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HomeMy WebLinkAbout4-15-26 TranscriptEmployee Benefits Trust Board Meeting-20260415_110423-Meeting Recording April 15, 2026, 5:04PM 2h 8m 26s Bill Nary started transcription Bill Nary 0:03 It is April 15th, 2026. It is 11/04 On this date and I recall our monthly city of Meridian employee Benefits Plan Trust meeting to order. I will call roll. Bill Mary presents Christina Barney. Christena Barney 0:18 Present. Bill Nary 0:19 Sean Harper. And then Eli Daniel and Alex Krytech said they would not be able to join us today. And we also have with us. Dan Molloy from Blue Cross and Reba White from HR and then Alan Wash, is joining us for the first time this month as our new in House or our new legal counsel for the Trust. We don't have the minutes from last month. We didn't get those completed, so we will add that to next month's agenda. So the next thing we have on here is just our monthly reports. Kind of over that kind of quickly on a monthly experience. And financials and. Reba White 1:02 Yeah. So let's share screen. So the February end of February financials? Total assets so 3,000,000 total liabilities equity 3. We talked about it last trust meeting about contributions and kind of them being late. To being paid by the city to the trust. But we were still in compliance by the end of the month with the. DOYS. My brain is losing me. Christina, what am I trying to say? The the DO is? Christena Barney 1:45 Monthly compliance. So even though we're getting our contributions delayed in the month, they're still coming in by the end of the month. So we meet that DUI requirement of meeting their surplus on a monthly basis. Reba White 1:56 For surplus. Correct. Thank you. Christena Barney 2:01 No problem. Reba White 2:01 Surplus was leaving my brain. Christena Barney 2:04 Gotcha. Reba White 2:05 So yeah, so net income for the for the whole month? So we had $46,000 because of just when the timing of coming in, the contributions still were the 1.7, which was normal. We had 243,000 of administrative expenses. Claims were about. 1.3 million. And so from 2025, which will go over the experience report to a little bit lower than normal. But had a positive income towards the end of the month. So made an income of $158,000 versus the last year of the -130. Then. Christena Barney 2:53 Hold on just one second, Reba. Let me capture those numbers, please. Reba White 2:55 Oh yeah. OK. Christena Barney 2:58 Thank you. Got it. Reba White 3:00 And then. For the experience so. For January through February of 26, then we have. A total amount of claims being paid is. The 1.285951 we have had claimants or we did get a stop loss of 50,000 back. So the net pay was 1.2 minus the 50. Let's see for. Our experience. That's from. Christena Barney 3:46 That's a rolling 12. Reba White 3:47 That's a rolling correct. So for February's experience, we did rise a little bit. So 90.9% that was up from 87.8 for medical. That's prior. That's just a claims. So the from. February or from January 26 to February 26, running about 89.3% on our claims experience. And then when we look at the total of claims, so again this is rolling, so we've had. We've had quite a few of high claims, so the 20 high claims listed, but again this is the rolling. If we look at just January to February, we've had three. Two being medical and one being prescription, so RX and. The I mean 80,000 over the 2000 for just the medical side, but that is just from January to February of this year. With, again with dental car experience is from February 92.6%. Ending in February. So again, just a little bit above our January. Our rolling so if we look at February of last year, it was 96.2. So about the same. So we're not, you know, going higher or lower there. 12 months with VSP for February ending in 124.6. So increasing again we went, we were at 114.5. And so looking back February of last year was 140%. So I still think we're, we're still doing OK with vision. Bill Nary 5:48 Mm-hmm. Reba White 5:52 It is normal for vision to be very high at the first of the year because as we've talked about, people renew their benefit. They just go get their eyes checked out. Glasses, contacts. Bill Nary 6:03 Yep. Reba White 6:06 So that's pretty much it. I'm not gonna go over claims by service category 'cause I we usually have help from Gallagher to kinda walk through this. But I have uploaded this experience report to our trust. Folder out on teams so that we can continue to push that through the Trust tab access. Out your fingertips whenever you need to. Any questions? Bill Nary 6:39 Any questions for anyone? OK. Reba White 6:45 And then the last financial report. So ending this is today. Right now we have 1.8 in our bank account. Our contributions from March will be deposited tomorrow, which will put us back into the positive for surplus. So like Christina said, because we're still getting the contributions before the end of the month. We are still suffering the surplus minimum and it will be and I can send that out tomorrow as soon as we get the funds in the account to give you an updated bank statement, if we all need to, but we will still be in surplus at the end. Of the month. Bill Nary 7:32 How much is our? How much is our reserve or surplus we're supposed to have? Reba White 7:37 2.3 I believe. Bill Nary 7:39 OK. Reba White 7:43 And our contributions that come in. Are roughly, you know, almost $900,000. So that's why I say it. You know, we're not anywhere close to being. Oh, are we there yet? Type and so I can send the updated financials and just for the reason on on the record of why contributions contributions are only paid on Thursdays and so last week. Week I we had him approved Wednesday night, but they didn't meet the cutoff for the Thursday payment through finance and so they had to wait a following week. So they are only paid to the trust on Thursdays. Bill Nary 8:28 And that's just the finance department thing, right? Reba White 8:30 Correct. Now, if we were in the mode of like having a really late contribution deposit, I would request that they make an off payment to, and if we were like at the end of the month and we needed in order to say we met the surplus by the end. Of the month, I would request that they pay on a different day, but that is only in that instance that I would request that. Bill Nary 8:55 OK. Reba White 8:58 Hey. Bill Nary 8:58 Any other questions on finances or anything else in this? Thank you, Reba. Reba White 9:04 Welcome. Christena Barney 9:06 Now, Reba, the next quarterly report, when is that due? Reba White 9:11 So we had. January, February. Oh