ALC-State Insurance Programs Oversight Subcommittee
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- October 2, 2026
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
1:33
Ladies and gentlemen that clock is not correct if you'll look at your phones it's 10 o'clock if you need just a minute to get to your seats and finish up your conversations let's start here in just a minute.
call this to order we have first on your review to be with grant if you or Mr. Wallace if you could come down front and go through all these with us we're going to exhibit B1 and through4. we'll start with if you can introduce yourself for the record and start with review of EBd contract.
Speaker 8
2:34
good morning Grant Wallace, director of the employee benefits division and office of property Risk Item B1 is a contract for the employee benefits division. This would be our consultant and actuarial contract this is a new vendor that we will be working with public consulting group the initial contract period is for two years for a value of
Speaker 10
3:00
1.39 million the total projected cost for the
full7 years is4.8 million. be glad to answer any questions. I'll start
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
3:12
that was put out on a r f P ma'am yes and this was the one that won that contract ma right any other
questions Senator hickey thank you madam Chair. Mr Wallace just a couple of qui questions
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
3:29
on the RfP that you did. how many how many people applied and how many of them actually qualified out of that
Speaker 10
3:37
so there were none of them were disqualified and I think it was5 or6 total that we
Speaker 8
3:45
interviewed and and were not interviewed I'm sorry went through that scoring process OK and as far as the price price for
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
3:52
this was this highest mid range low where where were we at with that what percent did we use on the on the on the actual re on the pricing part yeah30% was the standard70/30 this was the
low cost. OK so this was although you used the 7030 this was actually the low low bid on
Speaker 10
4:16
the thing and they were the higher technical as well great. now
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
4:20
is this a brand new type entity that we've used or we've been we've been doing this in the past we've been
Speaker 28
4:25
using another vendor right it was another vendor that was doing the
Speaker 10
4:30
service underneath our healthalth advantage contract. This we separated that out and this is a new vendor that we would be working with and not to put you on the spot here or
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
4:40
anything but do you remember as far as the costs that we were paying with the old vendor was there an increase in this cost because I'm gonna have some questions in a minute about this report that we have about expenses yeah
Speaker 30
4:53
so here's the tricky part you know it's kind of an
Speaker 10
4:57
hourly rate. I I don't want to say that it was it's it's within the realm. there was not a huge increase but I don't want to say that there's a huge decrease with this new provider
either so they were pretty kind of in line with what we have been spending all right. OK well I'll talk about
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
5:18
those expenses here in a minute. All right thank
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
5:23
you sir you're very welcome umpresentative Eads did you get your question answered? OK who is#3? oh ok you're good
all right any other questions Senator hickey do you want to jump back in? on this one
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
5:41
my my next question is going to be on the report is that what we're going to? well it may
not be my next question because I also have one on I have one on B4 and then
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
5:55
also C. OK, let's stick to B1 right now right anybody else all right I need a motion for to move as reviewed umpresentative Beck and Senator Boyd was the second. all in favor ay opposed motion passes it's reviewed B2
Speaker 8
6:14
these are our formularies these will be for the quarter so September, October and November we'll start with the September formulary
Speaker 10
6:22
recommendations. I will say as a general statement the bulk of what is going on in all three months or we're seeing some price reductions in medications so we are reducing the tearing as well to kind of keep in line with
Speaker 8
6:38
that ones that I would point out in September
you'll see on in the September report on line6,7 and 8 that designation of NC3p just wanna kind of define that a little bit. This is making sure that on the pharmacy benefit these will
Speaker 10
6:57
not be covered because this is a medical benefit and we want to make sure that we run it through the medical benefit and not on the
Speaker 8
7:08
pharmacy benefit you don't want that dual running there. you'll also see some moves to generic
medication preferring over the the generic over the brand the let's see that's prob that's all on page one for September so I'll pause there to see if there are any questions for the September formulary recommendation members OK I had a question on this
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
7:39
whole report there were a number of ones that were 1 was51,000
for a month and then 1 was49,000 per injection. that was on page two
Speaker 8
8:06
line 9. page two line five So those we are recommending those are new to market medications and we are recommending not to cover those at this point
Speaker 10
8:14
as we do further evaluation on the efficacy and cost evaluation. all right thank you
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
8:20
any other members do we have a motion to approve exhibit B2 so moved and let's go to the next oh excuse me give me a second a second thank you Representative Collins and all in favor opposed motion passes let's look at exhibit B3 which
is your oh I'm sorry you're still on the o c
Speaker 8
8:58
to ber sorry so going to the october the only one that I would want to highlight inoctober would be on page two lines 16 through 20. These are your GLP ones we are adding a new coverage or indication the mashnash conditions we have found that it
Speaker 10
9:21
is more cost effective to use a GP one to treat these conditions as opposed to the normal treatment options
Speaker 8
9:31
that are currently available so we will be recommending adding the GOP ones for the mash nash conditions there is a movement of removing some biosimilars because we're going to that lower cost biosimilar option and
outside of that it really is again looking for just lower cost and matching up the tiering or dose consolidation making sure
Speaker 10
10:01
you're you know you're doing the correct pricing on the dosage and and we're getting the most costeffective treatment there be glad to answer any questions no one's lighting it up go ahead and go to November All right.
