By DAVE HAMRICK
dhamrick@thecitizennews.com

Fayette County employees may have to use preferred providers for medical service or else pay higher insurance premiums.

County commissioners tomorrow will continue a discussion of employees' insurance benefits that began last week. Tomorrow's meeting is at 7 p.m. at the County Administrative Complex.

“Insurance costs were up 19 percent last year,” said commission Chairman Harold Bost, “and they'll go up another 15 percent this year if there's no change,” he added.

Claims are up 15 percent, Bost added.

Under a preferred provider system, employees would be able to choose from a list of preferred doctors and hospitals, rather than having the same benefit no matter which doctors they use. A worker would still be able to choose his or her own doctor, but if the doctor was not on the preferred list, a larger percentage of the cost would come out of the employee's pockets.

Bost said county officials are working to make sure that the preferred list includes the doctors on staff at Fayette Community Hospital before recommending the change.

Pointing out that there is about a $1.3 million reserve in the county's self-insurance fund, Commissioner Herb Frady said last week he wasn't ready to increase costs or reduce choices for employees yet.

“I'm unwilling to raise anything until somebody can show me that this money is going to be here,” he said.

Also on the March 9 agenda, commissioners will consider a new set of development regulations, rules that govern everything from the types of materials used for paving to how one measures the depth of a detention pond.

The county's engineering staff worked for most of last year rewriting and updating the rules, and the Planning Commission spent several meetings poring over the changes before recommending them to the commission.

Commissioners looked at the changes Feb. 24, but tabled the matter saying they needed more time to digest the volumes of information involved.