Remarks by Bob Ellis
208 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 9
- Play at 35:03
“I'd like to ask the folks from Winship to come on down and join us.”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 35:22
“I'm so pleased to recognize Winship, and I'm gonna share this proclamation, and then I'll just share a couple of comments here at the end, in terms of why this has a special place for me. Whereas September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, observed each year by health advocates and individuals concerned with men's prostate health and prostate cancer, and whereas about one in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime, and about one in 44 men will die of prostate cancer, and whereas certain men face higher risk, including black men and those with a first-degree…”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 1:35:30
“Just real quick point of clarification. That's just for Anthem?”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 1:57:05
“Thank you. You kind of got at one of my questions, and that was just in terms of plan design on the out-of-pocket. These changes would put us more in line with kind of what the comparable folks are. So we've been on the low end. And sort of in the same vein, too, POS, HSA, and HMO, all those, we sort of got it sort of at the same, you know, premium change things, but is the experience in the HSA plan specifically been you know, as bad as any others, or are we blending these together just for practical purposes?”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 1:58:23
“I guess, you know, our delta on that, I mean, I guess just sort of thinking about it, you know, in terms of you want to have stuff structured so that, you know, you're potentially incenting people to consider, you know, kind of, you know, plans where they take a little bit more risk and, you know, more actively manage it, right? So I guess in terms of this, Is this a typical approach in terms of just where you would treat all this sort of the same versus create a degree of distinguishment between HSA versus the other structures?”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 1:59:27
“So right now we're potentially, participants in the HSA may be subsidizing some of the costs. Absolutely, yes, sir. Yeah, right now they're in some costs. That's basically where I'm getting at. And then on, you mentioned this Humana plan and taking advantage of that and all that. Is that built into kind of all of the figures that you showed us, or is that something that's not factored into? I'm not quite sure.”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:00:00
“And the overall thing, if I go back to kind of this, you know, kind of overall pick. Oh, yes, it is. Yes, sir. It's included in that. Yeah. So that's not something that...”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:00:13
“Okay. The concept of pulling an RFP, approaching these folks about some of these options for getting at some of the things that you said, and I guess there are probably some real practical pieces to this too, right? Because of that And those cost driver pieces of it, you're at, significant portion of this is chronic, chronic or critical, right? 60% of the cost associated with things.”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:01:00
“Right, I know, right. But it lends itself to some of these programs, right, in terms of just... It could, yes, sir. If you're on the same type of, you know, prescription stuff, being able to extract discounts off of that, or material cost in it, right? So I guess my question is, how quickly can we get this out? And let's say we find something, and we... see that there are benefits to that. How do we, when can those potentially be realized and can there be some adjustment midstream or is this a future look kind of thing that only gonna come in in 2027.”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:02:27
“Okay, I guess maybe I'm going to answer my question. If we do this, we run it, we implement something, let's say, you know, in the first quarter.”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:02:35
“Right? We start to see some degree of benefit from that.”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:02:53
“Do we need Amana to answer that? I mean, do we need Anthem to answer that question?”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:03:01
“That's our decision, right? I think that's our decision. We're controlling that cost. Yeah. Right. Well, I mean, I think we aggressively need to do this. I mean, if I'm looking at that, then I know you highlighted, well, you highlighted clearly the medical trends, you know, that those pharmaceutical costs are pretty persistent, right?”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:03:30
“Those are pieces, and if I looked at that, it looked like that's like a 11, 12% trend on pharmaceutical costs, which have been like this too, right? And it seems to be from looking at a lot of these programs that are out there, that's where a lot of times the more quicker realization of cost savings rest. Is that a fair statement?”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:04:25
“okay and then like we're you know is there anything in there where like let's say you know that's different like our top 10 20 claims are outsizing sort of impact on cost is that is there anything that's indicative of that in terms of either this year's trend or just historically, right? Are we running where your top 20 claims or something like that overweight kind of the cost driver or no?”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:05:41
“Is that what you're asking? Right, but you're going to factor in sort of streamlining that through, right? You're going to say, hey, I had this outlier, but you're going to predict that I have an outlier once every three or four years or something, so I blend that in. I guess what I'm really getting at is like, and this is sort of getting at this RFP thing, right? If you've got, and I think this is where some of these programs are, I think that are out there that are designed to try to get at how do you help fund sort of these cat claims, if you will, right? Not only for the employers, but…”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:06:41
“Like what would you suggest in terms of level of magnitude?”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:06:53
“Or driven by the overall cost? Top 20 claims?”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:07:29
“Okay, so that's another piece where I think in a lot of these programs that are out there, I think that there's an opportunity to attack that as well as sort of this prescription piece for folks that are on persistent meds that are predictable. So I guess that would be my ask, as long as can we get that stuff out there as quick as possible so we can start to evaluate it.”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:08:13
“was promised I get the actuarial piece of it and all that but you know just you know whether it's a you know right small adjustment right you know versus a large adjustment kind of thing until you get something that bears out but I think if we learn something given the magnitude of these jobs it's something that potentially that we've not done before but I think that we should consider if we still see that because as I understand it too some of these things they require, in order to realize the savings, they do require participation from, for the participants, right? To enroll in things like…”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:46:09
“Okay, all right. Going back to slide two.”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:46:39
“Yes, go to slide two. One, two. Hold on. That ain't slide two of mine. What page? I thought it was slide two. It's the one that says overview of county health care plans.”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:47:02
“Yeah, the real page two, I guess. All right, so on this here, on this slide here, can you walk me through, and let's just take, on the total plan cost number for 2027. Can you walk me through the amounts, attributable, estimated amounts, because these are estimated based upon who's enrolled and what plan and all that sort of stuff too, right? Correct. Give me the estimated amounts by provider and the total medical and pharmacy costs. These are roll-ups, so just give me the breakout by provider. Okay.”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:48:08
“How long would it take to get that? We can do that.”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:48:12
“No, I mean, can we do it like now? I'll tell you why I'm asking this question. If we're going to get to some sort of potential resolution today, I need to know an answer to that. I agree.”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026