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
10:17
November medical there are again moving to generic
Speaker 8
10:25
preferreds there are some pediatric dosage that we are adding on for some of these medications, um, price reductions outside of that nothing I probably would highlight specifically be glad to answer any questions no one's lighting up the board so I think we're good with this one all
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
10:48
right. we need a motion for October and
November. got a second from Representative Boyd motion from who was that over there Denise garner all in favor opposed motion passes
Speaker 8
11:14
all right the medical recommendations again just a reminder these are drugs that are administered in a clinical setting when you see EBRxpa that EBRx reviews the prior
authorization for that to determine approval or denial. the exclusion would be that we are not adding them for coverage at this time and we do have some vaccines this is just updating for the current vaccine
Speaker 10
11:42
year. I'd be glad to answer any questions looks like today's your lucky
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
11:52
day members without seeing any questions do we have a
motion to review is accept as reviewed
motion to approve we have one representative back, Senator Boyd all in favor opposed motion passes all right
Speaker 10
12:15
now we will switch the hat over to the office of property Risk item B4 is the investment policy for the state captives insurance programme of this policy was a joint effort
between Stteens Capital, the treasurer's office, the department of
Speaker 8
12:33
financedministration and myself and we have we are going in a very conservative kind of initial start. the plan is to review this annu ally and we are adhering to state law and investment rules that we're able to do under current state law. be glad to answer any questions Senator Boyd
Speaker 61
13:00
thank you madam Chair. so if you'll just give me a little bit of leeway, I'd I'd appreciate
Senator Justin Boyd
Unverified
13:06
appreciate it and so Mr. Wallace we we've clearly we're moving down this road of the captive this is opposite of the way we win in healthcare where we said hey the state isn't doing a good job so we're gonna you know farm that out to the private companies so have you taken a look and gone hey maybe we need to bring that back in. Have you looked at the state being its own pbM again what what kind of ongoing evaluation are you doing on that?
Speaker 10
13:32
you know, I think there's a new phenomenon that you are looking at state's investigating captive programs for their health insurance. I don't know that there's enough information out there or enough kind of runway to see the impact of making that kind of change. I do know in the pbM space it would be very challenging for us as our own program to negotiate drug pricing with these huge manufacturers and be able to leverage our s our small pool we are a big program in the state but over all in in the global market we
are a very small entity and to be able to negotiate drug pricing with these manufacturers or rebates on those things.
