The City of Mount Vernon will be joining the Iowa Governmental Health Care Plan as part of their city and county pool.
The City has used Alera group for administration of health, dental and vision insurance benefits for a number of years.
“Alera Group has treated us phenomenally over the years and has done extremely well to help keep our benefits low up to the last two years,” said city administrator Chris Nosbisch. “It’s just that Iowa Governmental Health Care Plan comes with a $70,000 savings for the city.”
Alera’s increases for the city have been between 15 and 20 percent in the last two years, with the proposed increase for this year being roughly 21 percent to 21.75 percent.
IGHCP represents 28 communities and counties, and their proposed rates for items like health care insurance is $534,000, or a $74,000 savings for the City of Mount Vernon.
The group’s rate increases have also been roughly 3 percent over the past 18 years. Rates of increase have been between 2.06 and 4.77 percent the last four fiscal years, and Nosbisch noted they’ve only seen two years with health insurance increases above five percent.
Benefits for employees will remain roughly the same, with Blue Cross Blue Shield still being the insurance provider. Nosbisch noted that employees will just have to cover their co-pays moving forward. With Alera Group, there were extra steps for employees to get reimbursed for health care coverage.
The agreement with IGHCP begins June 1, when the city’s health insurance and benefits start each year.