The county’s initiative to give its employees a greater say in the decision making behind their most valuable asset appears to be making strides.

The Cass County Board of Commissioners accepted a recommendation from the county insurance committee to bring in a new consultancy firm to handle the county’s health insurance needs. The committee suggested that the government switch to Kalamazoo-based Rose Street Advisors for its consulting, from Saginaw-based firm Brown & Brown Insurance.

The committee’s recommendation followed a series of interviews they conducted with representatives from Brown & Brown, Rose Street and two other insurance consultancy firms, Burnham & Flower Insurance Group (also from Kalamazoo) and R&R Benefits/Risk Management, LLC (based out of South Bend). The decision was made after a 6-5 vote by the members to go with Rose Street.

“I think people are interested in having a more open dialog, and they believe, based on the presentation from Rose Street, that they are open to different ways to seek out solutions for the county that might be different from things that we’ve previously considered,” said Family Court Administrator Carol Bealor, a member of the committee that wrote the report for the board.

The members also gathered feedback about Brown & Brown from the Cass County Medical Care Facility and Woodlands Behavioral Healthcare about their quality of service. While they reported being satisfied with the insurance consultant, the committee report noted that both organizations are smaller groups than the county, with employees using different plans in comparison.

The report also noted Rose Street currently provides insurance consulting for a number of other regional organizations, including the Cass/Van Buren Health Department as well as the St. Joseph and Van Buren county governments. The organizations they reached out to for comment gave positive remarks about the firm’s advisors.

While the pricing for each carrier came out to be about even, what convinced the committee to lead toward Rose Street was its ability to “think outside the box” in terms of delivering services that would match county employee needs, the report said.

“Part of the burden with what happens with this healthcare is whether we ask for the service that we need, and we ask our employees ‘what do you need,’ and make sure the two meet,” said Board Chairperson Bernie Williamson. “There’s been this apparent void, and it’s not to say Brown & Brown couldn’t have done it, but we’re hoping to find a provider who will come out of the gate saying, ‘we’re aware that you need to know this and we’re going to help you bridge that gap.’”

The insurance committee itself began meeting earlier this year as way to address concerns about how the county has handled health insurance for its employees in the past, and how to make the decision-making process more transparent. The group, comprised of employees from a variety county offices, has met six times this year, the report states.

“The insurance committee was really, really committed,” said Commissioner Roseann Marchetti. “We had anywhere from 12 to 15 at every meeting, and every meeting was an hour and a half or more. There were lots and lots of questions asked. Every part of the county was well represented and for the most part very well represented.”

The committee still has several more tasks lined up over the next three months, including scheduling times for employees to meet with the new consultants, compiling the results from surveys distributed to employees and determining further plan recommendations for the county moving forward.