FLEMINGSBURG — Fleming County employees will be covered under a new insurance provider following a decision made by the fiscal court Tuesday.
Fleming County magistrates held several discussions including those involving agreements that needed to be reviewed and renewed and insurance proposals that required selection.
Holly Scoville, representative for NG-KIH Design Build LLC., first spoke to the court about the progress of the Kentucky Wired program.
According to Judge-Executive Larry Foxworthy, the program is intended to install fiber optic cables throughout the state, providing faster communication.
“She just kind of wanted to let us know where the project was,” Foxworthy said. “Their goal is to have all 120 counties serviced by this, and they’re just wanting everybody to know where they are and what the status is.”
Scoville said Fleming County is expected to have the project underway Aug. 17, 2020. According to Foxworthy, fiber optic cables should improve phone line communications, internet speeds and cable television service.
The court held a long discussion regarding a new health insurance provider for employees of the county. Foxworthy said the search for a new company began after the previous provider, Baptist Health, went out of business. The court has been looking for an insurance provider that closely matched Baptist Health’s coverage.
Both the Paris Insurance Agency and the Hinton Agency gave proposals to the court’s consideration.
“Statewide, there wasn’t but three companies that would even be interested in the business, and that was Humana, Anthem and United Health Care,” Foxworthy said. “United Health Care wasn’t competitive on the rates at all, so it automatically eliminated them. Anthem’s came in a lot higher than what we are currently paying. Humana is the only one who submitted a competitive quote, but it was also the company that was representing by both of these agencies. We’ve had the task of deciding which one we were going to use.”
After much deliberation, the court decided upon the Hinton Agency to provide county employees coverage. Foxworthy said the court felt fortunate to find another insurance provider that matched its rates as close to what the county had already been paying.
In other business, the court finalized its budget for the coming fiscal year. Total budgeted revenues amounted to about $5.8 million, with some expenses being nearly $2 million for road funding, $633,000 for the jail, and $491,000 for the dispatch fund. This budget will go into effect July 1.
Snedigar Road and Kingston Drive will soon be removed from the county road system at the request of the land owners who wish the roads to become privately owned.