Speaker 48
14:11
I don't know that we have the capacity to do that at this point so we weren't doing that before
Speaker 10
14:17
no we've always had a TPpa a pbm that we were working with to do the drug pro to manage the drug programs we'll we'll follow up offline I'm not
Senator Justin Boyd
Unverified
14:25
sure that we understand completely, but I appreciate that you're giving it some ongoing thought. thank you sir Representative Tosh
Representative Dwight Tosh
Unverified
14:36
thank you madam chairir. Grant it's it's my understanding and and appreciate if you would kind of address this that some of the schools that with this captive insurance it's my understanding that they their premiums are are you know let me back up they're deductibles have gone from5,000 to I've heard up to50,000 dollars and this was supposed to be a cost saving plan that you know was put into place it's my understanding that
they're not seeing a lot of change in the premiums so I don't know how factual that information is but I thought it'd be a good opportunity to give you an opportunity to address that if those deductibles are actually making that huge of an increase and if we brought if we're not seeing a change in the premiums what what have we gained yes sir I I thinkpresentative warlaw might have some things yes I'm going to call on him next I was
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
15:36
going to let you finish and then I would like forpresentativewarddla to weigh in unless you
want to reverse it Representativeordlaw do you have something you want to add to the
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
15:49
conversation? So I can answer most of that question if you go back to when I presented a bill on the floor I answered most of that question that day yes the premiums didn't change a whole lot even though the the value per 1000 did go down but the reason you didn't see a huge decrease in premium was because
the values of those insurance properties were under injured prior to the new plan. So yes those premiums stayed about the same to answer the deductible question absolutely all the deductibles went up. They had to because they had to become realw world deductibles and they were not real world deductibles prior to now. One of the reasons we were in the shape we were in was similar to the Ebd situation almost 10 years ago was because we had allowed these fantasy
deductibles to exist so long that no one would injure us and that's why we were having to put in those subsidies that we put in for two years to get us to this point so yes schools are seeing higher deductibles and yes, schools are not seeing a huge decrease in their premiums. Some schools actually saw an increase in premiums but they increase was due to the lack of coverage they had to match the number of buildings and the value of those buildings they had so we are going to hear some
of those complaints as legislators going forward but we have to be able to talk to our superintendents to inform them why they're seeing what they're seeing and what that's going to mean for them going down the road because the long term part of this is they won't see a huge increase going down the road they will start seeing a level out if not a decrease, but they will see more premium I mean more deductibles and some will see more premiums depending on how they insured value was measured prior.
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
17:41
p re s ent ative Tos did that answer your question or do
Representative Dwight Tosh
Unverified
17:49
you have a follow up No I really don't have a follow up. I'm not going to say an answered my question but it was well explained but I'm not sure that I totally understand how we can have a captive program and the premiums are not going down and the deductibles are going up and somehow that benefits our schools so I'll just I'll continue to look at this and but I appreciate the attempt to answer the question. thank you.
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
18:14
thank youpresentative Tos umpresentative Kavanaugh thank you. I just have a
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
18:20
question that kind of I noticed why does this say that it's adopted by the state of Arkansas Bureau of Legislative Research. b l R is not gonna sign this. Now I apologize that thank you for catching
Speaker 10
18:32
that that should have been a typo that was corrected it should be moved over to the state
Speaker 8
18:37
board of finance so thank you for catching that we do need to correct that.
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
18:52
Senator Dishma, thank you madam chairir and I'd like to elaborate a little bit for the representative about why we're where we are
on a captive the program as it was was failing and it was failing our school districts and we were just a matter of short time before we were going to have to supplement additional tens of millions of dollars from the state to be able to keep the program afloat and so the status quo was not working was not going to work in would have essentially undermined itself over a very short period of time
and so that is the change to the captive and the one thing that I would say is go talk to anyone in the private market about what's been happening to their deductibles to be able to maintain insurance multi if not $100 million facility with a that was campuside even with multiple locations should not have a5,000 dollars deductible when we're allowing5,000 dollars deductibles we are essentially paying for insurance in the most expensive way because we're utilizing it for maintenance
