Title
Health Insurance Renewal Proposals
History
In 2022, in an effort to better control health care costs, staff requested a quote from the Intergovernmental Personnel Benefit Cooperative (IPBC). The IPBC, which was established in 1979, is an intergovernmental agency created under Illinois statutes that allows units of local government to band together for the purpose of insurance. IPBC has 162 member entities and cover over 20,000 employees and retirees. Entities include Lake County, Schaumburg, Hoffman Estates, Mount Prospect, Buffalo Grove, Palatine, and Wheaton. The IPBC provides economies of scale and risk pooling that allows members more financial stability than other options in a fully transparent environment.
As a stand-alone entity, the Village, in cooperation with its brokerage/consultant the Horton Group (now known as the Marsh McLennan Agency), has done a good job of consistently reviewing and modifying our plans for ways to improve cost-saving measures, share costs with employees and reduce claims costs where possible. However, despite these efforts, when the Village goes to bid for networks and services, providers respond to our approximately 250 employees (employees in the IUOE labor union have a separate health insurance plan managed by IUOE). In contrast to this, the IPBC offers the Village the ability to benefit from the buying power of over 20,000 employees. This allows the Village greater access to medical networks that may have been cost prohibitive in the past as an individual entity.
As part of the 2022 IPBC proposal, for the exact same employee health insurance coverage, with the exact same insurance carrier (Blue Cross), the Village would have saved over a $1 million (approximately 25%) in just the first year (2023 plan year) alone. Ultimately, the Village Board at the time decided not to pursue IPBC membership.
Although the IPBC allows this greater access to networks, it does not dictate what members’ individual plans look like. M...
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