County medical insurance supplier up for grabs

Jun. 24—EAU CLAIRE — The county is requesting proposals in a bid to recruit a brand new medical insurance vendor.

Eau Claire County will lose its medical insurance supplier on the finish of the 12 months. The county’s present supplier, WEA Belief, notified the county it could be pulling out of the Wisconsin market on the finish of 2022.

The Wisconsin-based not-for-profit introduced in an early June assertion it could be terminating its medical insurance market choices.

“The challenges associated to healthcare consolidation, the prices related to the worldwide pandemic, and the drop within the inventory market have made it tough for native, not-for-profit organizations like ours who search to supply households with excessive worth private care,” mentioned Vaughn Vance, President and CEO of WEA, within the launch.

Jessica McDonald, human sources Director for Eau Claire County, described the method of discovering a brand new supplier.

In an effort to recruit organizations and obtain bid packages from potential distributors, the county revealed a request for proposal portal. “It principally describes what we’re searching for in a service, what we’re needing, after which suppliers can reply and submit bids,” McDonald mentioned.

The portal for distributors to use stays open till August 9. The proposals will then be reviewed and scored by members of human sources in addition to Norb Kirk, county finance director. As soon as the proposals are reviewed, Kirk mentioned the county will search interviews and, doubtlessly, negotiations with the highest few distributors.

McDonald mentioned Friday 14 distributors have submitted proposals. Nevertheless, she famous that there look like just a few duplicates.

“Only for a bit context for the committee, a few years in the past we did this (and) we acquired one. And that was WEA Belief,” Kirk mentioned.

County Supervisor Judy Gatlin proposed a query to the committee concerning the transition course of, particularly for workers which have pre-existing well being circumstances. Daybreak Edlin, advantages coordinator for the HR division, provided the committee extra perception into these operations.

Edlin mentioned that WEA has been getting ready stories of paperwork and claims that have to be offered for potential distributors.

“WEA is totally cooperating with us in our transition to a brand new service,” Edlin mentioned.

https://information.yahoo.com/county-health-insurance-provider-grabs-015100714.html