Employee health coverage renewed with 5% increase

The state's new rule could cost the MRDD an additional $400,000 a year.
AUSTINTOWN -- The board of Mahoning County Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities renewed employee health-care coverage for one year with United Healthcare, which includes a 5 percent increase in premiums, effective March 1.
Board member Joseph Ignazio said the ability to maintain the current plan with a 5 percent increase is good. The health insurance market has seen increases annually of 12 percent to 15 percent per year in health insurance coverage, said Larry Duck, MRDD superintendent.
Under the plan, monthly premiums are single employee, $409; employee and children, $777; employee and spouse (no children), $858; employee and spouse with children, $1227. During the plan year, employees make a co-payment of 10 percent of their monthly premium up to a maximum of $80 per month, Duck said.
Other business
In other action, the board created a supervisory position in its Community Services Department to deal with the Ohio Department of MRDD's new waiver reimbursement rule. The rule affects the amount of funding MRDD clients are eligible for when they receive a waiver.
A waiver is a Medicaid funding procedure which allows individuals to receive additional funding to pay for supportive services so that they can live in the community.
Duck said Mahoning County has 163 individuals using the residential waiver, which averages about $50,000 per client per year, not including the cost of the services the individual would receive if he attended one of the sheltered workshop programs operated by the county or other private providers.
The county board pays the 40 percent local share required for the waiver, Duck said.
The state said the new rule is "budget neutral," but Duck said the estimated additional annual cost in Mahoning County could run nearly $1 million a year or more, with the county board paying the 40 percent share, or $400,000, on the increased cost.
Duck said the new position is needed to carefully monitor the process for accuracy because of the money involved, and because of the importance the impact might have on families and clients if changes were made in the funding levels.