well, January, February, March, April, end of May. Christena Barney 9:20 OK. I just wanna make sure I capture that accurately. Bill Nary 9:23 OK. Reba White 9:24 It's yeah. So it's sixty days after the quarter. Bill Nary 9:32 So next on our discussion action items Council presentation. Christina did send that out. Was that today? Christena Barney 9:41 Yeah, earlier today. Bill Nary 9:42 Yeah, earlier today. So we are scheduled for the 28th right now. We're scheduled at six. It is possible based on our agenda setting meeting today, that it could move back to 4:30 if Scott would be available. I won't know till probably tomorrow. So what I can do, Mike, do you? Do you? Would you see Scott or would be easier if I sent him an e-mail? Just saying we could possibly move to 4:30 instead of 6. Mike Stahl 10:12 Probably be easier to shoot him an e-mail. Just make sure you get. Bill Nary 10:14 OK, I will do that. Mike Stahl 10:17 Great. Thanks. Bill Nary 10:18 And then. I haven't had a chance to walk through this. Christina, do you want to walk us through some of this at all, or what would your what would you like to do? Christena Barney 10:27 I certainly can give me just a moment to get it pulled back up. Bill Nary 10:30 OK. And as you're doing that, one of the things to think about as we're talking about this presentation and this is partly for all of benefit as well, but the Council had requested last year that we remarket the plan and we had a lot of conversation about what does. That actually mean when we do a self funded plan. And so I think we're going to have to help explain that to have that discussion with the Council, if we're going to remarket the plan, what are we, remarketing? What's the? What's the intent? How would we do that? What are we going to do? How would we craft it? How we how would we put that out? So I think there might be some work, I guess, on Gallagher's part to help explain that a little bit. But anyway, just as food for thought as we look through the the presentation, Christina, I'll let you take it from there. Christena Barney 11:37 Yeah. And that's one piece, Reba emailed back as feedback to this, we need to add a slide in that talks about that because we do need to get some direction from the Council. Bill Nary 11:42 Right. Right. Christena Barney 11:50 Where I believe it was left as they wanted us to do an RFP, not a market pulse check. However, Blue Cross has informed us if we are doing a full RFP, they will not release our renewal rates. Bill Nary 11:56 Correct. Right. Christena Barney 12:03 As they normally do in May, it will be part of the RFP. If we do an RFP, we're a little behind the game in that we need to have decisions made, plan designs, all of that done by July. Bill Nary 12:17 Right. And I think that maybe that's the part of the conversation. I'm so fortunate that Scott's not here because part of that discussion last year was why in our, you know, when they're thinking RFP, they're thinking in the mindset of the prior fully funded plans that were done differently. And that was a a completely different model. And so and again, I don't know if. 1-2 or more of the Council members are of the mindset. That are still there or understanding when you have. A self funded plan like we have, that's not the right. That's not the appropriate path for that kind of plan, and that market, that market Pulse check is different. I know Brian gets that because of his position with the Hospital Association. Christena Barney 13:10 Mm-hmm. Bill Nary 13:10 They do it exactly the same way we do. Do it. I think John was on board with that as well. Christena Barney 13:13 Right. Bill Nary 13:16 So you've got 2 council members on the RFP side and two council members on the market plan adjustment side and then two in the middle that kind of need to be informed what makes the most sense? So I don't know. Maybe again, that's another conversation with Scott on sort of defining the difference. And again an RFP. Is that the right thing to do? And if it is, how are we gonna do it? How quickly can we do it? Again, I don't know how to address that as easily, so that may be something. Again, we need Scott's feedback about. Christena Barney 13:49 Yeah. Well, and I think reiterating with the Council and we've already talked about this multiple times, but I think it needs to be reiterated when you go to a self funded plan, it's highly customizable. And so we have built a plan for our population and there is really no way to do an Apple App to apples comparison by a market RFP you do. Bill Nary 14:06 Hey. Christena Barney 14:15 Market pulse tests on checks on different aspects of the plan to ensure that you're getting the best rates. So I think having that conversation again is probably important with the Council. Bill Nary 14:21 Right. Alan, you have some feedback. Allan Bosch 14:28 Yeah, I was just kind of actually kind of repeating what was just said. So we're a self funded plan. So in terms of plan design, in terms of our population, what they look like, what they need, as well as what their potential costs are, a lot of that Gallagher can give us a good idea of what those are compared to buying some full indemnity plan off the. Shelf. And so that's. Yeah, I think that's part of that discussion. In fact, I'm gonna ask you want me at this meeting? Bill Nary 14:51 Correct. Allan Bosch 14:56 With the Council. Bill Nary 14:56 Yes. In fact, I was going to ask you that, Alan. Basically, when I got another couple ones now, but we can do that now. Yes, if it's possible I it would be helpful. I think for one of the Council to know we have legal counsel on board and kind of what your role is. So that way they they see you and connect the dots with the the trust and that it's kind. Of independent of, you know, somewhat independent of the city to some degree. I think that would be really helpful. Right now it's scheduled on our 6:00 meeting. It could be in person or online. It's you can do it either way. It potentially will move to our 4:30 meeting instead because one of the items on there might drop off. So that's why we might move it back to 4:30 if possible. If Scott could be there. But yes, if you could be there, that'd great. Allan Bosch 15:47 Yeah, I yeah, I will plan on being there 28th. Yeah, 20. Bill Nary 15:50 OK. Allan Bosch 15:52 That's a Tuesday that works perfect for me. Bill Nary 15:54 Yes. Allan Bosch 15:55 So yes, that's perfect either for any of those times will work, so just. Christena Barney 15:55 OK. Bill Nary 15:57 Great. OK. And I will know by tomorrow and I will. I will reach out to Scott today to let him know the possibilities