increase in health insurance costs up to 7 percent, but if insurance costs rose above 7 percent, even as little as 7.01 percent, the unions could ask to meet with the county to negotiate how much of the increase employees would pay. Burris said the county wouldn’t be required to meet with the union.
Laborers International and the International Association of Firefighters Local 4069 rejected the first county offer on grounds that employees shouldn’t have to pay the full cost of future increases in health insurance. Burris said the latest county offer isn’t much of a change. The county has asked Laborers International to schedule a vote on ratifying the proposed contract.
Firefighters Union President Katy Yanok on Wednesday canceled a bargaining session with county officials that had been set for Thursday morning. She said she canceled to give her time to have an attorney present when she meets with county negotiators.
The county insisted on negotiating with the unions separately this time around. The two unions had been meeting jointly with county negotiators. Public labor unions can’t strike. They can only negotiate with their employers.
How Does PRM Operate?
PRM represents 58 cities and counties including Levy and Gilchrist but it’s not clear what work PRM actually performs for the counties and cities and exactly how much the company is paid in commissions. Laborers International’s Local 630 attorney is contacting all of PRM’s government clients to make public records requests along those lines. Burris has asked Local 630’s attorney, Andrew Bonderud, to file public records requests asking which insurance provider the county or city uses, how long they have used their insurance provider and if they use PRM solely as their third party administrator or do they use another 3rd party administrator? The attorney is also asking what PRM charges each county or city for its services.
One of the reasons for digging down on the numbers is that the average cost of health insurance for a Levy County employee using the best Blue Cross Blue Shield health insurance plan is $11,700, according to Burris. But Burris said he represents other unions in Florida and many have policy costs ranging from $7,500 to $8,500.
PRM’s Relationship with Blue Cross Blue Shield
Burris is also digging down to find exactly what Blue Cross Blue Shield’s contractual relationship is with PRM. Do all of PRM’s clients use Blue Cross Blue Shield? Does Blue Cross Blue Shield charge PRM a fee to use its name? How much of a commission does Levy County pay PRM for its services every year? How much of the $3 ½ million is health insurance claims?
Levy County has used Blue Cross Blue Shield as its health insurer for the past 20 years and the union wants to know if the lack of successful competitive bidding has influenced the high cost of health insurance for Levy County employees, or if the county is claiming the insurance market is primarily to blame for driving up the cost of employee policies.
Spotlight has also filed a public records request asking some of the same questions of county officials regarding PRM and how it functions as the manager of the county’s health insurer. Spotlight wants to know exactly how millions of dollars in public funds are being spent for employee health insurance and whether the use of PRM is costing the county too much money. The county says PRM is a big pool of counties and cities that spreads out risks over a larger group of clients and cushions the cost of big claims on small governments, thus helping limit increases in health insurance premium costs. But Burris said PRM bids out Levy County’s health insurance policy separately from other counties. He said PRM, in his view, isn’t actually a pool.
The county hasn’t responded to Spotlight’s public records request filed on Nov. 12, and did not return phone calls regarding current union negotiations.
If the county and the unions can’t reach accord on a contract, an impasse would likely be declared and the contract would go to the county commission for a decision at one of its regular meetings. Burris said his union’s attorney would be there to confront the county commission and individual commissioners about their contract offers and issues related to the contract.
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Enterprise Reporting by Terry Witt; Levy Board of County Commission Business posted November 13, 2019
