Busy Couple of Weeks, Eh?

Here's a quick timeline of what has been happening:

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009
--Met with Mayor Peter Corroon, Deputy Mayor, Nicole Dunn, Administrative Services, April Townsend, Mayor's Office, Doug Willmore. Discussed looming health insurance increase. The Mayors Office anticipated a 35% to 42% increase due to higher utilization.

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010
--UPEA held meeting to update Public Works Employees on health care options proposed by PEHP.

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010
--UPEA and one other local labor organization met with Administrative Services regarding latest health insurance proposal. UPEA raised concerns about future increases in light of a 2.75% reduction in pay and suspension of 401(k) benefits. Employee Representative, Todd Sutton, scheduled more time with Administrative Services.
--Council Member, Jenny Wilson, raised concerns, on behalf of employees, to the insurance proposal.
--UPEA begins planning retirement rally with Utah Education Association, Utah School Employees Association and the Federation of Police.

Friday, January 15th, 2010
--UPEA Employee Representative, Todd Sutton, met with Illene Rhodes, Benefits Coordinator for SLCo to discuss proposed PEHP benefit changes. UPEA drafted the following letter based on that meeting:
__________________________________________________________
Honorable Council Member
2001 South State Street #N2200
Salt Lake City, UT 84190-3050

Dear Council Member,

Thank you for giving UPEA members time to consider changes to the Public Employee Health Plan. The inclusion of labor groups has been beneficial to both members and, hopefully, Administrative Services. The recommendations in this letter are respectfully submitted on behalf of Salt Lake County employees to promote responsibility in health care and to lessen costs that are within employees’ control.

In light of recent discussions about the health insurance, two themes have resounded about this year’s benefit modifications and premium increases:
1. Administrative Services would like more time to educate employees on how their behaviors drive health care costs; and
2. PEHP would like to expose employees to the realities of health care costs in order to affect utilization.

While discussing these issues, UPEA has made an effort to understand how each benefit modification will affect utilization. Overall, there is very little information available to determine whether or not we are making wise benefit changes to mitigate rising utilization rates. We, however, cannot disagree that employees need more education about their health care.

The association believes that the process for educating employees about their health care should be year-long campaign, rather than a rush during open enrollment. Some of the health care costs are driven by behaviors that employees can control if given the chance. For these reasons, UPEA respectfully offers the following suggestions for consideration:

1. Draw down the reserves (if possible) to lessen the 13.3% premium increase for employees pending a year-long education campaign
2. Set a realistic goal for utilization during the 2010 plan year and then implement an education campaign to encourage employees to stay within that goal. This goal should be based on a combination of
a. Level of utilization that is sustainable
b. Level of utilization that can be attained by changing behaviors such as use of emergency care
3. Allow employees to see monthly utilization reports (within HIPPA standards) and give them the opportunity to understand the correlation between health care use and rising premiums
4. Forecast next year’s premium increase based on current quarter’s utilization and educate employees each quarter
5. Emphasize preventative care and Healthy Lifestyles

We believe, if given the chance, employees can work with Salt Lake County to better manage soaring health care costs.

Sincerely,
Todd Sutton
UPEA Employee Representative
________________________________________________________________

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010
--UPEA met with 30 employees at the health department to discuss the proposed health care increase and changes to the retirement system. Employees approved UPEA's letter to the council.
--UPEA submitted draft letter to the Council Chair, Joseph Hatch.

Friday, January 22nd, 2010
--UPEA Employee Representative, Todd Sutton, met with 40 Public Works employees during the lunch hour to discuss proposed retirement changes and the proposed health care increase. Many employees were unaware of the changes and agreed to support UPEA at a retirement rally and within the county.
--UPEA begins e-mailing its members to attend the Retirement Rally on Feb. 6th.

Monday, January 25th, 2010
--The legislative session begins. Lawmakers begin drafting legislation that affects all public employees. Sen. Dan Liljenquist, R-Bountiful, releases three retirement bills.
--UPEA distributed letter proposing a reduction in the 13.3% premium increase to the County Council members.

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
--Employee Representative, Todd Sutton, met with County Council Chair, Joseph Hatch to discuss the health care letter. Hatch was in favor of UPEA's proposal to draw down the county's health care reserves if this year's premium increase was a one-time event.
--Council convened and discussed health care, but postponed a decision until next week.

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010
--Employee Representatives, Todd Sutton and Christy Cushing, met with members of the Governor's Government Optimization Committee to discuss proposal for changing the retirement system. UPEA defended the pension system while legislators lauded the benefits of a 401(k) retirement plan. The 401(k) plans, on average, have not performed as well as our pension over a long stretch of time.

Monday, February 1st, 2010
--Employee Representative, Todd Sutton, met with 20 employees at the County Landfill. We discussed the retirement rally and the proposed health care changes.

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010
--The County Council convened to discuss health care. One of the options they discussed was eliminating the Preferred Plan. UPEA opposed eliminating preferred unless PEHP could show that their would be no further reductions in benefits AND employees were given ample time to switch between the two plans. All things being equal, the County opted to reduce the 13.3% premium increase by 8.3%, leaving employees with a 5% increase. They will begin eliminating the Preferred Plan for the 2011 plan year.

UPEA will continue to work on health care to ensure that employees' needs are addressed by the County.

Saturday, February 6th, 2010
RETIREMENT RALLY!!!

Over 4,000 employees demonstrated for a slow approach to retirement changes. Current proposals call for a complete overhaul of the retirement system without considering the impacts of the overhaul or other options. In fact, the current proposals are based on two public meetings and one single assessment of the system. Our retirement system has taken over 50 years to build and they want to overhaul it with two meetings!

Our work is not done. Our work is far from done.