there. If he can't change to 4:30, that's fine, then we can leave it at six. But if he can move and that's where the Council would like to move it to, then that would be. Great. But I will. Allan Bosch 16:14 OK. Bill Nary 16:14 I will know for sure by tomorrow, probably. And but I will let him know, and then I can also include you in that, Allen, so that you can make sure to get on your calendar. Allan Bosch 16:23 OK, sounds good. Bill Nary 16:26 Anyway, sorry, Christina didn't mean to steal your Thunder on the presentation. Christena Barney 16:30 Nope, not at all. OK. So the first slide I just took snippets of our quarter 4/20/25. There's sections that are, I think, are the most applicable to kind of outline our financial status. So reconciliation of our surplus, it talks about the total surplus beginning of the year, net gain or loss, any additional funding. So this is the funding that we received from the city and then where our total surplus landed. This is the adequacy of the surplus, so showing on a quarterly basis what our total surplus. Was at the end of that quarter. What the minimum surplus requirement is, and then any excess or deficit in that. Then wanting to get them up to date so that gets us through December 2025. We're doing this presentation April. So we have data through February letting him know that our medical and pharmacy claims as of February are down 15%. Specifically medical claims down 23. Percent with pharmacy being up 5.5% getting us to that 15 and then large claim activity. We have two high large claimants. At $56,000. Bill Nary 17:56 Do we have any any just as a talking point? I mean do we have any idea or any sense on why? Christena Barney 17:56 Or Netflix. Bill Nary 18:04 It's lower. It's is that a normal trend? I don't recall that it is so I just curious if we had any idea. Christena Barney 18:11 The medical claims being down. Bill Nary 18:12 Yeah, that that's a fairly lower amount than usual, right? We're usually really hovering right around 100, so. Christena Barney 18:19 It's just utilization. Bill Nary 18:22 Yeah. Christena Barney 18:22 There hasn't been as much utilization or those high claimants to date. Bill Nary 18:24 OK. Yeah. OK. And it's only really two months. So I get it. Reba White 18:30 Yeah, and. Christena Barney 18:30 Yeah. Allan Bosch 18:30 Yeah. So that's just that's just a timing then in terms of like what lash do we have some major claims Lasher that were kind of outside Flyers that we weren't expecting. Christena Barney 18:33 Mm-hmm. Bill Nary 18:34 Yeah. Christena Barney 18:41 Mm-hmm. Allan Bosch 18:42 But this year, we're, yeah, we're only two years in two months in. So maybe it's just a timing issue. Christena Barney 18:47 Yeah. Bill Nary 18:47 Right. Yeah, it may just couldn't get into the doctor yet. May have. Reba White 18:51 Yeah. Allan Bosch 18:51 That's right. Christena Barney 18:51 Yeah, yeah. Mike Stahl 18:52 Right. As I say, the last consideration like it is only two months, but typically at the beginning of the year, you know, deductibles and out of pockets reset. Bill Nary 18:53 As simple as that. So. Mike Stahl 19:02 So those typically tend to be less pricing months as well. Christena Barney 19:07 Yeah. Bill Nary 19:07 Yeah, that makes sense. Allan Bosch 19:08 That's good to know. Bill Nary 19:09 Yeah, which is the opposite of, like the revenge on the VSP when you have your flex spending reset now you go get your glasses. Go get your Sam, get your contacts and do that. So that makes sense. Allan Bosch 19:11 Yeah. Christena Barney 19:13 Mm-hmm. So through February, our net loss ratio at 89% and then the rolling 12 months total costs which are claims and our administrative fixed expenses are up 5% and that's the combination of our administration expenses and then that raised pharmacy spend and then the primary cost. Drivers are those outpatient services and then specialty and injectable drugs. This may be a touchy subject, given the conversation we had last year, but. GOP ones, but I think it's still important to let them know where where that's headed. This will be. Reba White 20:01 Well, and to make to make the point on GLP ones, is we still do not cover just weight loss. It is diabetic related. It is so I think it's it is the the mode of people still having and having this disease. It's not that we're allowing just everybody to go jump onto the weight loss train. Bill Nary 20:26 Yes. Reba White 20:27 I know we talked about that with Council, but I think that's a good point to make to say yes, we it's raised, but that doesn't say that we've made any plan change. Bill Nary 20:32 Yeah. Reba White 20:36 It is literally our population has now had more of this disease. To be eligible for this prescription. Christena Barney 20:44 Yeah. Bill Nary 20:45 Correct and well, and I think with again most of the Council are going to be in the same demographic as me and I know in the things that I watch every other commercial is a GLP one for weight loss, not for diabetes and not for other medical cond. But simply weight loss. So that's probably what they're hearing the most of at least some of them. Christena Barney 21:05 Mm-hmm. Bill Nary 21:06 So I think it's probably good to mention. Christena Barney 21:07 Yeah. OK. I'll have Scott run through this, but our prior plan year experience in here. So that basically what I'm getting at is our prior year experience was at 117.7, which is why we saw the deficit that we saw. And then the next slide showing again, we're only two months in, but we're below that 100%, which is. Which is nice. And if this trend continues? Will be in the positive for the year. Again, I'll have Scott cover this one, but just showing the surplus, the IBNR requirements are minimum, minimum required surplus assets all in comparison to each other. Going over the requirement in the IO state code again, just I want to keep this in here and keep hammering this home with them that we are obligated and required to maintain minimum surplus on a monthly basis. We'll add in a slide about the RFP market pulse. Check I left this in here. Bill Nary 22:18 OK. Christena Barney 22:20 This was in from the last one. We don't have any requests of Council at this time. And then questions. Anything anyone sees that needs to be changed or added or anything of concern. Thank you. Bill Nary 22:40 Great, great job, Christina. Thank you so much. Next items on here they can. Kind of all be talked about together, I think. So I I put on the letter of engagement I wanted to make sure the board that we accept that and move forward, approving that with Alan and then talk about how how would