Crossville City Council Sets Special Called Meeting Tuesday November 7 on Employee Health Insurance.

UPDATED: A new item has been added to the called meeting agenda "discussion and action on a TOSHA Complaint." TOSHA is Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the matter was originally set for a closed executive session on Friday that was later canceled and the item moved to the upcoming called meeting agenda.  City attorney Will Ridley will present a complaint from the Tennessee Attorney General for direction from the council.  No further information on the matter has been released at this time.

The Crossville city council will hold a special called meeting Tuesday, November 7 at 5 PM immediately before the council's regular monthly work session.

While several items are on the agenda, the main reason for the called meeting is to consider a recommendation from the city manager and staff on changes to the city employees health insurance. The city has been looking at some possible ways to save money on health insurance provided to city employees without causing financial impacts for the employees.

Crossville City Hall

Council had looked at a possible program offered by the Tennessee Municipal League of self-insuring but the time to evaluate that program has been inadequate.

After reviewing council comments from a recent work session and looking at options, the city is proposing a program that is expected to save the city some $43,425 in health insurance costs and puts a program in place to assist employees with their deductibles. The program helps fund a flex-spending plan for employees by matching the funds, up to $500 that the employee puts in their account.

An employee that puts in $200 pretax and the city matches the $200 but the cost to the city is only $184.70 because of the reduction in matching FICA and Medicare deductions.

The goals of the program, according to information with the agenda item are: 1) to save the City and therefore the taxpayers’ money. 2) to help the employees with their health care deductible. 3) to encourage the employees to consider their health care needs and make use of available tools provided by the City to manage those needs and costs.

The agenda information concludes saying, “If the Council wishes to fully evaluate the costs and potential savings of going to the self-insurance route, staff recommends going out for bid in June of 2018 so that you have the time to evaluate the option and will be able to compare apples to apples on proposals.”

The remaining items are under a consent agenda and include third and final reading of the budget ordinance on depot management, council order of business, Homestead Tower sewer line extension and telecommunications code. The second reading of a budget amendment for the purchase of fire trucks is also up for consideration.