Board of Aldermen 3-31-2020 Page 28
impression they are tweaked by the Union or they can be? | mean it is negotiated so they may be slightly
different from one Union to another.
Kim Kleiner, Admin. Services Director
| think the confusion is that the proposed healthcare plan design that is proposed this evening is for
unaffiliated employees that has to be negotiated into any Union agreement going forward with our 17 Unions.
So their HMO would remain the same unless the Union agreed to negotiate that change.
Alderwoman Lu
OK | was just trying to clarify, | was trying to understand what had been discussed about the Fire Department
having highly signed in, but was that comment about this high deductible plan as it is? As it currently is?
Kim Kleiner, Admin. Services Director
Yes, they have been very active with their members in educating them on the benefits of the high deductible
health plan which we think results in the change and the shift to the high deductible.
Alderwoman Lu
OK and just after retirement, | don’t know whether our City employees stay on the health plan after retirement
but do we continue to pay into the HSA’s for retired employees?
Larry Budreau, Human Resources Director
May | respond? Thank you. When employees retire from the City of Nashua, if they retire before they are 65
years old, they are eligible to continue the City’s Health Plans but the employee pays the full premium. They
are able to choose any of the health plans that the active employees have; so they could pick the current high
deductible health plan or the current HMO or the current Point of Service Plan. If they choose the high
deductible plan the answer is yes, we do contribute the $3,000.00 for the family deductible.
Alderwoman Lu
| guess my concern is couldn’t that become an increasingly, kind of like a pension, you know, almost as
though we are building pensions into our retiring, you know, we are adding to pensions almost. So thank you.
And another question is just about that Smart Shopper. So | have been on high deductible plans before and |
understand the benefit of you know healthy living incentives and incentivizing your employees to shop and to
know the benefits, rather to know the cost of healthcare so that they can be an agent in maybe change. But |
wasn’t clear on that slide of the Smart Shopper and whether, is there a commission that we pay for Smart
Shopper or is just part of the package that this WBS offers?
Larry Budreau, Human Resources Director
Smart Shopper is a for profit organization and they generally do business with a per employee. So Smart
Shopper usually is paid on a per employee per month basis. The City of Nashua was reluctant to find
ourselves paying more for the service than we reaped in savings. So we began our relationship with sharing
the cost savings 70% / 30%. So if you were to look at that slide again, sorry I'll just tell you. There was a net
savings of $25,000.00 by Smart Shopper. We actually retained 70% of that, less the 30%. So two thirds of
the way down — oop go ahead.
Alderwoman Lu
So what is Smart Shopper?