you prefer Alan, you receive requests for any assistance or advice you want it and what? Is the board's preference. We want to funnel that through. One or two people. I mean, I don't foresee 5 people randomly asking Alan a question. But I don't foresee that. But you know, I guess we need to talk about how do we funnel requests to Allen for for work that we'd like to see or need. Do you want to funnel it through me? Do you want to funnel it through someone else? What? Whatever the preference of the board is, and then also part of this and this is kind of maybe the third bullet here on additional follow up from DOI Reba had mentioned you know we had some. And Christine has too. We've had some requests from DOI on how we do things and how we track our work and how we keep our minutes and how we do all a bunch of things. I just want to make sure we don't lose sight of those things and make sure we're doing that. But in addition, with Allen coming on board, we also need to probably talk about actually budgeting for the next fiscal year. In the past, we really our budget has been. Primarily driven by our rates. And our administrative costs and relation to that. And then sort of tagging onto that is the actuarial and accounting work that's done. But now we're going to have legal costs there too. We may need to talk about how are we going to budget for the following year in asking the Council for funding needs to include those costs for both the administration through Blue Cross as well as the administration of the trust itself along with. Council costs. So how do we want to do that? I guess those are all a whole bunch of things all at once, but where do we wanna take it from there? Christena Barney 24:54 Do we need to motion and approve the letter of engagement? Bill Nary 24:59 Yes. Christena Barney 25:00 OK. And I know there was a dollar. Allan Bosch 25:01 Yeah. And if I'm. Yeah. Yeah. There's. Yeah. There's a cap in there, which is something we should talk about. Christena Barney 25:03 I'm sorry, Alan. Go ahead. Allan Bosch 25:07 So that way from a budgeting perspective, you know what? Bill Nary 25:08 Mm. Allan Bosch 25:10 The total legal costs will be for any given year, and if it if it gets close to where we're going to exceed that, obviously I as well as whatever the issues are need to come before the the board again to make sure we get approval for any. Services over and above or the cost over and above the the budgeted cap. For the applicable year. That's one thing we just wanna make sure that's in the agreement. Of course, we've got the billing rates that say that's the only real and then we've got those insurance minimums and those. That's one thing you'll want from me for my firm proof that we do have those insurance minimums. And I I typically get a once a year I. Bill Nary 25:51 Mm-hmm. Allan Bosch 25:55 Get a reminder from my client saying you you need to send in those minimums. Make sure we still have the same coverages. So that's one thing we'll just have to dock it. Within your system, so that typically maybe about this time of the year probably maybe May 1 every year or April one. I guess if the effective date of this agreement's April 1. Bill Nary 26:04 OK. Allan Bosch 26:15 Then we can use April one as our April to to March as the the contract contract year and we just need to make sure that we're within the budget every year. The CAP as well as providing you guys information on insurance coverages. And then in terms of the engagements, I think you know, Bill, you kind of alluded a couple of times in your emails. There's a series of things that probably need to be done right now in terms of making sure the DOI is comfortable with where where we are. Or or at least where we're going to be in terms of any compliance issues. And that's a tough one because I don't have a good feel for what all they want. So you know, and that's one of those things where if if you know if they've come up and said, hey, here's what we want and it's something we don't have, we're going to have to develop those either the protocols or the procedures or the documentation that they want. And so I don't know what that's going to take, but if it's something we can, you know, let's plan for a budget. You know, I mean from. Budgeting perspective, when you present to the Council, even here's what it's gonna cost to do business guys. Here's what accounting costs actually cost legal costs. Admin costs for Blue Cross, whatever it is here are the costs of doing business. This is just one more cost of doing business and you gotta build that into what the the city is willing to pay for having a self funded plan. And so I and I don't know what that dollar amount is. I mean, I can tell you the other ones. I mean, I just don't know. I mean usually 500 hours is not out of the question, which would be about 15 grand, but I don't know, depending on exactly what. The city's going to need. I just wonder what the city's gonna need so. What the what the DOI is gonna require, DOY is gonna require in terms of the next, say, the next 12 months of compliance. Bill Nary 28:15 Yeah. And I think part of that conversation and and again, I think the the one that you all of those things you mentioned Alan are are some of them and the one that probably that I recall from the DOI letter that we need, they want some clarity on. Is what is the city's comfort level on Reba's time? Basically I think as. Her support that she provides should the trust be paying the city back for some time. Should the trust be doing something else you know as or is the city OK with saying? Well again, she's providing the support to the trust on behalf of the employees, which is part of her normal job. I think they, if I remember correctly, if I'm wrong because I. I guarantee you I could be wrong, but I think that they I understood the least partly from the DOI. They wanted some clarity on that issue. Is is the city OK? With what support they're providing and they're not charging us for it. Or it should we be paying them for it? Am I off base on that? Christena Barney 29:21 No, that was one of them. So Alan, we have received a letter of findings. Bill Nary 29:23 OK. Christena Barney 29:26 Well, actually two letter of findings from DOI. So far they have 10 different findings. Several of those we need to make some changes to our bylaws. To this process, you know how we conduct our meetings, how we formalize our minutes, those types of things. So we can certainly send those findings over as a starting point. Of what needs to be worked on in the beginning, I think. Allan Bosch 29:55 OK. Bill Nary 29:59 Because I