The Mount Vernon City Council approved during its May 11 meeting a health insurance plan renewal that included a dental insurance plan change and the replacement of its sick time donation bank with a long-term disability policy.
The council's decision affects employee benefits, including changes to dental coverage and disability policies. The move is intended to address management issues with the previous sick time donation system and provide employees with new options for disability coverage.
"I think the biggest change is over the last couple years we had adopted a sick time donation bank. You see that in a lot of schools and various government entities, where ... after you've exhausted certain PTO, you can donate your sick time to fellow employees," said Safety Service Director Tanner Salyers. "That became sort of a management issue for us and we decided that it was probably better if we went ahead and invested in our employees for a long-term disability policy. For very little money the city can offer its employees a long-term disability policy. The employees can opt into a short-term disability if they choose to do so for pennies on the dollar," according to a video recording of the meeting.
Another change involved dropping Ameritas as the city's dental insurance carrier in favor of Delta Dental, which Salyers said would result in savings for the city. He noted that many manufacturers, organizations, and local dentists use Delta Dental. The city will continue using Medical Mutual of Ohio as its health insurance provider and EyeMed of Mason, Ohio, as its vision carrier.
According to Human Resources Director Elizabeth Turner, an employee survey on health benefits was sent out prior to these decisions. She reported receiving 85 responses from among 185 insured employees out of 236 total staff members. Salyers said there was broad agreement among respondents regarding the switch from Ameritas to Delta Dental.
Salyers also said that the city is currently in an unusual 17-month benefit cycle due to mismatched fiscal and benefit periods in previous years. This required additional appropriations as premiums increased. The city is working with its benefits broker McGohan Brabender to better align cycles moving forward.
