LRBs0095/1
RAC/PJK/JTK/MES:cjs:rs
2003 - 2004 LEGISLATURE
ASSEMBLY SUBSTITUTE AMENDMENT 1,
TO 2003 ASSEMBLY BILL 304
June 4, 2003 - Offered by Representatives McCormick, Albers, Gielow, Grothman,
Gunderson, Hahn, Hines, Jensen, Kestell, Krawczyk, Ladwig, F. Lasee,
Lothian, Musser, Pettis, Seratti, Stone, Van Roy, Vrakas, Vukmir, Weber,
Wieckert and J. Wood.
AB304-ASA1,2,8
1An Act to renumber and amend 62.61 and 66.0137 (5);
to amend 40.02 (25)
2(bm), 66.0137 (1), 111.70 (1) (a), 111.70 (4) (cm) 7r. d., 111.70 (4) (cm) 7r. e., 111.70
3(4) (cm) 7r. f., 111.70 (4) (cm) 7r. g., 111.70 (4) (cm) 7r. h. and 632.797 (5); and
4to create 22.07 (10), 22.07 (11), 62.61 (2), 62.61 (3), 66.0137 (5) (b), (c) and (d),
5111.70 (4) (c) 2m., 111.70 (4) (jm) 4m., 111.70 (4) (n), 111.70 (4) (o), 111.77 (6)
6(dm), 601.41 (10), 601.41 (11), 601.41 (12), 610.66 and 632.797 (1) (d) of the
7statutes;
relating to: collective bargaining over health care coverage for
8municipal employees; allowing municipal employers to change health care
9coverage plan providers; factors considered in rendering a collective bargaining
10arbitration decision; requiring the Group Insurance Board to prepare a report
11on offering group health insurance plans at different cost levels to local
12government employers and employees; requiring the Group Insurance Board
13to offer for purchase long-term care insurance policies to employees of local
1governments; convening a task force to conduct a feasibility study on forming
2a state pool for the bulk purchasing of prescription drugs; disclosure of health
3insurance claims experience of local governmental units; bids submitted to
4local governmental units for health insurance; requiring the Commissioner of
5Insurance to promulgate rules establishing uniform forms for local government
6health care coverage requests for proposals and health claims experience and
7summarizing benefits provided under health care benefit plans; and granting
8rule-making authority.
Analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau
This substitute amendment makes several changes to health insurance plans
and other benefits offered to local government employees.
Collective bargaining
Under the Municipal Employment Relations Act (MERA), all matters relating
to wages, hours, and conditions of employment are subject to collective bargaining.
This substitute amendment provides that local governmental employers, with the
exception of school district employers with respect to their professional employees,
are prohibited from bargaining over the selection of a health care coverage plan if the
employer offers to enroll its employees in a plan provided to local government
employers by the Group Insurance Board or in a plan that is substantially similar
to the plan offered by the Group Insurance Board. Under the substitute amendment,
the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI) must promulgate rules that set
out standardized benefits under health care coverage plans and that may be used for
determining whether any health care coverage plan is similar to the plan offered by
the group insurance board.
In addition, the substitute amendment provides that under MERA any
employer may unilaterally change its employees' health care coverage plan provider
if the benefits remain substantially the same and the actual providers of the health
care are the same. The substitute amendment requires, however, that 50% of the net
savings that accrue to the employer as a result of changing the health care coverage
plan provider must be used to increase the wages paid to the employees affected by
the change or the pay wage-related costs incurred by the employer for those
employees in the 12-month period following the effective date of the change.
Under MERA, for labor disputes that go to arbitration, the arbitrator or
arbitration panel must consider a variety of factors, some of which are given
"greatest weight"; some of which are given "greater weight"; and some of which must
simply be considered. Among the factors that must simply be considered are the
wages, hours, and conditions of employment of employees providing similar services
and of employees in public and in private employment in the same and comparable
communities. This substitute amendment provides that the arbitrator or arbitration
panel must consider the wages, hours, and conditions of employment of the
employees as a whole and not in isolation. In addition, another factor that must be
considered is the average consumer prices for goods and services, commonly known
as the cost of living. The substitute amendment provides that included in this cost
of living factor are the average housing costs and other costs significantly affecting
the quality of life.
Health insurance plan study
This substitute amendment requires the Group Insurance Board to study the
feasibility of developing a group health insurance plan with at least three cost levels
and a low-cost health insurance plan that provides coverage for catastrophic illness
or injury.
Long-term care insurance
Under current law, the Group Insurance Board offers to state employees a
long-term care insurance plan in which a state employee may purchase for himself
or herself or for his or her spouse or parent or spouse's parent long-term care
insurance. This substitute amendment requires the Group Insurance Board to offer
this insurance to other government employers and their employees.
