Board reviews employee benefits RFP and hears staff recommendation to remain with Local Choice while building reserves for possible self-insurance

During a work session April 22, staff reviewed responses to the employee benefits RFP and described options including continuing with the Local Choice (TLC) fully insured pool or moving to a self-insured model with Anthem as third-party administrator. The presenter explained that TLC’s renewal quote came back at 23.7% and staff had modeled employer liability at $9.2–9.8 million with a conservative cap at $12.2 million, depending on plan design and claims.

The staff presenter recommended remaining with the TLC option now to avoid disruptions to employees, while planning to build a reserve — discussed as roughly $2 million — that would allow the division to consider self-insurance in a future year. "If we want to ... go self-insured, we need something to fall on," the presenter said, noting the division experienced more than $2 million in claims last year; without that pot the presenter warned self-insurance could cost employees more than current packaged options.

Staff walked the board through five options: remaining fully insured with TLC, moving to self-insurance with different stop-loss/claim cap assumptions, offering vision and dental as voluntary or employer-paid benefits, and a conservative hybrid that would require an additional ~$450,000 to add vision/dental under self-insurance. The presenter noted flexibility advantages under self-insurance (ability to set employee contributions and plan features) but stressed the start-up funding need and advised careful timing and coordination with the county and town for potential pooled purchasing in future years.

Board members asked for a short, plain-language summary of top differences between fully insured and self-insured options and discussed timing, county coordination, and potential impacts on employees’ take-home pay if benefit contributions change. No final procurement decision was made; staff will incorporate the RFP results into forthcoming budget work and continue negotiations and county discussions where feasible.