not catastrophic events or major events and I think that's what you're really hearing is there's frustration because you're no longer able to use the program for maintenance projects essentially putting on a new roof because it was time to put on a new roof maybe not so much as coincided with the hailstorm that just came through and the other thing that I would say if you look at the program and one of the things and if we're gonna keep talking about deductibles then we also have to talk about the inequality that was happening
some of our largest districts in the state had5,000 dollars deductibles campus-wide multiple locations in some of our smallest districts in the state had50,000 dollars deductibles so just to make sure everyone understands so what that means that means our smallest some of our smallest districts in the state were subsidizing the rates for some of the largest districts in the state and this resets that balance based on actual values as if you were in the real market again talk to anybody that's got
commercial property even your homeowners across the state you're not being able to utilize insurance for maintenance anymore because it just is too it wreaks too much havoc on the system and then you're also having to have more realistic deductibles so that you are making yourself make the decision is it worth pursuing this new roof? Is there that much damage or do I not file a claim? and and and and again that's what's happening in the real world that's what we're all
doing there is nobody walking around that's got a $100 million property with a5,000 dollars deductible. no one Thank you Senator
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
21:37
Dismain. good explanation senator hickey yes ma'am mine's back to the
Speaker 81
21:43
actually policy statement here and and grant I don't I
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
21:46
just if you just ask this question of Stteens or whoever's doing it and lord knows I I will say that they know a lot more about this than me. but
I see that one of the eligible investments here is going to be a CO collateralized loan obligation that they're able to buy those in pools and they have Senator hickey could you tell us where you are? I'm sorry I'm on and I'm I'm kind of doing a combination of what's under5 if you look under5 under eligible investments it says that they're able to invest in collateralized loan obligations and it says that it's going to be
everything here's investment grade of course if you go over to number7 it shows that that has to be a or better so I'm assuming that that's all great, super. that's a good policy. My only question is and again just maybe to make sure since they're able to do these collateralized loan obligations I see that under a restricted or prohibited investment of course would be a commodity or commodity contracts which I100% agree with we don't need to be speculating in those
but by doing that I don't guess there would ever be a need that they would need to use that as a hedge against one of these COs and I just were I was making sure that we weren't prohibiting something that could actually could actually be something that they would need.
Speaker 8
23:16
Right so we weren we removed the hedging language because we weren't mature enough to go there yet. so I to get to your point
Speaker 10
23:24
I think when we look at this next
year the the COs are not something we're going to dip into immediately but as we get into year two, we probably will need to restructure to make sure we've
Speaker 84
23:39
got an appropriate balance on that OK so so although we're we're listing it
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
23:44
in this this policy right now is an eligible investment we're not planning on going down that route then that's
that answers my question thank you sir Representative Collins
Representative Andrew Collins
Unverified
24:00
thank you over there on page three number 10 says investment performance will be measured net of fees. what are the fees so
Speaker 10
24:09
this was a flat line agreement thatblr had negotiated during this transition. So for the first year it's450,000 dollars and is that gonna is that projected to go up?
Representative Andrew Collins
Unverified
24:21
do we know what it's going to be the next year there is
Speaker 23
24:25
some it's a one year contract so that but there were
Speaker 10
24:30
if it were to extend increases in the out years but we do have that kind of stop to be able to renegotiate that in the out
Representative Andrew Collins
Unverified
24:40
years I could probably get this somewhere else but what what amount are
Speaker 10
24:45
we talking about basically here roughly we're looking at initially50 million dollars50 million dollars but that that's gonna vary as we kind of see the operational run of this program, what excess do we truly have? I would expect that that number would increase
but again we need to see how this behaves over the first year. yes the state is capped at50 million dollars worth of los s but we need to make sure that we've got the appropriate revenue streams and appropriate reserves in operating capital before we start going into some more of the longer term investment aspects that this particular section of the portfolio would manage and so and double check me if i'm wrong
Representative Andrew Collins
Unverified
25:24
but that's roughly a little less than 1% is that what we're talking about probably ok ok thanks
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
25:33
thank youpresentative Collins anyone else? right I think everybody's got their questions answered motion to review with correction to change Blr to state board of finance on the signature page to have a motion to approve as reviewed so moved by senator Boyd seconded Representative Beck all in favor opposed motion passes all right let's go to exhibit C.