think all of those things wrap up into this, you know, request of the city and I think Alan really captured it well of here's the plan. Christena Barney 30:00 Umm. Bill Nary 30:08 There are costs to administer this plan. Here's city. This is what it would cost to, you know, continue to have a self under plan. And again, I think because of the way the conversations went the last year. A Council member or two may ask well. Is this any different than if we fully funded the plan? It would that be different? Well, yes, it would. It would necessarily be cheaper. It'd just be different so. Christena Barney 30:37 OK. My take on the CAP is we know we have a lot of work to do, at least in this year, just meeting DOI requirements based on our audit, I would and where our funds are trending. I think we have the room to pay for the legal services that. Are needed and if not, I think it's fair to approach the Council and say these are requirements. We don't. We can't not do. To them, we need to pay for the legal services to get ourselves a compliant and then moving forward will budget appropriately. But that being said, I'm I'm comfortable with what Allan you feel is an appropriate cap, at least for this first year until we kind of get a. Bill Nary 31:15 Correct. Christena Barney 31:27 Feel for how much engagement we're gonna have with you. Get some of these issues resolved. What do you think that CAP should be set at? Allan Bosch 31:36 Yeah, let me look and see. Jeez. When you probably have. Mean I can't. Boy, I don't know. I mean. It's hard because I don't know exactly in terms of the revisions to bylaws, some of the procedural things. I mean what I would do, I would probably put like a $15,000 number in there. Because that's only about 30 hours. But that should I think we just start with that. I don't know what else is that. Maybe about 50 hours. Well, 50 hours. Maybe do about 50? Christena Barney 32:40 Well, I think at the last meeting we discussed having you at these meetings, it sounds like we may want you at the trust quarterly update meetings. Allan Bosch 32:45 Right. Christena Barney 32:50 So that 16 hours right there, not even touching our documents or providing any advice. Allan Bosch 32:57 Documents. So Christina, do you have a feel for how much work it's going to take to clean everything up? Christena Barney 33:09 Umm. On your end, I don't know 'cause I I'm. I'm filling you out. And how you know how long it's gonna take you to get some of these things done? Allan Bosch 33:20 Yeah. Christena Barney 33:21 If we were to look at them and to do them, it's gonna take several hours for us to to put it all together. Allan Bosch 33:26 It's a. So here's what I can tell you how I've operated in the past. For what it's worth. I've and a couple of the ones I work with. They've actually, they've got pretty good documents already put together, but we are even with them. I'm gonna be doing some revisions to their documents, but my annual budget is 30,000. My cap and I've never exceeded that and that, you know, that's five years ago we started working with them so. But their documents were actually already in pretty good place. And some of their minute taking and some of their. Some of the process we've, we've tweaked them a little bit. Over the years and I've tried to get more involved because they have a tendency to do things and tell me later what they did, which is a little bit difficult trying to. Kind of redo what happened anyway, so I think this like I said put I think we put at least 30 grand in there, but I don't think we'll go to that. And if we get close, I'll definitely be saying guys, this is a lot more work than what. We anticipated and part of that will be with the DOI is response. Once we put something together. For them. I don't know if that's fair. I don't know what you guys want to do. I think it's pretty reasonable given what what I've seen some of the minutes I looked at what needs to be done for the DOI. Christena Barney 34:51 I would say I'm comfortable with that. Again, we don't have the ability to not do these things. They need to be done. Bill Nary 34:58 Right. Christena Barney 34:58 So we need to get the ship back on track and that's just maybe what it takes to do it. Bill Nary 35:06 Well, and we've had, you know, I mean again the whether that's good or bad really we haven't had a whole lot of expense into that area over the last five years and we need to sort of write that a little bit better differently and that's OK that's just. The way it is, so I think that's fair. So back on again, I guess the agenda. So yes, we do need a we do need a motion and a second and a vote to approve the letter of engagement with Allan. Christena Barney 35:36 To approve the letter of engagement with the $30,000 cap. Bill Nary 35:40 OK. Shawn Harper 35:44 Are per seconds. Bill Nary 35:46 OK. I've been moved and seconded all those in favor say aye. Aye. OK, so that I can approve that on the work and the work plan and all of those things. Shawn Harper 35:52 Aye. Bill Nary 35:59 How do we want to do that, Allen? Christina, I know again all of us are busy. How do we how do we want to handle that? You know we can volunteer. Alex or Eli? They're not here. But however you guys think we want to handle that, obviously, I don't see likely people. Randomly, all calling Allen randomly, but do we wanna have a funnel? Do we wanna have some direction? So at least Alan knows? Hey, you know if if I get a random question, I'm gonna go back to my contact point and say, hey, I got this question. Do you want to deal with that or not? I mean, how do how do? What works the best for you, Alan? Allan Bosch 36:36 So who's the primary liaison between the city and the trust? Christena Barney 36:42 Rebnd myself. Bill Nary 36:44 Primarily, yeah, I would say because because both Reba and Christina work in human resources. They they're the first point of contact. That's where the information funnels to they work directly with Gallagher. They again, I've done the presentations in the past of the Council. We've shifted over to Gallagher as our as our consultant to have them do the presentations. But. The primary contact with the city is both Reba and Christina 'cause. That's where the information goes to. That's the contact point for Gallagher, and that's where the information DOI goes to as well, so. Allan Bosch 37:24 So I'd imagine one of them would be probably the most logical end as a a point person for me to be in contact with, and obviously the board chair can always contact me. But in terms of somebody just your normal. Bill Nary 37:34 Sure. Allan Bosch 37:38 I can't say