John Coffelt, Editor

In recent meetings, a majority of the Manchester Board of Aldermen had expressed concerns, or moreover dissatisfaction, with the insurance plans offered to city employees.

The insurance broker has addressed some of those concerns with employee consultations and a representative recently spoke to the Finance Committee at the March 13 meeting. 

Chelsy Campbell Vice President of Benefits at Lester, Greene, McCord & Thoma Insurance explained at that meeting that there were several issues causing the problems, but as a whole she didn’t know how widespread the problems were. There were three issues that made up 85% of the problems employees were having.

One heath care provider in Murfreesboro didn’t want to take the Lucent Health claims. A second concerned the prescription plan and a third was a delay in the way the city payments were transferred.

“We want to make sure the employees have not spent a single penny over what they were told they were going to spend,” Campbell told the committee.

Campbell said that conferences with employees, the finance department and city leaders have brought resolution to some of the employee issues.

“In a lot of the situations, the doctors or physician facilities were not filing with the second insurance,” Campbell said. “When we reached out and started researching the claim, we saw the provider hadn’t even filed with the secondary insurance,” she said.

“Even though we met with every single employee when we implemented the plan and told them how to use the plan, sometimes it just takes multiple times for them to really understand that,” Campbell said.

Campbell asked the committee to reach out to her if there are any issues that need to be addressed.

“We are here to help. I’m here in Coffee County. I don’t want a blemish on my reputation or my agency’s reputation without knowing there is an issue,” she said.

At the meeting, Finance Director Lisa Myers noted that claims have been coming in more than previously. She was optimistic that employees are making sure that providers are filing the Lucent claims.

“It looks like some catch-up is being done there,” she said.

Campbell said that the new plan saved $95,000 over the last year. She said that 12 employees have met out of pocket their out of pocket maximum, which is $2,000 less than the former state plan.

“I think (the issue) was education and several things that snowballed…and were fixing them,” she said.

John has been with the Manchester Times since May 2011. John has won Tennessee Press Association awards for Best News Photo and placed in numerous other categories. John is a 1994 graduate of Tullahoma High School, a graduate of Motlow State Community College and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Middle Tennessee State University. He lives in Tullahoma, enjoys painting, dancing and exploring the outdoors.