Speaker 8
26:09
if you'll give us just a quick overview so this was our special report from legislative audit the only finding had to deal with the recording of expenses from one fiscal year to the next be glad to answer any questions. Um, would you go over the slide
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
26:40
on page 5 where it talks about the increase in the premium and then the where we are on claims because from what I see it's360 million for the premium320 for the claims but we had 21 million that was part of COVID American rescue plans so that only is this 19 million in buffer is that correct or am I reading that wrong? I'm sorry page7 so yes our revenue
if you're page7 sorry I'm
sorry on mine it's page
Speaker 8
27:43
OK, so we're looking at the state employee side so oh ok I'm looking
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
27:52
at public schools I'm sorry not the state it's gonna be on
Speaker 8
28:00
we're going to page se. OK on page se yes. so we are seeing a decrease in the revenue on for the public school side and this was a result mainly of the
Speaker 10
28:14
reduction in the district match from300 to23450 we have since corrected that in the last session that was now brought back in line but yes for this
Speaker 8
28:29
year we are looking at and for this report it was balanced a little bit of a decrease in expense in revenue over
Speaker 10
28:40
expenses and we are currently
operating at a deficit but we do have healthy reserves to get us through this year and I am working with the department of Education for this year to figure out ways to make sure that we minimize that deficit and the draw on the trust fund
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
29:00
all right that's helpful thank you other questions Senator hickey? so just just
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
29:05
along those lines and of course I see that this report is actually ends for June30th of 2024 so you all have done your analysis since then and I heard
Speaker 84
29:16
you say we're still operating at a at a deficit right so for the
Speaker 10
29:23
pla year 2025 we innuary yes sir we are operating we are projected to operate at a deficit for this year which was expected knowing that the decrease in the pre in the district match. we have corrected that for 2026 for playing year 2026 and using plan
year 2026 is our reset to then know what we need to do for plain year 2027 to start being more transparent in our rate setting to be able to tag it to medical CPI some known very transparent and very predictable path so that when we come to you all and say we need the state to contribute this is the employer we need to have the employees do this for their monthly premiums that it's not necessarily some made up number but it is targeted and very
transparent and very predictable. and if you know find from
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
30:20
from January at the start of this calendar year till now how much of a deficit have we have we
what's our accumulated total up up to whatever you've got it to right now I want to say that
Speaker 10
30:34
it's 30 to40 million on the public school side is
Speaker 23
30:37
what we were we're looking at ending the year with and we're still positive of course on the state employee side OK.
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
30:47
all right and what do you think's going to correct that? you
Speaker 10
30:54
said legislation right so during this past legislative session they increased the district match but you all
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
31:00
you all are keeping a running total of this month by month? sir OK. I wouldn't mind madam chairir if if if we could have that included into this report I mean I just think that that'd be the responsibility of this committee since we do know that it was running at at this deficit or
whatever I'd like to continue to watch that trend and let's just see what it starts doing up because we need to know also right I've generally included that
Speaker 23
31:25
as kind of background information I I probably just bring fort forgot to do it on this one
Speaker 10
31:30
but yes I'll make sure you get that. OK. and that would be good thank you thank you for that suggestion and I do I do have
Speaker 6
31:37
some questions about participation in this I don't know if now is
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
31:40
the right time or if you want to go to someone else so. No let's go ahead and do that and then we'll go to Representativewarddlaw. OK so on
the participation side, do you know where we're at as far as on the school employee side on the
Speaker 10
31:58
MAPd and the well yeah on the MAPd side for the public schools it's probably still in the high50s I think we're seeing a little bit of an uptick. it's not nearly where the state side the state side is still in that higher60% participation but I will say as we've done the open enrollment
this year we are seeing more positive feedback and more interest from the public school side in participating in that program. OK My my question is this
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
32:28
is you know and I think that there's a savings I've never understood why people are
not signing up for that. I guess that's just beyond me of course you know we've given him that choice but of course it's looks like to me it's such a huge saving for the employee and then I guess also for the state so should we should we look at
trying to to to give some examples should we should we show what those premium costs are going to be lowered if lower if they're doing this and try to market this through some type of organizations that'll help us get us get it out to that community because again I understand that maybe maybe there was some worry about you know who the providers were gonna be I don't know that that's still a case and it like I say I don't I know we're showing this deficit on this side. I just think that you know possibly we
