Commission approves employee health insurance rates

The Hill County Commission voted at its weekly business meeting Thursday to absorb part of the costs of recent health insurance premium increases for its employees and eliminated one of its offered plans in a vote.

Hill County Commissioner Mark Peterson said the county currently contributes $1,411 per month to employee health insurance plans, but premiums have risen in the past year and in order to cover that increase the county would need to to raise its contribution to $1,572, which would be a substantial cost to the county and its taxpayers.

Peterson said the commission has decided to raise the county contribution to $1,515, and will be eliminating one of its more costly plans, the RM1000, which will save the county money while still absorbing part of the increase.

The commission also asked the Montana Association of Counties, which provides the health insurance, to make some alterations to the plans, to boost coverage for people who insure themselves and their children versus those that insure themselves and a spouse or themselves and an entire family.

Peterson said the latter group is more likely to have two incomes and the commission is trying to give a bit more coverage to those who may only have one.

As the commission was discussing the matter, Peterson asked the employees who attended if they or their colleagues would be interested in a high-deductible plan, which fellow commissioner Sheri Williams said more and more Montana county employees are gravitating toward.

Hill County Commissioner Jake Strissel and Hill County Treasurer Sandy Brown said it seems like a good idea to at least offer one, and the commission amended their motion to include offering an HD4000 plan in place of the RM1000.

The motion passed unanimously after being amended unanimously.

The commission also approved $3,500 of funding for the Hingham Swimming Pool, which provides recreational swimming, aqua-aerobics and water safety classes to people in the area, from the Hill County Park Board, but Peterson questioned whether that was appropriate.

Strissel said the county has approved this funding for many years and the pool provides a lot of good services.

Peterson asked whether the board should be contributing money to things like this considering they have little to do with Beaver Creek Park.

Along with Beaver Creek Park, Hill County Park Board oversees operations of other county parks, including three parks in North Havre, the swimming pool in Hingham and parks in Kremlin, Gildford and Rudyard

Brown said the money in question goes to the pool by statute, but Peterson said he doesn’t see any tax money going to it.

Brown said the money isn’t generated by taxes but instead by establishment fees and she can show the commission how that process works.

Peterson again said he sees no tax money being collected for this purpose and Brown and Hill County Clerk and Recorder Lexis Dixon again said that the money isn’t generated by taxes.

Brown said she can get the needed documents to explain how this works, but Peterson again said he would still like to look into whether this arrangement was appropriate.

The commission also attempted to pass a pair of resolutions amending the Hill County Sheriff’s Office budget to receive money from Stonegarden Grants, but only one was noted on the agenda, so they had to put the second on the next week’s business meeting agenda.

The commission also approved the allocation of money generated by alcohol taxes to Bullhook Community Health Center and the Bear Paw Recovery Center.

During the public comments section of the meeting Many Rivers Whole Health CEO Sidney Blair presented some information about her organization’s activities in the county and state.

Blair said Many Rivers is rebuilding their office in Hill County, with staff that includes a full-time therapist, a case manager, a day treatment coordinator and peer services.

She also said they have an eight-person team that does work across the Hi-Line helping people with chronic mental illnesses find work and housing, keep them out of the hospital or jail and generally stabilize their lives as they live with their illnesses.

She said they contract with Frontier Psychiatry and provide telehealth services, and recently merged with a larger substance abuse service provider which has allowed them to offer intensive outpatient services and a number of classes.

She said they are also partnered with the Indian Health Alliance.

Blair said Many Rivers also offers residential services that help people with chronic illnesses live at their male home in Great Falls or female home in Kalispell for up to 9 months as they help them find employment and work through any legal issues they may be facing.

She said Many Rivers also provides transitional living services in Great Falls and Helena for people with a chronic illness that have been recently discharged from the hospital but aren’t able to return to their own community for any number of reasons, a situation she said is very common.

Many Rivers is also looking to improve their crisis stabilization services in Helena, she said.

Blair said their services and staff have increased since the pandemic and they’ve been able to drastically decrease their wait times, but there is still a lot of unmet demand out there, which isn’t helped by the state of the behavioral health care system which is essentially broken.

She said they have received property tax money from the county and that has been helpful but they are trying to offset costs for underinsured and uninsured people and offer loan forgiveness which will only become more difficult to deal with in the near future.

She said there are other mental and behavioral health providers in the area but they offer a full continuum of treatment for chronic illness which sets them apart.

Strissel said anyone who is interested in Many Rivers can get in touch with him and he can answer a lot of their questions.