daily, but your your normal process, I would be going through your benefits liaison between the city and the and the trust on those types of things. Bill Nary 37:51 Christina, do you want to be the lead on that and with with Reba as they're kind of the secondary, the so the two of you? Christena Barney 37:51 So. Yeah. So I think the way I'd like to approach it is questions, concerns, updates can be routed to me, but CCU, bill is the chair and Reba so that she can help me fill in so it doesn't get bottlenecked in my e-mail. Bill Nary 38:11 Yep, sure. Allan Bosch 38:14 And I can do the same thing too. When I respond, I'll CC to both Bill and Doriba. That way, everybody's on the same page, so to speak. Christena Barney 38:16 OK. Bill Nary 38:21 Yep, that works. Christena Barney 38:22 Yep. Allan Bosch 38:24 And then right now if you can just forward me everything, I don't know what I have from the DOI, I'll have to go back and look at that file. But everything you have from the DOI any anything I have some of the minutes I remember reviewing some of the minutes but. It'd be a good place to get started. Bill Nary 38:40 Yeah. And I've been working with our with our paralegal here in legal and the clerk's office to have the recordings and the Minutes we do transcript minutes through the teams app. And so I've been copying those and and keeping those both in legal, but also having now a repository with the City clerk's office. Allan Bosch 38:53 Hmm. Bill Nary 39:02 So they're publicly available, so anybody can go look at her minutes. And so that we have both the Minutes that we approve. Which are based off of our agenda that Christina has been really great in and helping prepare monthly, but then we also have a transcript that I also save and give to the clerk's office so that there is another repository where that record is. And then we also. Have a video that we keep as well. So then we have that and I have been having a clerk's office save that as well so that they can reposit all of those those notices go through the clerk's office. The notices get on our public website. Right as well as posted in the building like public meeting requirements and then the Minutes and video get also saved by the clerk's office. So they're capturable later. So those are the kind of the things that the DOI was looking for. We've been trying to get that more cleaned up and consistent. Allan Bosch 39:55 OK. So in terms of the, I think we have the. I don't know if we've approved the the resolution on the contract, but. If we get it approved, we will be signing on behalf of the trust. What I wanted to do is fill in the blanks to get this thing all done effective one month. Bill Nary 40:07 Hey. Allan Bosch 40:11 Excuse me? Four, one, 2026 April, 130 Grand Cap and then. Bill Nary 40:13 Yeah. Yep. Allan Bosch 40:18 And I will probably have to have my boss, one of my bosses, sign on behalf of Gravis, and I'll but I'll get. I'll figure that out. 'cause get that taken care of and then I'll and Bill, I'll have your name here as chair of the board signing on. Bill Nary 40:24 OK. Yep. That's fine. Allan Bosch 40:32 Behalf of the trust, OK. Bill Nary 40:34 Yep, that's fine. Allan Bosch 40:36 And who's the trust secretary? I'm sorry, I don't. Christena Barney 40:40 Technically me. Bill Nary 40:40 By default it's become Christina. Allan Bosch 40:42 Christina, you are OK. OK. Well, I'll put you in there too then. Christena Barney 40:48 I think what I'll do for the trust records, Alan, is create a OneDrive file that I can share the link and that way anytime we have any documents that are updated you have full access to it. Allan Bosch 40:55 OK. OK. That's perfect. Christena Barney 41:02 OK. Bill Nary 41:02 That sounds great. Allan Bosch 41:05 So thank you guys. I appreciate the confidence and looking forward to working with you. Bill Nary 41:09 Thank you. Christena Barney 41:10 Thank you. Bill Nary 41:12 Any additional follow up then or I guess we obviously some work to do anything more we need to do today as part of our meeting? Christena Barney 41:22 I don't think so on that. Bill Nary 41:22 So I will. All right. I will confirm that the 28th. Again, payment of bills. Do we have any bills this month, Reva? I don't think we did. We have some. Reba White 41:32 We do. Yes, our audit bill came in. Bill Nary 41:33 OK. Reba White 41:37 So we have. From I. Bailey $15,100 for our 2025 financial audit. Bill Nary 41:49 OK. Reba White 41:50 And so we'll need that approved. Christena Barney 41:55 I'll make a motion to approve the bill from I. Bailey for the 2025 financial audit. Shawn Harper 42:03 Part per seconds. Bill Nary 42:06 All right. It's been moved and seconded to approve the audit bill of $15,100. All those in favor? Say aye, aye. Christena Barney 42:14 Aye. Shawn Harper 42:16 Hi. Bill Nary 42:18 Approved. All right, we're down to updates. Dan, is there any updates from Blue Cross? Christena Barney 42:24 Before we go there, Bill, there was additional follow up from the DOI letter. Bill Nary 42:25 Oh, sorry. Christena Barney 42:29 So we had the two additional findings 9 and 10 that we needed to talk through. Bill Nary 42:32 Oh. Oh, I'm sorry. I apologize. Christena Barney 42:36 That's OK. Let me pull those up real quick. I think they were sent out but. Reba White 42:46 I sent them out the day that I told you just forward to me. I'll give them to the team. Christena Barney 42:51 Yeah, and and that's that's part of the reason that that Mike is here is for the actuarial opinion piece of this so. Mike Stahl 43:00 Grant. Christena Barney 43:02 Of course, I'm not gonna be able to find them quickly. Mike Stahl 43:05 I I have him if you want me to pull them up real quick. Christena Barney 43:07 Oh, that would be great, Mike. Thank you. Mike Stahl 43:10 Cool, yeah. So I'll share my screen in a moment. 