need to try to do some more outreach to try to push
Speaker 10
33:28
this so thank you for asking that cause if I can expound a little bit and kind open up the curtain a little bit on this this has been a huge headwind that we've battled since I took office and and it's one of those that there's a lot of misinformation and the public school retirees are very close network as we all can respect. I've worked very hard to create
relationships with those retiree organizations and to build that trust. I think we're starting at least hopefully in my opinion starting to see the fruits of that work but we do have an education and a trust factor that we've got to overcome and it's one of those that yes, kind of getting in there and marketing and getting more information. I'm looking to kind of expand that work that the that Ebd does and and make sure that we're creating that relationship because that's
really what's gonna change is us having a relationship with these retirees and being able to rebuild that trust. Absolutely these plans are exactly the same it was by contract the MAPD program the benefitfi design and the structures and and everything that's covered has to match what is on our healthal advantage medicare supplement plan so there's no difference in these plans and and we continue to work with Unitedhealthcare to make sure that as they go through network
negotiations that they minimize the negative aura that comes around that we know network negotiations are going to go on all the time that I'm not going to get in the business of of of that work that is their business that is their work but it is one of those that both sides need to come together and make sure we're doing the right things in these negotiations and we're not having these extend and go in and out of network constantly but at the end of the day the premium savings are real. this is not too good to be true. this is true
and and the difference is dramatic and and it does go back to the liability that shifts from having to self-fund it to then be able to get have an outside entity take on that liability. Sure and I appreciate all the work
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
35:46
that you've tried to do and don't how many of these organizations would you just speculate that there is
that you're trying to deal with as far as these retirees go. one ok you know, I don't know if it at this point because this has went on for so long and again
you know if they if they have concerns like this maybe we should have a public meeting on this. uh, maybe we should invite you know our consultant anyone else you know that we need here and try to try to get this explained publicly out here and if they have questions I'd like to hear it from them and then we can either you know see if that's correct or possibly if it's not, maybe we can help defuse that so that we can get these people on board because
it's cau it looks like to me it's costing them a huge amount of money I don't know if there's some higher copays that they're having to pay but from a net standpoint it just it just does not make a lot of sense to me that they're not signing up. so madam chairir, I don't know if and again when the appropriate time of that would be you know if we could consider that in this committee because we've been dealing with this for a while and it just seems like to me that you know whenever we went into this we were expecting the
participation to be a certain amount so we could save those dollars and I just think it's time
for us to try to be a little more active as the legislative body on that thank you Senator Hoie I'm all ears and we might
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
37:13
want to look at something in January but let's talk off on online on that you ma'am umpresentative Wardlaw madam Chair we'll need a little leadway if that's ok right so re ctor Wallace,
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
37:27
when when does a contract with Blue Cross Blue Shield come up? it is
Speaker 8
37:34
the RfP is being drafted now so we have through
Speaker 10
37:38
December of 2026 is the current agreement so the we're drafting the RfP now and we'll be doing that process next year. so would you agree
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
37:47
or would you not agree that the Blue Cross Blue Shield contract has a great hold on our retirees
when it comes to the level of service they provided for these people. So when they're looking at a $8 premium and a $16 premium. I think that's the two different premiums for the plans
with United Healthcare, it looks too good to be true and they're paying that375 dollars or400 dollars whatever it is because they they believe that it's just way too good to be true. Yes sir. the other side of that is and I worked on this yesterday in northeast Arkansas. hospitalspitals are sending out notices again and they're going to do this every year by the way. so this is not going to go away tomorrow so I want all the members to listen to this but they're sending out notices that they'll no longer take
Unitedhealthcare. They'll no longer take Humana. folks they can't no longer take our plan because if they don't take our plan, Director Wallace, you correct me where I'm wrong here. they cannot take medicare and medicaid because our plan is a government plan So when those letters goes out it causes confusion amongst our retirees and it makes them think that if they take a United healthalthcare plan with us, their hospitals or their doctors will not take it and it's just
not true that's the battle we're against Senator Hickey and that's the battle we have to educate the public on it as the plan is different if someone sent a letter out tomorrow and said they wouldn't take Blue Cross Blue Shield we would have a huge problem when it comes to Ebd but they would take our plan because our plan is a government plan and they administer it for us and that is the difference and that is very hard to fight in a community that is extremely upset with certain insurance
