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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1965/05/10-Agenda-Pre-Council r MINUTES PRI:-COUNCIL, CONFERENCE MAY lis, 14I, Present: Lata : Absent : I Barr None Nene 2 Eay;lu 3 Kemble 4. Shannon 5. hams, 6 . Deen f . SLovall 8 . Hoover 9. Jones I T E M Ru± erred to - 1 . Group Insurance for City Empluyees (I.R. 730 J. P. WOOD: and M&C C-491 - held over from previous weeks) 1 ) call meeting of Insurance CA, is The City Mana�!er inrpsired if any Coisncil Mt•wbor4. to review plan and i7Ujv,•tii)n: had quer tions i vgarding Lhr proposed group insurance plan for City employees . Councilman Hoover i nmii rt (I _'.) taut legal opinion Of the Per!,onnel Dime-Lor it records were availahl., aL Aetna on the number 01 claims involving treatment 3) get data on insurance Covera by podiatriFts (practitioner in the care and treat- on non-hospital treatment ment of the human foot in health and diseasc). The Personnel Director replied, that to hit knowledge, 4) ask Aetna for facts re tlsrir while complete records are kept and such inis,rmation cast for podiatrists ' tivatn., i►1 Could he developed, Aetna would not have readily available such classification of Maims , but Lhat ` ) drat t I.R. transmitLiny, claims have heen paid by Aetna on foot surgery pertinent iniotmation to Lountil . perft>nned by podiatrists . The Personnel Director turther pointed out that under Lhe proposed Blue Cross-Blue Shield plan fewer claims would bu received on :imaller surgical steeds because the Blue Cross- Blue Shield plan provides for a $50 deduction on surgery, Councilwoman Deen inquired of Ihu, Personnel M DirecLur how the City employees felt about the proposed plan in general and in particular about the excl>ssion of coverage of medical treatment by podiatrists . The Personnel Director replied that he could noL answer this question fully because no survey had been conducted of thy CiLy employees , but that the eriployev committee revit-wing thv plan had recom- mended that it be accepted. The Personnel Director in- dicated that only a small percentage of the claims made under Lhe existing Aetna policy were for physical or medical treatment of injured feet. Councilman Hoover inquired ut the Personnel Director it the decision by Blue Cross-Blue Shield to eliminate payment to podiatrists for medical treatment was an arbitrary decision on the part W Lhr company, The Per- sonnel Director stated that to his k.nowlt�dge this was the case. The Personnel Director further stated that in the City of Fort Worth, podiatrists may not admit a patient into a city hospital . A patient can be admitted Oft AWN only by a medical doctor after which services may he rendered by a podiatrist . Under the Aetna policy surgical payments are made, whether to an M.D. or podiatrist . Councilman Jones inquired of the Personnel Director it the Insurance Committee that studied the proposed Insurance plan was aware that treatment by podiatrists, was not recognized by the Blue- Cross-Blue Shield Company. The Personnel Director replied that the Committee was not aware of this exclusion. The City Council requested the presence of. Harley West, representative of the Blue Cross-Blue Shield Company in the pre-Council Conference. Councilman Hoover addressed the first question to Gen_ West asking if podiatrists were covered in the federal government insurance program that Blue Cross-Blue Shield has with the federal vovernment . Gen. West replied that the Blue Cross-Blue Shield federal government program did provide for payment to podiatrists for medical treatment, but that the plan proposed to Fort Worth does not provide for such covdrage. Mayor Barr in- quired of Gen. West if Blue Cross-Blue Shield recognized podiatrists in 36 other states Gen. West replied that he did not know. Gen. West did state that no such coverage was provided by Blue Cross-Blue Shield in the State of Texas . Councilman Hamm inquired of Gen. West the reasons why Blue Cross-Blue Shield excluded podiatrists from its cover- age. Gen. West replied that the primary reason for e::clu- sion was based upon the professional medical opinions of M.D. 's in thi State of Texas He stated that M.D. 's in the State of Texas do not recognize podiatrists as practicing medical doctors , Councilman Hamm pointed out to Gen. West that the State of Texas does accept podiatrists though by issuing them a license. Gen. Wast replied that this was true , Mayor Barr inquired of Gen. West if podiatrists were allowed to operate in hospitals . Gen. West replied that to his knowledge, podiatrists could operate in hospitals in the State of Texas . Councilman Hoover asked what per- centage of group insurance companies paid claims originating with podiatrists . Gena West replied that he did not know the answer to this question . Councilman Shannon inquired which other cities in Texas the Blue Cross-Blue Shield Company currently had contracts with. Mr. West replied that the employees in the City of Dallas , Wichita Falls , and El Paso were substantially covered by Blue Cross-Blue Shield programs .. Councilman Shannon inquired if other cities paid part of the employees ' insurance costo Gen. West replied that very few cities at the present time do participate in the employees ' cost of a group insurance program , However, Gen.. West pointed out that a few cities do perform such service and almost all major private industries provide financial participation on a group insurance program for their employees . Councilman Shannon inquired of Gen. West if he considered the 60 per cent City participation in employee costs provided by the City of Fort Worth as an example of high participation for municipalities , Gen, West replied that he had no comparison oft of policies in other cities in the United States, but he did not consider this participation to he too high, especially in comparison with the general practice in industry. f Councilman Hamm stated that with the City participating in the payment of 60 per cent of the employees insurance on this group insurance program, the City was actually becoming n .alesman for whichever insurance company it contracted with. In