During a special meeting Friday, the Mississippi County Quorum Court amended an appropriation ordinance from $200, 000 to $660,000 on county employee insurance claims from 2019 that have yet to be paid out.
Justice Michael White said the original $200,000 was appropriated to simply start the process.
“We came back together and collectively as a court, ‘why not go ahead with the full amount?’ Once the process starts, we don’t want another stumbling block, we want to keep going,” White said. “It's just that we’re struggling to get the process started. But this is the first step that’s got to be taken, making the money available. And this will cover all known unpaid claims.”
Gathering all exact information between the insurance provider, Performance Health, and the county has slowed the process.
“We’ve been at this since I’ve been on the court for nine months, and it’s embarrassing,” Justice Reggie Cullom said. “We have some people that work for us who have hospital bills in excess of 20 and in some cases $40,000. When that happens, elective surgeries will not be done because the bill is not paid. That means [no surgery] for hernias and things like that to put people back to work. I know that our hands are tied but we need to step on somebody’s toes.”
Mississippi County Judge John Alan Nelson suggested that when negotiating medical insurance in the future, it should be purchased under the governance of the Arkansas Insurance Commission.
The county also approved an appropriation that would provide an incentive for all county employees to become fully vaccinated. However, with new directives from the governor requiring all entities with over 100 employees to be vaccinated, there was some resistance to do so.
Still, the court voted to continue with the $175 incentives due to already presenting this to county employees and the timing of their decision.
“Since we put it out there the first time, as a court we have to follow through with it,” Justice Cecil McDonald said. “I understand about seeking further information after the governor's ruling, but this was before that decision.”
Justice Tobye McClanahan also added, “If we would’ve had a quorum at the last meeting, we would’ve voted on this before we ever even knew that the governor made that [decision]. Our employees are expecting it, and some may have even got vaccinated simply for this for all we know.”
The court also voted to implement a hiring freeze unit the first of the year.
“We’re trying to realign some positions in a few departments,” Justice Rick Ash said. “This way, when we do that, we won’t get too many people in there and [eventually] have to lay somebody off. We’ll let attrition take care of some of our issues.”