2025-09-29 County insurance read-ahead
Office: 360-740-1408 Angie Hodge
Cell: 360-880-8539 Human Resources Director
Email: Angie.Hodge@lewiscountywa.gov Human Resources & Public Disclosure
Human Resources
To: Board of County Commissioners
Ryan Barrett, County Manager
From: Angie Hodge, Human Resources Director
Date: September 26, 2025
Subject: Recommendation to pursue alternate insurance for County employees on PEBB or WCIF
Recommendation
The Human Resources Department is recommending that the Board of County Commissioners approve a motion
to file notice of intent to terminate insurance contracts with the Washington Counties Insurance Fund (WCIF)
and Public Employees Benefits Board (PEBB) for 2026, with the intent to enter into a contract with Hub
International who has provided us with competitive insurance rates with a different carrier for 2026 that could
result in a cost savings of approximately $550,000 to $1.35 million in insurance premiums for 2026.
WCIF requires us to provide them with 90 days’ notice of our intent to terminate medical insurance coverage
and 30 days’ notice for all other lines of coverage, so a decision to end a contract with WCIF must be made and
communicated no later than October 2. PEBB requires 60 days’ notice, so a decision to end a contract with
PEBB must be made and communicated no later than October 31. Additionally, we must be prepared with new
benefits plan choices in November so that employees can enroll in benefits that will begin in January 2026.
Background
WCIF provides medical, dental, vision, and life insurance to approximately 61 employees in two represented
groups in the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office: Deputies Guild and Corrections Guild. The monthly cost for WCIF
medical, dental, and vision insurance has increased by $1,467 per month per employee over a six-year period,
which represents a 66% increase in cost. The monthly premiums are shared between the County and the
Employee as outlined in each group’s collective bargaining agreement, with a minimum of 95% of the cost being
paid by the County.
WCIF 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026
Medical
Dental
Vision $2,199 $2,395 $2,613 $2,802 $3,025 $3,205 $3,666
% increase over
former year n/a 8.90% 9.14% 7.20% 7.98% 5.94% 14.39%
*Note WCIF charges the same “composite” rate for full family, employee plus spouse, employee plus kids, employee only.
PEBB provides medical, dental, vision, and life insurance to approximately 266 employees, made up of non-
represented employees and two represented groups in the County: Public Works and Community Development
351 NW North Street
Chehalis, WA 98532-1900
HR phone: 360.740.2737
HR fax: 360.740.1494
Email: HR@lewiscounty.wa.gov
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(AFSCME), and the 911 Dispatchers guild. The monthly cost for PEBB medical, dental, and vision insurance has
increased by $823* per month per employee over a six-year period, which represents a 40% increase in cost.
The employees covered by PEBB do not have an agreement to share the cost of insurance premiums with a
percentage split, which means that the increased insurance costs that occurred in 2024 and 2025 were largely
borne by the employee. Many employees on PEBB insurance have mentioned to Human Resources or
management that they experienced a “pay cut”, meaning, a decrease in take-home pay when their insurance
rates jumped last year. The 3% Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) from January 1, 2025, did not cover the rise in
the employee portion of medical premiums, even as employees received annual step increases of 2.5%.
PEBB 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026
Medical
Dental
Vision $2,043 $2,076 $2,155 $2,392 $2,461 $2,659 $2,866
% increase over
former year 1.61% 3.82% 11.00% 2.88% 8.04% 7.78%
*Note PEBB charges different “tiered” rates for full family, employee plus spouse, employee plus kids, employee only.
The rates reflected above are based on Uniform Medical Plan – Classic – Full Family and are illustrative of the percentage
increases for other tiers and other plans.
These rate increases negatively impact both the County and the employee. In February, Lewis County Human
Resources began working with Hub International, an insurance broker, to determine if we could find the same or
similar insurance coverage at a better rate. Hub states that Counties of this size typically will opt for a ‘self-
funded’ model of insurance with stop-loss coverage, because of the cost savings associated with this approach.
Unfortunately, because of the limited “claims experience data” available to Lewis County from both PEBB and
WCIF, we could not explore the pros and cons of transitioning to a self-funded insurance plan for 2026.
However, this week, Hub provided us with ‘fully-insured’ options that could benefit both the County and
employees by choosing different carriers for medical, dental, vision, and life insurance. By choosing a different
insurance carrier, the County and Employees could share significant cost savings for 2026. The expectation
would be that some of the cost savings would be redirected into employees’ salaries/benefits for 2026-2028.
This change would also allow us to gain access to the claims experience data that we cannot currently get from
WCIF and PEBB. This data enables the insurance market to compete for our business in future years, regardless
of whether we continue in a fully insured model or explore self-funded options. We also will have time to learn
from the experience of other self-funded counties, such as Grant and Yakima.
One drawback with this plan is that we have some former employees using PEBB retiree benefits, and we will
need to comply with PEBB requirements to notify them that they will no longer be eligible for those benefits and
provide them with COBRA information. However, the insurance broker may be able to provide resources to
current and upcoming retirees to ensure they take full advantage of their Medicare benefits. Although this is
unfortunate, our commitment really should be to the employees who continue to work for Lewis County.
The future costs (beyond 2026) for insurance would still be unknown, just as they are unknown by remaining
with PEBB or WCIF. However, we know that the insurance provider has good availability for employees working
in and living near Lewis County, and we have a guaranteed opportunity for significant savings in 2026.
Making this decision now will allow us to move forward with impact bargaining and give Human Resources and
the insurance carriers time to help employees understand and adapt to these overall positive changes.
Attachment
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Attachments
The following pages are for illustrative purposes only, based on the data available on September 25, 2025.
The actual savings and benefits coverages are subject to change after receiving more recent claims experience data in October.
Summaries of benefits coverages do not include all the terms, coverages, exclusions, limitations and conditions of actual contract language.
• Page 2 shows the estimated annual cost savings for 2026 of approximately $550,000 for our PEBB group switching to Aetna.
• Pages 3 and 4 show the estimated cost savings for each group if “Aetna for all” is decided. Note: If the employees in the Sheriff’s
Office (deputies and corrections) who are currently using WCIF are added into the Aetna plan identified for current employees
covered by PEBB, the rates for PEBB employees increase due to the higher risk associated with the law enforcement population.
o The Sheriff’s Deputies savings could be $481,224.
o The Corrections Deputies savings could be $645,552.
o The PEBB group savings would be less than if they were in their own group, about $220,229.
o Total estimated annual cost savings for 2026 would be $1,347,005.
• Pages 5 through 8 show summaries of benefits, comparing the PEBB plan to Aetna for medical, Metlife for dental, vision, and $35,000
guaranteed coverage life insurance, with $35,000 accidental death & dismemberment insurance.
Additional information is forthcoming.
• Hub is expecting a quote from another provider (Regence) which shares the same network as Premera, which is what the Sheriff’s
Office uses through WCIF.
• We have also asked Aetna to quote the Sheriff’s Office group as a separate group.
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