FARMINGTON — The Board of Selectmen considered the clarity and intent of wording on a provision for employee health insurance buyouts Tuesday before tabling the discussion for more information.

The town currently provides 80 percent of the cost for full-time employees enrolled in the Maine Municipal Employees Health Trust C plan. The town also pays 55 percent of the cost of dependent coverage.

If the employee should choose an insurance plan other than that provided by the town, the town pays the employee 40 percent of the 80 percent cost they would have provided, based on the employee providing proof of comparable health insurance, according to the town’s personnel policy.

For some employees, the interpretation indicates the buyout amount is also for a spouse or dependent, according to Sewer Clerk Mavis Gensel and Deputy Town Clerk Daryl Schramm, both of whom spoke to the board.  

Most selectmen interpreted the wording to mean the buyout paragraph pertained to employees only.

When insurance costs went up last year, Gensel said she found alternative insurance for her husband and took him off her insurance. She started receiving 40 percent of the 55 percent the town was paying for his coverage.

She thought other employees had also received the buyout for a number of years. The idea was to save the town money, or that’s how the buyout plan was explained to employees in 2006, she said. The town would pay the 40 percent, but save money by avoiding the cost of the employee and/or dependent’s insurance.

“It was an employee benefit — that’s how it was presented to us,” Gensel said of the provision.  

While she is eligible for family coverage, but a spouse or dependent does not take coverage under the town’s insurance, there is a 40 percent buyout, she said.

Selectmen disagreed that the buyout automatically pertained to any dependent eligible under an employee’s benefit for insurance coverage. It was a buyout taken when leaving the plan.

Town attorney Frank Underkuffler asked the board to determine the intent of the provision as it is worded.

Most selectmen agreed the wording was not well-done and should be clarified to say whether buyouts were for employees only or for employees and their dependents.

Selectmen questioned how many buyouts are being paid for dependents and tabled the discussion until more information is available.

abryant@sunmediagroup.net

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