The increase in the Kaiser premium for the County is 12%. By comparison, the Kaiser increase for PERS (Public Employees Retirement System) is 16.1%. Two years ago, in negotiations, the County modified co-payments bringing them in line with the upper co-payments of Kaiser plan options. Kaiser has developed a state-wide strategy to continue the process of examining and modifying co-payments annually to reflect inflationary increases to keep their plan design comparable to other plans offered by each employer. Kaiser recommended no change in County co-payments for 2005.
At the request of the County, Kaiser has proposed implementing a new program called PHASE (Preventing Heart Attacks and Strokes Everyday) which will focus on diabetes and cardiovascular disease for 330 identified high risk County Kaiser members to reduce their individual costs and help control overall County premium costs.
Kaiser is being recommend for continuation without a formal request for proposal process because they:
• Offer the lowest cost premium for employer-provided health coverage (e.g. no other health plan has lower cost for both the employer and employee),
• Provide a closed-panel network of physicians that is not offered by any other health plan and
• Provide a network that, if changed, would cause 100% patient disruption because no new plan would be able to offer coverage through the Kaiser primary and specialist physicians.
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