2nd. I mean now and you guys can see. Christena Barney 43:25 Yep. Reba White 43:25 I can see. Mike Stahl 43:29 So they sent 2 findings and also I guess take a step back. So from the IBNRI think the reason why I'm on this call. So I'm the actuary Gallagher. Nice to meet everyone. And so I'm the one that, you know, I run the IBNR analysis and sign off on it on an annual basis and they had some questions on the auditors, had some questions on the 2024, December IBNR. 1st starting with. The actuarial opinion. I think our stance initially was, you know. There is an implicit opinion when we send or sign off on IVR that this is our best estimate, but just to be 100% you know up to code we add some language here a couple different sections for natural opinion and just compliance with the Idaho Code. So going forward, you know, we'll add this to we already sent the 2025 IBNR, but we will refresh that too. So there's language in there. That you know. Will comply with what they want. So I think that's part one is that we did include that in an updated IBNR, then they include two more examination findings. So #9 was really with respect to the margin. And in our document, we had reflected 20% margin in there in a couple different places. But when they were calculating that the margin actually used in Ibrn was 10%. So just again to be consistent with the language and historicals, historically we had been using 20%. I just refreshed. That would be nine, such that the margin was capturing it correctly, that there was a slight. Slip up there. And then lastly examination 10. There was. A. A piece about administrative run out. Expenses for the reserve that. In some ibanears that explicitly show this and others. In our experience and how we set this that you know, we kinda just roll that up implicitly into the margin. But you know just again to be as clear and consistent as possible with what they were looking at, we add an additional line item here to include two. Months of run out fees such that you know that's another piece to bacon. I mean are so with all that said, there's three changes. The version two of the IBNR and we will send an update 2025 IBNR version two to capture these and go forward basis we'll be in including these adjustments as well. Reba White 46:28 And I I have submitted the updated to DOY. Christena Barney 46:30 Go ahead. Reba White 46:35 That was last Friday and I hadn't received a response, and so I was going to wait at least till tomorrow to give them a week to be able to review. And then but I I do think they are looking for our response to the findings before they tell us. That this is good. It's kind of the the cart before the horse type thing with them. Mike Stahl 46:54 OK. Reba White 46:58 So Mike, if if they do come back and say, you know we need additional added or something, I will follow up with you and let you know. But they just haven't said that this will suffice that finding. Mike Stahl 47:10 Right. Reba White 47:10 I think our our response to the finding will be just that we've made the changes that you requested. Do you accept that we move forward with this? Mike Stahl 47:22 Yeah, definitely. Let me know because I I think we were on standby for the update 2025 as well. So let us know what you hear and what we will, you know, chug forward accordingly if there's any additional adjustments to 2024, we'll we'll connect as well. Reba White 47:38 OK. Thank you. Mike Stahl 47:39 Yep. Christena Barney 47:39 To clarify, Mike, the changes that were made to IBNR was a formal opinion was included. Mike Stahl 47:46 Yeah, formal opinion included. Reba White 47:49 The margin. Mike Stahl 47:49 We adjusted the margin. Christena Barney 47:49 The OK. I just. Mike Stahl 47:52 And again, so the margin we had used 10%, but we just adjusted to 20% just to stay consistent with historical. And then lastly, including the administrative fee run up explicitly including that in the reserve. Christena Barney 48:01 OK. OK, perfect. Mike Stahl 48:10 Yeah. Bill Nary 48:15 Do we need any Council or board action then approval of that or is that? Don't think so, but I'm just asking. Christena Barney 48:24 No, Reba. Bill Nary 48:25 OK. Christena Barney 48:26 Reba will craft a letter that goes to DOI. Bill Nary 48:29 OK. Christena Barney 48:30 Send it out to the board just to have you guys have some eyes on it and then we'll send it over to them. Bill Nary 48:34 Yep. Awesome. Mike Stahl 48:38 OK. Great. Thanks guys. Christena Barney 48:39 Thank you. Reba White 48:40 Thank you, Mike. Christena Barney 48:40 Appreciate it. Mike Stahl 48:41 Yep. Bill Nary 48:41 Thank you, Mike. Appreciate it. Now we're up to updates. Dan, is there any Blue Cross update? Daniel Malloy 48:51 So you know, you were talking a little bit about your medical claims and how they're doing so far this year? So while we were on the call, I pulled up our reporting system just to kind of see what you look like the first three months of this year compared to 2025. So in 2025 through March. You were at 1.93 million in medical claims. January through March of 26, you're at 1.38, so you're 28.6% lower over all. On your medical claims than you were from the prior period and you're about 19% lower from that same period on your total medical and pharmacy spend. So you're always going to see ebbs and flows. It's just the nature. Bill Nary 49:35 Sure. Daniel Malloy 49:37 But. On the low side at this point and you're trending looks to be trending pretty good so far for this year. Your high cost claimants also are significantly lower than what they were. Last year, again so far in 2026. Bill Nary 49:55 Yeah. And I guess maybe my question more other than you know we I think we just briefly touched on that some of it is the cyclical nature of medical versus the dental and vision types of uses that the average consumer does. But do you see any trend differently, Dan? At least in the marketplace in that side. So on the medical side, not the not the user consumer, but on the medical side, you see a trend flattening on costs and those type. You see any of that on the horizon? Or is that too early to tell? Daniel Malloy 50:29 You know that's tough because the the risk that exists within every group is is completely different. It depends on the demographics. Bill Nary 50:36 Sure. Daniel Malloy 50:37 It depends on average age. It depends on just a lot of different factors. In general, no. Bill Nary 50:43 Sure. Daniel Malloy 50:45 I have groups that are trending significantly higher. I have groups that are they're trending lower. For City Meridian and your population right now, it's trending in the right direction. So those costs have come down. Bill Nary 50:57 OK. Daniel Malloy 50:59 You know you've put some safe falls in there too with Smart Chopper and some other other programs that are there to kind of help to curtail some of those costs too. But just in general, you're you're doing better as a population, at least so far in 26. Bill Nary 51:16 Yeah, unfortunately I had to have. I have to have a couple of of tests that I myself and I did go to smart shopper and unfortunately the particular ones I had weren't covered in smart shopper and I had to go to the one that was referred by the Doctor, which we're not. We're not. As free as I would like them to be. So, but it is what it is. So at least we tried, so that's OK. Daniel Malloy 51:37 Yes. So that was it for me. Bill Nary 51:42 OK. Thank you, Dan. I appreciate it. Mike, you have anything else from Gallagher? For the good of the group that we need to know about. Mike Stahl 51:51 No, I think that's it. I think that's it for me, so. Bill Nary 51:53 OK. All right. Any other than some of the things we talked about in this ongoing and and I guess we'll see where the Council lands on our discussion on April 28th to see what our next meeting topics are. Are we talking about renewals? Are we talking about RFP's? I guess we'll see. So anything else, go ahead. Yes. Reba White 52:15 Well. Daniel Malloy 52:15 Hey, Bill, I'm so sorry. One more thing to remember is is depending on what process you do decide if if you do move to another vendor, you will financially be starting over again so. Bill Nary 52:24 Right. 