Interagency task force on bulk purchasing of prescription drugs
This substitute amendment directs the Secretary of Administration to organize
an interagency task force on bulk purchasing of prescription drugs. The task force
must examine the following: which state agencies would benefit from the bulk
purchasing of prescription drugs; which methods of purchasing prescription drugs
would result in the greatest cost savings; whether the state should directly
administer the bulk purchasing of prescription drugs or whether the state should
contract with a private entity; whether combining prescription drug purchasing
efforts with other states is feasible and cost effective; how local governmental units
could participate in the bulk purchasing of prescription drugs; whether it is feasible
to include private sector entities in the bulk purchasing of prescription drugs; and
the estimated cost savings that could be realized from the bulk purchasing of
prescription drugs.
Solicitation of health insurance bids
Current law authorizes local governmental employers (which includes cities,
villages, towns, counties, school districts, sewerage districts, drainage districts, and
any other political subdivisions of the state) to offer health care coverage to their
employees and employees' spouses and dependents. This substitute amendment
requires OCI to promulgate rules developing a uniform form that a local government
must use to solicit bids for its employees' health care coverage; requires insurers to
use the form to submit bids to local governments; requires local governments that
receive the bids to submit information about the bids to the Department of Electronic
Government (DEG); and requires DEG to make the information available to the
public, except information relating to a local government that has fewer than 50
employees.
Health claims experience
Under current law, an insurer must provide aggregate claims experience
information, upon request, to the policyholder of a group health insurance policy and
to an employer that provides health care coverage to its employees through a
multiple-employer trust. This requirement applies only if the policyholder or
employer provides coverage under the policy for at least 50 individuals, excluding
individuals who are covered as dependents. Information must be provided for the
current policy period and for up to two immediately preceding policy periods if the
insurer provided coverage during those periods, but information is not required to
be provided for any period of time that is before 18 months before the date of the
request. The insurer must provide the information within 30 days after receiving the
request and may not charge for providing the information one time in a 12-month
period but may charge for additional requests during that time period.
This substitute amendment does the following:
1. Requires a local governmental unit, which includes a city, village, town,
county, school district, sewerage district, drainage district, and any other political
subdivision of the state, that requests aggregate group health claims experience that
an insurer is required to provide to notify DEG when the local governmental unit
requests the information.
2. Requires an insurer to provide to DEG the aggregate group health claims
experience information that it provides to a local governmental unit at the same time
that the insurer provides the information to the local governmental unit.
3. Requires OCI to develop, by rule, a uniform form for insurers to use when
providing aggregate group health claims experience information to local
governmental units and requires insurers to use the form when providing the
information to local governmental units and to DEG.
4. Requires DEG to make the aggregate group health claims experience
information that it receives from insurers available to the public, except that, prior
to making the information available to the public, DEG must provide written
notification of the proposed release to each local governmental unit to which the
information relates. If the local governmental unit files a written request with DEG
to withhold the information relating to that local governmental unit from public
access, DEG must withhold the information from public access.
The people of the state of Wisconsin, represented in senate and assembly, do
enact as follows:
AB304-ASA1,5,52
22.07
(10) Make available to the public without charge to local governmental
3units, the information received from local governmental units under s. 66.0137 (5)
4(c), except information received from local governmental units that have fewer than
150 employees, in a manner determined by the department to enable the general
2public to make meaningful comparisons of the bids received. The department shall
3specify the format that local governmental units shall use in submitting the
4information and shall make information about the format readily available to local
5governmental units.
AB304-ASA1,5,147
22.07
(11) Make available to the public the aggregate group health claims
8experience information received from insurers under s. 632.797 (1) (d) in the manner
9determined by the department. Prior to making the information available to the
10public, the department shall provide written notification of the proposed release to
11each local governmental unit to which the information relates. If the local
12governmental unit files a written request with the department to withhold the
13information relating to that unit from public access under s. 19.35 (1), the
14department shall withhold that information from public access under s. 19.35 (1).
AB304-ASA1, s. 3
15Section
3. 40.02 (25) (bm) of the statutes is amended to read:
AB304-ASA1,5,2316
40.02
(25) (bm) For the purpose of long-term care insurance, in addition to any
17state annuitant under s. 40.02 (54m), any employee
of the state who received a salary
18or wages
from an employer in the previous calendar year, and any participant who
19was at one time employed by the state who receives a lump sum payment under s.
2040.25 (1) which would have been an immediate annuity if paid as an annuity, if the
21employee is a resident of this state and meets all of the requirements for an
22immediate annuity including filing of an application, whether or not final
23administrative action has been taken.
