Kris Miller
Hiawatha World
The Brown County commissioners discussed health plan incentives for Brown County employees during Monday’s morning meeting.
Health insurance incentives discussed
Commissioner Richard Lehmkuhl mentioned the idea of incentives–such as gift card awards–for employees to participate in programs related to disease control and wellness if anyone was covered under a Brown County health plan. Brown County Attorney Kevin Hill agreed that incentives could be offered. Commissioner Lamar Shoemaker also commented that incentives would be a good idea due to health insurance rates rising.
Watko Benefit Group representative Jessica Hawkins appeared at the meeting through a Zoom call to discuss health incentives with the commissioners.
Commissioner Shoemaker asked if it was possible for employees to be rewarded for completing both physical and dental exams.
“If they can bring in proof of both to the office or to payroll and then they can just be issued a gift card upon completion of these two items,” Shoemaker inquired. “And that shouldn’t cause an issue with privacy and anything else, we can do it that way, correct?”
“Correct, yes,” Hawkins answered.
Shoemaker also asked if the second part of the health plan could involve a disease management or wellness program and asked if the Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurance company could monitor the program and let the county know about program completion so employees could be rewarded a gift card.
Hawkins confirmed that monitoring was possible to check out employee engagement. She elaborated that there were ways the programs could be monitored. Shoemaker said it would be the first time the county is implementing the incentive program and Hawkins agreed it was a good idea as opposed to using an honor system. She also added that Watko could supply the form that employees would need to fill out and to sign on, and to have doctors sign. She also advised not to put in a long time frame for the incentive participation due to some employees needing more health-related help compared to others.
When Commissioner Lehmkuhl asked if the incentives could be applied after open enrollment, Hawkins confirmed that employees could receive information about the open incentives.
“As long as its communicated before January 1st, then that’s sufficient,” Hawkins explained. “Because we’re not really going to have anyone put anything in place before then.”
Hawkins advised that a good plan was needed before communicating what the official health plan is. The Watko representative said that she would do more research with Blue Cross and Blue Shield about engagement and if they had recommendations. Hawkins also said she would share the employee forms with the commission and move towards finalization. More information would be sent over to the commissioners regarding health plan and incentive information.
Other items of discussion
• The commissioners approved a property use agreement for Christmas lighting at the Brown County Courthouse square on Saturday, Nov. 30.
• The commissioners also approved a property use agreement for TUBAChristmas to take place at the courthouse on Sat., Dec. 14.
• The commission will meet again on Wednesday, Nov. 27 due to the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.
