City Chooses Blue Cross
Mayor Taylor has announced that the city has chosen Blue Cross and Blue Shield as the city’s new medical insurance provider for city employees:
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oklahoma recently was selected through a competitive process to be the City of Tulsa’s health insurance provider, effective July 1, 2009. According to Mayor Kathy Taylor, City of Tulsa, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oklahoma was chosen because of “competitive and flexible benefits available to our diverse workforce.”
In particular, the City of Tulsa was attracted to Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oklahoma’s health and wellness programs, including implementation of new, on-site, free health care clinics for City employees and dependents.
“In addition to being the least expensive option for our employees, Blue Cross and Blue Shield also allows us to maintain important employee benefits and also expand benefits, such as on-site health clinics,” Taylor said. “Keeping the City’s and employees health care costs stable is important, particularly in these economic times.”
“We also are excited that OSU Medical College is a part of our program,” Taylor added Encouraging healthier lifestyles and making health care more accessible to our employees was a major point for us. “A healthier workforce contributes to increased productivity and a decrease in overall health care costs. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oklahoma’s health care programs not only encourage our employees to live healthier lives, but they also reward them for the healthy choices they make through the Blue PointsSM program.”
“We could not be more proud to welcome the City of Tulsa in to the Blue Cross and Blue Shield membership,” said Bert Marshall, president, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oklahoma. “As a major employer in Tulsa, we are dedicated to making a positive impact on the health care industry as well as on the city and throughout our state. We’re Oklahomans serving Oklahomans.”
The Mayor also sent out this email on the 17th announcing the change from long-time carrier, Community Care:
Exciting Healthcare Coverage News! Enrollment is May 1-30!!
I know that good, affordable healthcare coverage is important to you (and your family). Cities and companies across our state and nation are seeing increased costs not only in premiums but decreased benefits that cost employees money out of their pocket. To be sure we had the best product at an affordable cost, insurance companies were asked to submit competitive proposals this year. The initial proposals came in with increases of 10% -24% in costs for you and for the City. With the economy this year, we knew you didn’t want to see that kind of increase and neither did the City. Our goal was to keep costs as close as possible to current costs and not decrease benefits substantially. Also, employees have done such a great job this year with our new emphasis on health and wellness-we wanted to be able to encourage your good habits and provide opportunities for more!
I am happy to say thanks to the work of a great team-we have reached this goal!
The Blues-Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oklahoma (employing over 1,200 people in Tulsa alone!) will be our insurance partner effective July 1, 2009
What does this mean to you?
1. Family premiums will decrease. Individual premiums will be stable.
2. Deductibles will carry over from our existing carrier to our new insurance partner.
3. PPO plan design gives you more choices when it comes to choosing your healthcare provider throughout the state
4. NEW*.Health care clinics ON SITE at two city facilities three days a week for several hours each day
5. NEW Exciting additional health and wellness programs and initiatives, allowing you to earn points for engaging in healthy activities-points can be redeemed for things like Nintendo Wii Fit or various retail gift cards!
6. Zero deductible for prescriptions
7. A national network of providers that will ensure coverage for employees with out-of-state dependents
8. One plan-three service options providing flexible choices at the time service is given
9. Emergency/urgent care coverage while traveling out of state or abroad through the BlueCard(sm) Program
10. A GREAT website with lots of information about the plan and tips on health and wellness (Visit it today at www.bcbsok.com)
11. And a lot more information to come with your April 30 paycheckThe City of Tulsa employee Health Fair will be in May and Blue Cross will help us make it the BEST ever, with online access and extended hours to make it more convenient for you and your family to participate in health assessments!
If you have questions-send them to communicationdept@cityoftulsa.org under subject: Healthcare coverage, and we will post answers to the frequently asked questions on the Intranet. In the coming weeks, we will bring more information directly to you.
We are excited to partner with a top rated company financially, a company that values and supports your health—-and will be a great partner for Tulsa. We think you will be pleased too. We are most happy to have been able to ensure that our employees did not have to increase their out-of-pocket costs to maintain important health care benefits.
Thanks for being a part of the Tulsa team!
Sincerely,
Kathy Taylor
Mayor
While I’ve never had issues with Community Care, I welcome this change of pace. I’m wondering if the recent controversy with Community Care and the Hillcrest network influenced the decision to change providers.
As is in my nature, I became curious as to the bidding process and began navigating the dense and confusing jungle known as the City of Tulsa Purchasing web site. I finally found on this page what I believe to be documentation of last year’s bidding process and have provided documentation links below.
These appear to be the pricing bids from last year. (doc) Since that is a word doc and some people have a hard time with those, I’ve made it into a Google document that can be viewed in your browser.
There are also various pdf files associated with the same pricing document.
I’ll comment more on this a bit later, and when I find copies of this year’s bidding process, I’ll post those, as well.
In the meantime, I thank Mayor Taylor for her and HR’s efforts at getting us the best value possible, and I have full faith that the resulting employee-paid premiums will be as low as possible, although I fully expect the out of pocket expense to be higher. I only say this, because history has shown this to always be the case. 