companies and when those insurance companies administer our plans we have to be the educated body to talk to our constituents and let them know that this is still going to be taken at those facilities. Am I correct or am I wrong, Director Wallace? Yes sir to
Speaker 8
39:54
the to the entity they have come out and when they send out that notice there's a subsequent line typically at
Speaker 10
40:00
the very bottom that says for state retirees we will still accept the United Healthcare plan but that line is
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
40:10
so insignificant on that paper. Our constituents our state retirees are not seeing that line correct correct and that and I'm telling y'all we're the first line battle right here you guys sitting in the seats and these representative member seats are the front line because those constituents are calling y'all first and when they call you have to be educated on this subject to be able to talk to them to let them know that it is safe to pay $8 a month that is ridiculous to
pay400 dollars a month when you could pay $8 a month and get the exact same service we're going to be faced in the next few months because of federal changes with a different pharmacy plan when it comes to these plans I've instructed Unitedhealthcare to talk to as many members on the committee as possible so you guys are up to date on what that looks like but we could be seeings really significant savings in premiums again which is good because the inflationary Act that was adopted under the Bideden years
caused us to see an increase in premiums so this could take the the difference in that effect out and we're going to be taking that up in January, February time frame and his committee so there's that's going to be confusing as well when it comes to our members because instead of one card they're gonna have two cards in their pocket and anytime you change something like that on these on these members that's a significant change but thank you director and thank you senator hickey. I too agree with what you're saying but until we can cross this battle with
our providers it's it's almost a losing battle at this point. Thank you
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
41:50
Representative Wardlaw this just leads back to we need to have this discussion. Senator Boyd thank you madam chairir.
Senator Justin Boyd
Unverified
41:57
So I'm hearing a lot of discussion about what savings this leads to the state and so on and so forth but I'm also going ok so I just you know, have been reading the Wall Street Journal and I see how many times our
partner has been labeled in the news as having concerning information and I'm just kind of weighing that going how many times have I seen our other partner in the news and they don't they don't balance so it just makes me wonder maybe my constituents are reading the news. Maybe they're concerned about that possibly. Do you read the news Mr Wallace? I mean, are you familiar with some of the the allegations
that have been made about our quote partner absolutely and I addressed them regularly with our partner
Speaker 10
42:44
but the concept of a medicare advantageroup plan it's still a very stable and solid concept. so whether it's Unitedhealthcare or Humana or any of the other entities the notion and the concept of having this group plan available to our retirees is still a very solid idea. so so when we say there
Senator Justin Boyd
Unverified
43:05
the there's no difference do we mean there's no difference in prior authorizations? Do we mean that there's no other copay differentials? do we mean that
there's no other roadblocks in compare you know when I compare this plan to that plan. I mean so there's a reason that Arkansans aren't rushing over to the alternative and we sit here and we discuss that and you know I I understand I'm all for saving money up to a point but I'm also questioning you know, does government always know best and I feel like we're basically saying government clearly knows best in this situation we know so much better than our constituents and I'm just not
yet convinced that's the case thank you. Thank you Senator Boyd. all these
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
43:52
are good discussion items and I think having a meeting where we can have a primer on how to
help our constituents and transparency would be helpful we'll look at something for January if we could go ahead and start that I would ask everybody to keep this
report and spend a little time with it it's a lot of information Mr. Wallace is available with phone call but also if you want to bring it back up and have questions for
the body we're more than happy to do that any other business to be brought before this committee today seeing none we are adjourned
Agenda
A. Call to Order
1. Review of EBD Contract with Public Consulting Group, LLC
B. Consideration for Review and Approval of Actions by the State Board of Finance [Exhibit B1-B4]
2. Approval of Prescription Formularies for September, October and November 2025
3. Approval of Medical Drug Recommendations to EBD Commissions – November 2025
4. Review of Arkansas State Captive Insurance Program Investment Policy Statement
C. Special Report – Arkansas State and Public School Employees Health Benefits – DTSS – EBD – for Fiscal Year Ended June 20, 2024 [Exhibit C]
D. Other Business
E. Adjournment
Documents
Speakers
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
Speaker 8
Speaker 10
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
Speaker 28
Speaker 30
Speaker 61
Senator Justin Boyd
Unverified
Speaker 48
Representative Dwight Tosh
Unverified
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
Speaker 81
Speaker 84
Representative Andrew Collins
Unverified
Speaker 23
Speaker 98
Speaker 6