AB304-ASA1, s. 4
24Section
4. 62.61 of the statutes is renumbered 62.61 (1) and amended to read:
AB304-ASA1,6,16
162.61
(1) Health insurance; 1st class cities. The common council of a 1st
2class city may, by ordinance or resolution, provide for, including the payment of
3premiums of, general hospital, surgical and group insurance for both active and
4retired city officers and city employees and their respective dependents in private
5companies, or may, by ordinance or resolution, elect to offer to all of its employees a
6health care coverage plan through a program offered by the group insurance board
7under ch. 40. Municipalities which elect to participate under s. 40.51 (7) are subject
8to the applicable sections of ch. 40 instead of this
section subsection. Contracts for
9insurance under this
section subsection may be entered into for active officers and
10employees separately from contracts for retired officers and employees.
11Appropriations may be made for the purpose of financing insurance under this
12section subsection. Moneys accruing to a fund to finance insurance under this
13section subsection, by investment or otherwise, may not be diverted for any other
14purpose than those for which the fund was set up or to defray management expenses
15of the fund or to partially pay premiums to reduce costs to the city or to persons
16covered by the insurance, or both.
AB304-ASA1,6,2118
62.61
(2) If a 1st class city solicits bids to provide health care coverage under
19sub. (1), the 1st class city shall use the uniform local governmental health care
20coverage request-for-proposals form developed by the commissioner of insurance
21under s. 601.41 (10) to solicit the bids.
AB304-ASA1,7,323
62.61
(3) A 1st class city shall submit information about a bid it receives to the
24department of electronic government in the format specified under s. 22.07 (10) no
25later than 30 days after the bid is received or, in the case of a sealed bid, no later than
130 days after the bid is opened. At the time the information is submitted to the
2department of electronic government, the 1st class city shall do at least one of the
3following:
AB304-ASA1,7,44
(a) Post the same information on the city's Internet site, if any.
AB304-ASA1,7,65
(b) Post notice on the city's Internet site, if any, that the information has been
6submitted to the department of electronic government.
AB304-ASA1,7,107
(c) Post or publish as a class 1 notice under ch. 985 a statement that the
8information has been submitted to the department of electronic government and will
9be available on the state's Internet site, if any, or a statement that the information
10may be viewed at a specified location in the 1st class city, or both.
AB304-ASA1,7,1512
66.0137
(1) Definition. In this section, "local governmental unit" means a city,
13village, town, county, school district
(as enumerated in s. 67.01 (5)), sewerage
14district, drainage district, and
, without limitation because of enumeration, any other
15political subdivision of the state.
AB304-ASA1, s. 8
16Section
8. 66.0137 (5) of the statutes is renumbered 66.0137 (5) (a) amended
17to read:
AB304-ASA1,8,218
66.0137
(5) (a) The state or a local governmental unit may provide for the
19payment of premiums for hospital, surgical and other health and accident insurance
20and life insurance for employees and officers and their spouses and dependent
21children. A local governmental unit may also provide for the payment of premiums
22for hospital and surgical care for its retired employees. In addition, a local
23governmental unit may, by ordinance or resolution, elect to offer to all of its
24employees a health care coverage plan through a program offered by the group
25insurance board under ch. 40. A local governmental unit that elects to participate
1under s. 40.51 (7) is subject to the applicable sections of ch. 40 instead of this
2subsection paragraph.
AB304-ASA1, s. 9
3Section
9. 66.0137 (5) (b), (c) and (d) of the statutes are created to read:
AB304-ASA1,8,74
66.0137
(5) (b) If a local governmental unit solicits bids to provide health care
5coverage under par. (a), the local governmental unit shall use the uniform local
6governmental health care coverage request-for-proposals form developed by the
7commissioner of insurance under s. 601.41 (10) to solicit the bids.
AB304-ASA1,8,138
(c) A local governmental unit shall submit information about a bid it receives
9to the department of electronic government in the format specified under s. 22.07 (10)
10no later than 30 days after the bid is received or, in the case of a sealed bid, no later
11than 30 days after the bid is opened. Except as provided in par. (d), at the time the
12information is submitted to the department of electronic government, the local
13governmental unit shall do at least one of the following:
AB304-ASA1,8,1414
1. Post the same information on the local government's Internet site, if any.
AB304-ASA1,8,1715
2. Post notice on the local government's Internet site, if any, that the
16information has been submitted to the department of electronic government and will
17be available on the state's Internet site, if any.
AB304-ASA1,8,2118
3. Post or publish as a class 1 notice under ch. 985 a statement that the
19information has been submitted to the department of electronic government and will
20be available on the state's Internet site, if any, or a statement that the information
21may be viewed at a specified location in the local governmental unit, or both.
AB304-ASA1,8,2322
(d) Paragraph (c) does not apply to a local governmental unit that has fewer
23than 50 employees.