Medical Insurance Plagues the County.
Note: the following consists of information from meetings of the Glasscock County Commissioners’ Court on May 8 and May 15.
The county commissioners’ court is attempting to determine how best to approach continuing problems with the county’s medical insurance. West Texas Rural Counties, an insurance pool which is the county’s primary insurer, is bordering on insolvency, and needs additional capital to meet its overdue and current claims, according to Glasscock County Treasurer Alan Dierschke, who is the county’s representative on the WTRC board.
Dierschke said WTRC wants the county to pay $116,000 now, which would pay the county’s overdue and current claims, plus advancing approximately three months of claims at an average of $33,000 per month. He said the money would help keep WTRC afloat for awhile as it tries to lower expenses and raise capital. He said the county court will have to decide how much it wants to salvage the WTRC program. The county has prepaid its premiums through September in an effort to provide capital and to help with claims payments.
According to Dierschke, WTRC has said it will provide written assurance that the money paid into the pool now would be assigned back to Glasscock County in July, when the pool’s reinsurer is to make a sizeable payment.
Glasscock County is responsible for its own claims if WTRC goes bankrupt, Dierschke said.
Regarding WTRC’s problems, Bednar said hindsight shows the organization was never properly capitalized. In addition, he said, “Our claims have been terrible.” And he said the county’s current insurance deal for employees’ families has been “too wonderful.”
Dierschke said some of the insurance options include pulling high-risk folks out of the county group, and insuring them through a statewide pool, while trying for another system for other employees. He also pointed out that most counties provide employees with coverage requiring $1,000 deductibles, rather than the $250 deductible here. Dierschke said he is checking into other insurance possibilities, including Blue Cross through the Texas Association of Counties, which was the county’s insurer prior to WTRC.
Dierschke said WTRC now faces $2.2 million in outstanding claims. He said the expected $2 million from the reinsurer would still leave WTRC $200,000 in the hole. He said Community Hospital in San Angelo is suing WTRC for non-payment of claims.
The court will again discuss the insurance problems May 22.
Regarding other matters, Bednar said the county needs to advertise soon for bids on operating the county’s landfill/dump. No action was taken.
County Engineer Dan Glass presented a revised estimated cost of $269,000 for the county’s 2000 paving project, which includes $5,000 for repaving flood damaged areas on several county roads. The new paving will consist of: County Road 130 from Garden City east 1.3 miles; County Road 415 from the south end of the existing pavement (2 miles south of the Martin County line) south 3 miles and County Road 110 from State Highway 137 west 6 miles to RM Highway 1357. Bids will be taken in June.
Discussion of a possible bond issue for a community center building was tabled until May 22, when the court will again meet in special session at 9 a.m. in the courthouse.