Finance Committee - 07/10/2019 Page 7
Alderwoman Kelly
| realize that you are not an expert in the Smart Shopper App but | was just wondering about ease of use? |
think that would be key to whether or not people do this?
Mr. Budreau
There are, before | get to ease of use of the app, they have a well-staffed, short wait time call center and they
promote that. They suggest that anyone who isn’t immediately comfortable with either the web site application
or the app can call and get a personal service which extends just beyond picking the place. They will actually
work, while you’re on the phone, work with you to try to get an appointment. So you can always just call which
most people should be comfortable with.
The app, we’ve been looking at it ourselves for a while now and it seems pretty straight forward and | think
usable for many of our employees and their dependents.
Alderman Laws
| was just curious if Smart Shopper is unique in the market for the service they provide or if there are several
carriers you could choose from?
Mr. Budreau
| don’t Know the real answer to that question Alderman because throughout the country there may be others.
For us, this is sort of a captive only option because they are embedded with Anthem and have been since their
inception. They started in the City and the State, those were the two pilot operations about a decade ago. So
Smart Shopper has access to Anthem’s claims data, that’s how they are arriving at what the cost structure
should be. So in this neck in the woods, there aren’t other options that we could have chosen.
MOTION CARRIED
From: Dan Kooken, Purchasing Manager
Re: Contract Renewal with the Humane Society of Greater Nashua for FY20
Mayor Donchess
Now the next item is the Humane Society contract which Mr. Braun spoke about. My recollection is that we did
amend this contract in December as Mr. Braun has said in December of 2017 as a result of, in the middle of a
contract cycle, as a result of the issues brought forth by him. We came through with a contract amendment
and the contract was amended to exclude cats. Then | think what happened is when the contract came up for
renewal, now there are two versions of the contract out there. When the contract came up for renewal a year
ago, the version that was proposed was the older version of the newer version. | don’t think anyone really
realized or thought about the fact that these words had not been changed in the new version; so the old
version got approved, which includes the cats. Then litigation began so there is currently a pending court
case. In the intervening months, | think the Legal Department has taken somewhat of a different position than
it did before and we’ve had the Board of Health weigh in on the subject.
So what might make sense is for us to hold the contract and bring Legal in and get their take on this and act
with the knowledge of what their advice on not only the contract but the litigation is.
Alderman Klee
In truth | agree with that. | was actually, although | don’t think that this contract is unconstitutional, | do think
that our, the NRO of course | don’t have it front of me right now, but the one that talks to this. It is titled
