The Hamblen County Commission is infusing $600,000 to the self insurance fund to help fight against a rising deficit.

The county currently has a self insured plan with Blue Cross Blue Shield which makes the county the entity at risk and is in charge of paying bills and collecting premiums.

Hamblen County Bill Brittain explained the need for the additional money and the county’s current insurance plan.

“The difference between fully insured and self insured, is when we were fully insured Blue Cross and Blue Shield took all the risk and all the money,” Brittain said, “What we learned over 5 to 6 years of being fully insured is that Blue Cross and Blue Shield was keeping a lot of our money. After realizing that, we were able to stabilize and increase our insurance premiums by 5% to 6% each year.”

“The county converted from a fully insured to a self insured plan in 2013 and we started that with a reserve of $764,000 in our Health plan’s bucket. Since 2020 claims have exceeded our revenue, or premiums being paid in and the largest being this year. The county pays 100% of employee’s health insurance premiums and about 85% of dependent coverage.”

“We anticipate the claims will exceed our premiums by a million dollars. Our premiums have not increased since 2013, although we did have to infuse $260,000 to the plan earlier this year to beef it up. We need to put some more money in the plan because of the increase in premiums.”

Brittain explained the reasoning behind the high claims.

“The cause of the deficit have been due to high claims from cancer patients, dialysis and heart conditions,” Brittain said. “We have seen a large increase in Pharmacy claims. Our Pharmacy claims over the last year have increased 34% and we are projecting them to be $1.4 million dollars.”

Howell asked if the amount would cover the costs for the entire year or would the commission need to approve more. Brittain answered that it would finish them out for the year.

Commissioner Doty questioned if the $600,000 would be completely used or would some be left over.

“Our goal is to finish the year with at least $500,000 left over.”

The vote was unanimous to approve the infusion of $600,000 to the self insurance fund.

The commission voted to approve the eleventh change order for the Justice Center project costing $104,345.

The change order includes $28,000 to add a four drains to sally port roof, $5,700 to add floor drains to two housing units, $44,000 to add floor drains to all six recreational units and $10,000 to add geofoam blocks to the void area under a flight of stairs.

Commissioners Mike Reed, Kyle Walker and Edna Greene voted against the change order.

The commission voted to approve a grant that will establish a mental health court in Hamblen County.

The idea to create a mental court in the county comes after the current Recovery Court was approached by the state to establish the new court.

The finance committee approved the grant at its meeting last week after asking several questions about how it would run.

Penny Knight, Recovery Court coordinator, explained that the court will be totally grant funded and it will serve felony and misdemeanor general session courts and will hopefully be up and running in the next 120 days.

Hamblen County Mayor Bill Brittain recommended the approval and explained the importance of the court.

“I recommend you all accept this grant. Mental health is something we should be focused on. I see it in the Jail To Work program where I meet the participants and hear stories about how their trauma has caused their addiction. There are not enough mental health services and this is the state working to help people get help and care,” he said.

Commissioner Peggy Howell questioned if there was a similar program already set up for inmates in the Hamblen County Jail.

“I am all about having this court, but I’m wondering if we have a program in jail for inmates with mental health struggles,” Howell asked.

“As far as a thorough mental health treatment program we do not have the room to do that in our current facility, but we would have room in the new justice center,” Brittain said. “We do have, as part of our contract with our mental health provider, some hours for telehealth with a mental health provider.”

“Our goal when we move to the new facility is to start drug treatment and mental health treatment while in jail.”