At a meeting on Monday, Human Resources (HR) staff reported the 2025 changes to Thurston County employee benefits to the Board of County Commissioners (BoCC).
Compensation and Benefits Manager Tara Wickline explained the information on medical benefits rate changes and her department's recommendations for the 2025 Standard Medical Plan to the board.
The 2025 Thurston County Employee Benefits Open Enrollment is from October 28 to November 25.
Employees elect various benefit plans that the county offers, ranging from medical, dental, and flexible spending accounts, among others.
The HR department annually reviews new insurance premiums in line with the rate-setting processes and makes recommendations to the Board.
“Essentially, when HR receives the new benefit premium amounts each year from the carriers, we go through an exercise, and we look at several different factors when determining what to bring forth to the board,” said Wickline.
The recommendation is based on various factors: cost of premium increases, impact on employees, recruitment and retention, and impact on budget.
The agenda document stated that the county pays the full premium for employee-only coverage for all standard plans, and employees who enroll in nonstandard plans have to pay the premium difference.
The highest standard plan is the most expensive standard plan, which will be the most the county will pay.
The county offers 11 different medical plans, but 75% of county employees are covered under two plans— Uniform Medical Plan (UMP) Classic with 62% enrollments, followed by Kaiser Washington (WA) Classic with 13%.
For 2025, the most utilized plans have changes to their premium rates. UMP Classic will increase by 7%, and Kaiser WA Classic will decrease by -4.3%.
The current highest standard plan, UMP Plus, will increase by 11.7%.
Next year’s highest Standard Plan options are UMP Select and Kaiser WA Value Plan.
Of the two options for the Standard Plan for Medical Benefits, HR recommended the Kaiser WA Value Plan.
The first option, the Kaiser WA Value Plan, would amount to $31,213 with a $14,358 impact on the general fund on the 2025 increase.
The second option, the Uniform Select Plan, would decrease the expense to $13,310 but share more of the increase with employees. It impacts roughly -$6,123 to the general fund.
“What we are recommending is that the board adopt the Kaiser WA Value Plan as the highest standard plan for 2025, at the least amount of impact to a majority of employees, there's a relatively small impact to the budget, and the county continues to offer excellent affordable benefits that definitely helps with our recruitment and our retention,” said Wickline.
County employees are covered by two vision plans—the vision plan included as a benefit in all medical plans and a stand-alone vision plan with Washington Counties Insurance Fund (WCIF).
The Public Employees Benefits Board will no longer provide a vision benefit in any medical plan, effective January 1, 2025.
HR says there is an option that maintains the same level of coverage for employees by purchasing additional coverage through the WCIF.
HR recommended moving the Extended Vision Plan with WCIF, with a $45,251 impact on the budget and roughly $20,815 to the general fund.
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