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September 29, 2003
Room 302
State Capitol
Cheyenne, Wyoming
Senator Cale Case, Chairman;
Senators Irene Devin and Mike Massie;
Representatives Elaine Harvey and Phil Nicholas.
John Rivera, Senior Staff Attorney.
Please refer to Appendix 1 to review the Committee Sign-in Sheet for a list of other individuals who attended the meeting.
Senator John Schiffer;
Representative Larry Meuli.
All meeting materials and handouts provided to the Subcommittee by the Legislative Service Office (LSO), public officials, lobbyists, and the public are referenced in the Meeting Materials Index, attached to the minutes. These materials are on file at the LSO and are part of the official record of the meeting.
Chairman Case called the meeting to order at 2:00 p.m.. The following sections summarize the Subcommittee proceedings by topic.
Chairman Case explained the purpose of the meeting was to receive the draft final report from Buck Consultants, Inc., and to make recommendations with respect to the draft report before accepting the final report for distribution as required by the enabling legislation.
Mr. Christopher Hulla and Ms. Lisa Ramirez, Buck Consultants, Inc. (Buck), distributed Appendix 2, copies of the draft final report, to Subcommittee members. Mr. Hulla explained the changes incorporated into the draft final report pursuant to recommendations made by the Joint Subcommittee at its meeting on September 17, 2003. He also explained the addition of final data in appendices A and D of the report.
Mr. Hulla stated that Wyoming benefits with respect to health care for state employees is similar to most other surrounding states. If Colorado enacts proposed legislation to increase its health care subsidy to state employees, all states in the region will also have somewhat comparable healthcare benefits. Wyoming would probably not benefit significantly by implementing consumer-driven health care options beyond what has already been implemented because there is no provider competition nor a significant health maintenance organization (HMO) infrastructure in Wyoming.
The five study questions addressed by Buck were discussed along with the conclusions reached by Buck on those questions (see Appendix 2, pages 23-24).
Wyoming does provide a slightly more liberal retirement benefit package than surrounding states do for state employees and the retirement benefits are significantly more liberal when compared to private employers in the state, but that is a function of Wyoming being a state with many smaller employers who cannot afford to provide more benefits. Buck did not have data with respect to private employers' retirement contributions, but is working with Mr. Tom Mann, Director, Wyoming Retirement System, to obtain that data and will provide the data in an appendix to the report when it becomes available.
Chairman Case asked Mr. Hulla to address questions posed by Representative Meuli with respect to any validation that efforts made by Great-West Insurance, as the third party plan administrator of the state employees' group insurance, to implement consumer-driven health care practices were actually working and cost-effective. Mr. Hulla replied that the data is not conclusive, so the projections are theoretical at best. Great-West does provide statistics regarding its programs from which it is possible to draw some conclusions. Chairman Case asked Buck to insert a statement in the final report identifying who, Great-West or the State, drives case management decisions.
Mr. Brian Foster, Administrator, Department of Administration and Information, Human Resources Division, advised that the state also contracts with the Siegel Company to evaluate Great-West's plan administration. Senator Devin expressed concern that the same plan administrator and the same evaluator have been used since she has been in the Legislature and perhaps it is time for contracting with a new evaluator to determine if the plan administrator is efficient and effective in its efforts.
As the Joint Subcommittee reviewed the draft final report page by page, suggestions were made to add, perhaps to Appendix A, Definitions, a separate page containing an explanation of the acronyms used in the report. Various graphs in the report were discussed and recommendations made to clarify the data in those graphs.
Public Comment
Chairman Case called for public comment on the report.
Mr. Bob Kuchera, Wyoming Public Employees Association (WPEA), suggested the graph on page C-13 needed an explanation of classified and unclassified employees. Chairman Case agreed that clarification would be helpful to understand the information in the graph.
Mr. Dennis Smyth, WPEA, added that he would like to see the report uniformly report median incomes for state employees in Wyoming and other states.
Mr. Rick Miller, University of Wyoming, and Mr. Jack Bottenfield, Eastern Wyoming Community College, expressed concern that the report did not adequately explain that university and community college personnel have health care benefit packages that are different from the benefits other state employees have. Mr. Miller will work with Buck to include language explaining the differences.
Committee Vote on Draft Final Report
Senator Devin moved, seconded by Senator Massie to accept the draft final report from Buck Consultants' Inc., with the revisions requested by the Joint Subcommittee, for distribution to the Legislature as required by the enabling legislation. After clarification that acceptance of the report does not necessarily include endorsement of the recommendations contained in the report, but merely means that the Joint Subcommittee, by accepting the report, is acknowledging that Buck Consultants, Inc. has performed its duties as outlined in the contract between the Legislative Service Office and Buck Consultants, Inc., the motion carried on a unanimous roll call vote of the members present.
Chairman Case thanked Mr. Hulla and Ms. Ramirez and others who helped provide information necessary for completion of the report for their efforts.
After discussion whether the charge of the Joint Subcommittee included proposing legislation, members agreed that the final report should first be distributed for further consideration by other members of the Legislature and the relevant interim committees to determine if legislation should be drafted for the next legislative session.
There being no further business, Chairman Case adjourned the meeting at 4:05 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Senator Cale Case, Chairman