| 11/13/2008 3:00:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | County reviews projects to submit for federal stimulus funding, discusses health care options
Sara Denhart
Courier Staff Writer
With a downturned national economy, the federal government is offering a stimulus package for counties.
Carroll County Judge-Executive Harold "Shorty" Tomlinson said federal government officials wanted him to provide a list of construction projects that need to be funded and that could be started in the next 30 to 60 days and completed within the next year.
With the criteria in mind, Tomlinson chose several projects from Carroll County that needed to be funded. The projects include three projects for the Carroll County Memorial Hospital, the bridge over Lewis Road and four water and sewer projects, totaling about $7.6 million.
For the hospital, Chief Executive Officer Kanute Rarey requested a new senior care program space, which would add about 2,000-square-feet to the hospital campus.
The project would cost about $465,000 to complete with construction and furniture purchases. It would provide offices, group room and counseling space to support a senior mental health service area. The program would also provide transportation to seniors.
Overall, the new facility would add jobs of a part-time psychiatrist, social worker, registered nurse and receptionist/transportation assistant.
The next project Rarey suggested for the hospital was to refurbish 10,000 square feet of service space that consists of 25 patient rooms in the medical surgical section of the hospital. The area of the hospital is more than 30 years old and needs new doors, fixtures, windows, plumbing, electrical, cabinetry, medical gas and vacuum systems, heating and air conditioning, and flooring. The nurse call system, overhead paging system, security monitoring system, exterior doors and electronic accessories also need updating. The cost of the project is about $1.95 million to complete.
Finally, the hospital would like to have a 3,000-square-foot facility added to the hospital campus that would provide space for primary care physicians and specialty services. The hospital does not have any additional space to house these programs and related health services. The new addition would bring in new physicians and service providers to Carroll County. The cost of this project would be about $2.7 million.
Carrollton Utilities manager Bill Osborne submitted four projects to upgrade water and sewer facilities in the county.
The first project would be to upgrade the six-inch forcemain from Worthville to the Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant to a 10-inch ductile iron or other forcemain. The expansion would reduce odors inside the city by more frequent pumping. The cost would be $614,000.
The next project would be the elimination of the Ghent Wastewater Treatment Plant. To eliminate the plant, a pump station and forcemain would be connected to the Carrollton sanitary sewer system. The project would provide gravity sewer service to 10 homes along Burley Estates Drive and would make sewers available to all of U.S. 42 from Carrollton to Ghent. The cost of the project is $350,000.
Osborne suggest another project that would provide sanitary sewer service to English, which uses septic systems, and the Interstate 71 interchange. The project combined would eliminate more than 50 septic systems that discharge into the ground and into Mill Creek. The cost of the project is $790,000.
Osborne also suggested a project that would provide water to 12 unserved customers and improved service for more than 80 customers in the West Carroll Water District. The project will provide a vital loop in the system and pressure improvement in the majority of the system. The cost of the project is $490,102.
Tomlinson also suggested a county project that includes the construction of a new bridge over Lewis Road. The existing bridge is in poor condition and would be replaced with a 16-by 80-foot bridge with no impacts to the Black Rock Creek, which runs underneath the bridge. The replacement bridge allows the county to save money on not having to obtain permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, if they chose to put culverts in the area instead. The cost of the project is $220,000.
"They are trying to jump start the economy," Tomlinson said about the stimulus package. "They are looking for jobs to put people back to work."
As a final step of submitting the projects to the local congressmen and senators, Tomlinson had to come up with the number of jobs that the projects would create with the construction and the number of permanent jobs the projects would create. He was to submit those numbers Wednesday afternoon.
Insurance plans for employees
The Carroll County Fiscal Court reviewed the county employees' health care plan renewal options Wednesday morning.
The county uses Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield as a health insurance provider. For the same plan next year, the county will have to pay an additional 18 percent over last year's cost, said Scott Brown, a registered health underwriter with Phil Brown Insurance Agency Inc. in Louisville.
The county has 64 employees enrolled into their health care employees with more than 70 employees total who are eligible to enroll. One of the more serious diseases the insurance company has dealt with from one of the county employees is a chronic kidney disease. The average age of a county employee on the health insurance plan is 47, and many employees covered are between the ages of 55 and 59.
The number of claims from inpatient services has gone down, Brown said. Compared to last year, the claims were 59 percent. Now, the claims are 29 percent. Outpatient service claims are up 188 claims from last year and a total of 442 claims were made. About 80 percent of members have claims that are less than $5,000. One member had a claim of more than $100,000, Brown said.
Emergency room visits are down from last year as well. Brown said 39 members were treated in the emergency room for a total of 62 visits to the emergency room. Also, urgent care visits are up from last year with addition of an urgent care center in La Grange.
Most of the county's employees use physicians at Carroll County Memorial Hospital or go to doctors in Louisville, Brown said. A few use services in Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati.
Prescription drugs are being used frequently, Brown said. About 34 percent of the prescription drugs county employees take are brand name prescription drugs and account for 79 percent of the cost, while 20 percent of the cost is for generic drugs.
Brown suggested if the county continues to use Anthem next year that they consider the alternate plan the company has offered, so employees can receive the benefit of the insurance company's health rewards program. The program provides education and incentives for healthy lifestyles. Employees who enroll into a smoking cessation program and complete it could earn a $50 gift card.
Another option the county has is to use the Anthem plan provided by the Kentucky Association of Counties. The plan uses the same coverage the county currently has for the same price but offers vision benefits for no charge.
The county could switch to Bluegrass Family Health for its insurance needs next year. The rates would increase 10 percent from last year's cost, but Bluegrass offers an identical plan to Anthem's options. However, Bluegrass has no network providers in Cincinnati and does not use King's Daughters' Hospital in Madison. The company does have a strong network in Carroll County and Louisville.
UnitedHealth Group provides the "most competitive" plan, Brown said, with the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce health care plan discount. The program is designed for Chamber member companies with 100 employees or less. The cost would be a 2 percent overall increase and the plans would match the ones the county currently uses.
"We need time to go over these numbers and see what we want to do," Tomlinson said. "We need to make a decision."
No decision was made. The Fiscal Court will review the plans at a future meeting.
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