While communities across the state are moving forward with plans to modify health insurance plans in order to manage costs, the Executive Office for Administration and Finance is accepting comments on emergency regulations it issued governing two aspects of the Municipal Health Insurance Reform Act.

The law charged A&F with promulgating regulations outlining administrative procedures for the expedited negotiations that will occur between municipalities and employee unions over changes to health insurance plans, and for the process to be followed by a municipal health insurance review panel if the matter is not resolved during the expedited negotiations.

The emergency regulations, issued on Aug. 12, expire after 90 days, at which point A&F will issue permanent regulations. Comments are being accepted through Oct. 10 and should be sent to A&F staff at MunicipalHealth@state.ma.us. The MMA is asking local officials to send a copy of their comments to mdevine@mma.org as well.

So far, nine communities have accepted the local-option statute in order to either modify their health insurance plans or enter the state’s Group Insurance Commission, and many more communities are crunching the numbers and exploring their options.

For some communities, such as Medford and Revere, just having the leverage of the new law (Ch. 69 of the Acts of 2011) allowed local leaders to reach a compromise with employees through traditional collective bargaining.

Arlington was the first community to reach an agreement under the new law. The town will be enrolling municipal employees in the GIC and will create an Employee Health Care Mitigation Fund, depositing $1 million of the first year’s savings in the account. The mitigation fund will be used to pay for the Medicare Part B subsidy for retirees and pay some out-of-pocket expenses for those with a high health care usage.

Once Chapter 69 was signed into law on July 12, the city of Gardner voted almost immediately to adopt the option in order to make plan design changes that could save an estimated $803,000 in the first year. Gardner actually started its process before Administration and Finance issued the emergency regulations, so the city has requested a waiver from A&F.

“The city of Gardner has moved quickly in order to take advantage of as much of the cost-savings as possible for fiscal 2012,” said Mayor Mark Hawke. “In these austere financial times, the City Council and I are looking to save every taxpayer dollar that we can.”

On Sept. 14, the city met with its Insurance Advisory Commission to explain the new law and the need to establish a Public Employee Commission. On Sept. 15, the city informed local unions and retiree representatives of the need to establish a PEC, which met for the first time on Sept. 22. The meeting kicked off the 30-day expedited negotiation period.

The MMA is tracking how communities are using the new local-option statute. To share what’s happening in your community, contact Megan Devine at (617) 426-7272 or mdevine@mma.org.

Download municipal health reform final emergency regulations (92K Word)
 

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