In an effort to combat rising health care costs, the City, in partnership with the Nevada Health Partners, issued a request for proposal (RFP) to Saint Mary's Regional Medical Center and Renown for hospital services.  Darren Sivertson, an outside consultant was retained to assist in the development and evaluation of a detailed RFP, as well as in detailed analysis of the responses.   Nevada Health Partners is comprised of various local public and private entities to include: City of Reno, Washoe County, Washoe County School District, the Nugget, NV Energy, and Atlantis Hotel Casino, to name a few.  The negotiating process began in January of 2015 with the final recommendation from the contracting committee to Nevada Health Partners as a whole being made in August. 

The City is self-insured, which means that the it pays all health insurance claims out of the Health Insurance Fund. The past couple of years have created challenges with the rising cost of medical care. The new proposed agreement with Renown will take a step in helping to keep those rising medical costs under control. The financial savings to the City through this agreement, will be approximately $600,000 for the three year period.

The City is sensitive to employees who are currently with Saint Mary’s and who will need to switch to Renown. Hometown Health has committed to the City to work with all members to help them navigate through this transition. There will be a dedicated line that employees can call to seek help in finding a new doctor, ask questions, or to just make sure they are accessing the network correctly. Working with Hometown Health to address what this change will mean in terms of disruption to the members, detailed comparisons of medical providers on Saint Mary’s plan that are also on the Hometown Health network of providers, as well as those who will not be preferred providers has been completed. With regards to retirees who live outside of the area, the panel of providers that are currently accessed through the Saint Mary’s contract are the same for Hometown Health, so there will be no need to switch providers.

1.The CIty Council may approve the participaton in an agreement negotiated by Nevada Health Partners (NHP) with Renown Medical Center and Hometown Health for the provision of group hospital, network, and third party administration (TPA) services for the City's employees and retirees covered by the Group Health Insurance Plan as recommended by Staff and authorization for the City Manager to execute agreements for these services.

2. The City Council may not approve the participation in an agreement negotiated by Nevada Health Partners (NHP) with Renown Medical Center and Hometown Health for the provision of group hospital, network, and third party administration (TPA) services fo the City's employees and retirees covered by the Group Health Insurace Plan as recommended by Staff and authorization for the City Manager to execute agreements for these services.

3. The City Council may not approve participation in an agreement negotiated by Nevada Health Partners (NHP) with Renown Medical Center and Hometown Health for the provision of group hospital, network, and third party administration (TPA) services for the City's employees and retirees covered by the Group Health Insurance Plan as  recommended and authorization for the City Manager to execute agreements for these services,.and direct Staff to other alternatives.

I move to approve participation in an agreement negotiated by Nevada Health Partners (NHP) with Renown Medical Center and Hometown Health for the provision of group hospital, network, and third party administration (TPA) services for the city's employees and retirees covered by the Group Health Insurance Plan as recommended by staff and authorization for the City Manager to execute agreements for these services.