Gilmer Board of Commissioners Approve New Medical Benefits

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Gilmer County, GA – In a special called meeting on April 29, 2015, after conferring with Matt Bidwell, a representative from MSI Benefits, and local citizens attending the meeting, the Gilmer County Board of Commissioners approved the renewal of the county medical benefits plan for all county employees.The new benefit will take effect on July 1, 2015 through December of 2015, at which point the Commissioners will renew for a full year plan.
The new medical plan at base cost maintains the $53.09 bi-weekly deductions but increases the annual deductible to $3,500.00 with a max out-of-pocket expense of $6,600.00 of in-network expenses. However, Bidwell says that any current deductibles paid will carry over into this new plan to finish the year and your pharmacy co-pays will now count towards the maximum out-of-pocket expense.
The percentage-to-know, however, arose as the Board was informed that 4.68% of the increase in medical benefits cost came from the Affordable Care Act enacted by the Federal Government.
With the new plan, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia will be providing free Biometric Screenings to the County for enrolled employees. While this is not a complete physical, it does provide many of the health scans and tests to check for early warning signs with issues such as cholesterol, high blood pressure, and similar problems.
Further into the plan, you will find additional wellness programs provided to the county employees such as Live Health Online, an app that provides live video appointments with doctors through any camera enabled laptop or tablet with a $25 co-pay. These doctors are also authorized to write prescriptions, vastly decreasing the need to drive into town and spend time waiting for an appointment with smaller health issues such as colds.
Another program will offer online health risk assessments that offer treatment and coaching plans and will offer gift cards upon completion of these plans.
In addition to the wellness plans, Director of Human Resources, Diane Johnson encouraged employees to contact her with major questions about their health insurance saying, “If you have a holy-cow moment, bring it to me.” This was in response to an employee’s question about how to find out where certain procedures could be performed to be covered under the plan.
The Director also said there could be a possibility of an education system to teach people how to navigate the ins and outs of their health insurance programs.

Story by Lonnie Adams

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