Niles to save $2M in health care after competitive bidding instituted

NILES

City council, in need of good financial news in a time of fiscal emergency, got $2 million worth of it from its health insurance broker Wednesday.

Michael Zaluski, president of Specialty Insurance, said substantive changes to health care coverage he instituted since becoming the city’s insurance broker last July made the savings possible.

“You paid [more than] $5 million total health care costs in 2015, but your cost will only be $2.7 million if the city continues to average $200,000 a month in medical claims,” Zaluski said. That would amount to a savings of more than $2.3 million from the previous year.

Zaluski said much of the savings came from changing the leasing of hospital networks to going to them directly – a change he immediately initiated.

“You saved $900,000 in medical claims this way,” he told council. “I have nine clients and none of them lease.”

Higher deductibles and co-pays were instituted after meetings between the city and its unions.

Council members wondered why the city leased all those years, and questioned why the excessive costs were allowed to continue. Steve Papalas, D-at large, said previous insurance brokers were awarded the contract by then-Mayor Ralph Infante without competitive bidding.

Read more about the situation in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.