Starke Commissioners Receive Insurance Quotes; Take Matter Under Advisement

 
 
The Starke County Commissioners Thursday morning received quotes from First Source Insurance, and according to Commissioner Kathy Norem, the insurance company presented renewal quotes from Signa as well as quotes from other companies for comparison purposes. Norem said the commissioners took the insurance information under advisement to review them, but she said the commissioners did request more information from the company as well.

Norem said the commissioners asked First Source Insurance to go back to Signa and request a second quote with changes in coverages. Some of the changes requested, Norem explained, involved an increase in the co-pay for employees who visit the emergency room; currently, employees only pay $100 and the commissioners requested an increase to $250. Also, other changes they looked at included a drop in co-insurance, currently at 80 percent. The commissioners asked them to drop it to 70 percent. The out-of-network coinsurance is currently 60 percent and the commissioners also asked for that to be reduced to 50 percent.

Norem emphasized that the commissioners did not make a decision at the meeting, and only requested for those changes to be made to allow them to compare the quotes apples-to-apples. Norem said she expects the commissioners to make a decision on Oct. 21 with the new information.