By Katie Northcott, News Director
Shelbyville’s Employee Benefits Review Committee had a meeting today with representatives from Tennessee Municipal League (TML) to discuss a change in the insurance policy the committee recommended the City Council adopt.
Peterson Media Group reported on the policy proposal in detail in this article. The original recommendation came before the Shelbyville City Council at its study session last week.
At the time of the meeting, the committee believed that adopting TML’s Gap Insurance Policy would save the city about $260,000. When TML got the hard numbers on the city’s current insurance policy with Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS), the organization realized the projected savings were probably not possible.
“What this program is based on is minimizing disruption and doing our best to enhance and improve the employee experience,” the TML representative said. “We felt that it was prudent–after hearing from BCBS–to suggest some changes to what we presented last time. Effectively, your previous plan had a customized co-pay structure that covered some very expensive … specialty medications and biologics.”
The city could not maintain its savings without leaving six to 12 employees vulnerable to high specialty drug costs. The previously proposed plan would leave employees liable for half of the expense of specialty drugs like Biktarvy and Humira.
“You’re talking $5,000 to $7,000 a month for people to take those medicines,” the TML representative said. “That’s the thing that has driven a lot of the increases especially on the insurance side and the cost of healthcare, lately.”
With the updated proposal, the city is still set to save about $85,000 on major medical insurance and will save $12,000 to $14,000 after including dental and vision benefits in their plan. The specialty drug co-pay will be $140.
The proposal is below:
The committee was disappointed but agreed that TML’s policy still offered a small savings as well as better benefits for city employees. However, City Attorney Ginger Shofner encouraged the committee to keep looking for better insurance options.
“Even if you accepted this and moved forward with this, it doesn’t prevent you from continuing to see if you can come up with another way,” Shofner said.
The committee unanimously approved a positive recommendation for TML’s policy and recommended adding advanced dental and vision benefits to the plan. The policy would take effect Jan. 1, 2026, and would be up for renewal in July 2026.
The recommendation came eight hours before the City Council meeting at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 13.
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