1000%. Daniel Malloy 52:33 Yes. Just so that that they that the Council understands that too. So you've really normalized at this point and you would start that process over? Bill Nary 52:46 Yeah, I I do think it. I think it will be helpful again from both Gallagher's perspective and maybe Alan's even if the Council has questions to understand. Again, I do think their mindset of some Council members are still in this fully funded perspective and we have some Council members that understand the self funding perspective and the values of each ones are different and what you're looking for is different. And you know, you are kind of picking your path. Then you you know, altering your path has consequences either way. Daniel Malloy 53:22 It does. And you know, the other thing that you can look at too is with your claims down 2627% for these first three months being self funded, that allows you to see those savings. Bill Nary 53:34 Brad. Daniel Malloy 53:35 Whereas if you were fully insured and you had a difficult year, those fees are fixed. So even if you have a good year, those premiums are going to be higher. Bill Nary 53:46 Yeah. And I and again the, I guess I I hopeful the Council can understand that the the need that we have and the shortfalls and the the make up. So we had to make it some of the costs and expenses were aberrations and and it is kind of right sizing the the plan and and all of those things. And again, yes, I we all recognize those of us that do this more often that. Those things don't happen four times or three times. Within a year on a fully funded plan. But it's just one big one at the end of the year. So it's just the difference in how they're done. But it's not like the the costs change greatly. And again, I think the mayor gets that. I think some Council. Members get that, so it's just reiterating that part of the the message of what we're doing and why we're doing it this way, so. Reba White 54:42 Before we close out, I know we only have a minute, but it was on the agenda to discuss the Benefits committee and the trust per DOI recommendations. So and maybe this isn't the greatest meeting because we don't have Eli or Alex to weigh in as well, but. DOI, essentially in their findings, has obviously said that we need need to establish more formal. Discussions in the trust meetings, obviously like minutes agendas, those types of things and. Experience reports financials, making sure that we're discussing it where it is intended to be discussed is pretty much their viewpoint as to the question that is the Benefits committee really the spot to have discussions about experience reports. I mean talking trust level items. Where 'cause right now, what we do is we have the Benefits Committee first in the month and we talk about our utilization. Is that the most appropriate place? Because then we come to the trust meeting and it's more of a synopsis, a summary rather than fully divulging the details at the trust level where they should be, the discussion should be had. And so DOI sort of recommended that we flop and we say. Majority of discussions will be had at the trust level and the flow down would be to then only provide the summary, the summarization, the important topics to the benefits committee. So I know, like I said, now we've lost, Sean. So it's probably gonna be a topic for next meeting, but. Bill Nary 56:30 Right. Christena Barney 56:32 Councillor. Bill Nary 56:33 Yeah. Yeah. Because we no longer have a quorum. Reba White 56:35 We will need to have that discussion. Bill Nary 56:36 We really can't have that discussion, but definitely we will add that to the discussion. Christena Barney 56:38 Yeah. Reba White 56:38 Correct. Bill Nary 56:41 I mean, I guess you know again just food for thought. I mean really, it really is just a timing issue, right? I mean, normally the way we've been doing these meetings is this meeting follows the Benefits Committee meeting. We could certainly flip this around and do it before the Benefits committee meeting. Too. I mean, I don't care. Reba White 57:00 Yeah. Bill Nary 57:00 I mean, that's that's certainly the easiest way to do it. Obviously we can talk about. We can talk about it at the Benefits Committee meeting. I don't think the Department of Insurance gets to tell us no, that we can't talk about it there. I think what they're concerned is, is that all the conversation occurs there and little conversation occurs here, right? Christena Barney 57:18 Mm-hmm. Bill Nary 57:19 That's really the issue which I I understand. Reba White 57:19 Correct. Bill Nary 57:22 I don't think. Historically, that's true, but whatever. That's fine. But again, we can talk about that in our next one and how we wanna remedy that. That's OK. Reba White 57:33 OK. Yeah, let's add it then. So we can hit the road at 12:01. Bill Nary 57:35 OK. Sounds good. I have nothing else good for the order and and Dan, just so you know and I appreciate all the comments you made about about the the different self funded and fully funded. So trust me, it's not you, it's us. So it's all good. Daniel Malloy 57:56 No, I'm here to help in any way that I can. Just if there's something that I can do, you let me know. Bill Nary 57:58 I know you are. Absolutely no. We appreciate you very much. Thank you. If there's nothing else, I guess we just need a motion to adjourn. Christena Barney 58:10 I'll make a motion to adjourn. Bill Nary 58:13 All those in favor say aye. We are adjourned at 12:02. Christena Barney 58:15 Bye. Reba White 58:19 Thank you all. Have a great day. Bill Nary 58:20 I don't think you guys are joining us. Allan Bosch 58:21 Thanks everybody. Thanks. Bill Nary 58:21 I appreciate it. Mike Stahl 58:22 Awesome. Thank you. Bill Nary 58:22 Thank you, Mike. Daniel Malloy 58:22 Thank you. Mike Stahl 58:24 All right. Christena Barney 58:25 Bye. Bill Nary stopped transcription