effect, Councilman Hamm stated, the City in its participa- tion, is assisting the in:,kirance company in selling its pol- icies . Councilman stated that at this point lie would rather use the 60 per cent financial participation by the City for employees as direct payment to employees rather than as an indirect subsidy. Gen. West stated that the City's partici- pation in such a group insurance program was a desirable benefit to City employees . lie stated that such participation assists the City in holding good employees. Councilman Stovall inquired of Gen. West if the Blue Cross-Blue Shield Company was a stock or a co-op company. Gen. West replied that life insurance policies issued by the B1uL Cross-Blue Shield Company came under the provisions of a stock company. He stated that the type of plan proposed for the City of Fort Worth was known as a hospital service plan. Councilman Stovall stated that he asked the City Attorney laet week for a legal opinion re^arding the right of the City to contract with Blue Cross-Blue Shield. The City Manager replied that the City Attorney will provide the opinion. The City Manager then pointed out to the Council the fact that riany cities in the United States do participate at a hiy,her than 60 per cent participation rate on group insurance prof,rams . The City Manager quoted the 1964 Municipal Year Book regarding cities who participate in health insurance pro- ,,,ram plans . Councilman Hoover inquired what the cost to the City would be increase from 40 or 45 per cent to 60 per cent participa- tion. The City Manager replied that the increase from 45 per cent under the present plan to 60 per cent world-east-the-6ity-ap- prexin►ate}y-$}�;A9A-mereT--He-etaEed- under the new plan would cost the City approximately $12 ,000 more, lie stated that because the total premiums are less under the Blue Cross-Blue Shield plan, the increase in participation for employees only from 45 per cent to 60 per cent would amount to only $12,000. Councilman Hoover requested that decision by the Council on this proposed plan be postponed for one more week. Councilman Jones inquired of Gen. West if chiropractors as well as podiatrists were excluded from coverage under the Blue Cross-Blue Shield proposed plan. Gen. West replied that this was true and that Christian Scientist medical practitioners were also excluded from coverage . Councilman Hamm inquired of Gen. West what he meant by the statement "substantial enrollment." Gen. West replied that the phrase "substantial enrollment" involved just how many City em- ployees were actually enrolled in the group insurance program in a city. Councilman Stovall stated that lie did not think the benefits were as great in the proposed plan as that in the Aetna plan. The City Manager replied that the benefits offered in the proposed plan were significantly higher and more beneficial to City employees than the benefits currently derived by ` City employees participating, in the Aetna plan. The City Manager further stated that the City would become less in- volved in claim procedure, with Lite Blue Cross-Blue Shield plan and this less involvement would provide approy.imately a $5,00(1 direct savings to Lite City. Councilman Hanmi stated that there were a Lot of things controlled under this proposed Blue Cross-Blue Shield pro- gram that were not controlled in other policies . Ile stated that lie would like some research done in this area providing some comparable data for thc City Council 's consideration. Councilman Kemble inquired of Councilman Hamm it the Insurance Committee that submitted this proposed plan for the Council 's consideration had not already studied these questions . Councilman Harmt replied that he was sure the Insurance Committee had :,tudied these issues, but that it had been submitted to the Council and it was time for the City Council to consider fully the iss+ces at hand . Mayor Barr requested the City Manager to obtain addi- tional information for the Council to consider. Councilman Shannon inquired of the City Manager if somv companies had not been allowed to hid on the City plan. The City Manager replied that only Texas companies Laving $1,OOU,000 in hospitalization premium income were allowed to bid, plus selected national companies . The consensus of the City Council was to postpone de- cision on the proposed insurance plan for one more week and such action was taken at the regular Council meeting ITEMS 2 - 8 WILSON - please note and follow up. The City Manager inquired of the Council if they had any questions regarding items 2 through 8 on thc- on the May 10th pre-Council Conference agenda. Council- man Ea..1e requested the staff to place street numbers or address numers on the land M&C's and/or Informal Reports to assist the Council in locating specific projects . The City Manager replied that such addresses would be sup- plied in the future. The Council had no other questions regarding other itr_ms on the Anda. 3. Mayor Barr announced the upcominb National League of DENTON - Agenda in June Cities Conference to be held in Detroit from July 24-28 . The Mayor mentioned that this was the same organizational conlerence attended in Houston approximately two years ago by many of the members on the current Council . Coun- cilman Hamm inquired of the Mayor if this conference would he a boud place to publicize our winning of the All-America City Award. Mayor Barr replied that he thought this could E,e done if it was done moderately. Mayor Barr requested the staff to place this item on the agenda the second Mon- day in June. 4. Meeting of Tarrant County Municipalities , May 18, 1965, DENTON - letter to Councilric•n hosted by the City of Fort Worth, from Mayor Mayor Barr brought to the attention of the Council Meml,ers the upcoming meeting of the Tarrant County Municipalities May 18, 1965 in the Round U2 Inn. He requested that as many Council Members as nossiblo plan to attend. 5. All-America City Celebration May 17, 1905 DENTON - GOODMAN Mayor Barr reminded Council Members of the upcominy,, May l7th All-America City cV1('i11atir11 * and re nested as many oc the Council Members as possible to he present at the function.