City of Quincy to begin process of moving to new insurance broker

QUINCY — Treasurer Linda Moore and Comptroller Sheri Ray have been working on tracking down money paid to the city’s third party administrator and money that had previously been unaccounted for.

Moore and Ray went before the Quincy City Council Monday night ad reported the city has spent nearly $1.98 with Coalition Health since since the beginning of 2022 and as of last week, all but about $285,000 had been accounted for, but those dollars are being held by Coalition in order to cover remaining outstanding claims through the end of the year.

The city officials requested and received monthly bank statements from Coalition, confirmed wire transfers and cross check the numbers with local medical providers.

“Sheri (Ray) and I then have spent probably close to 100 hours or more over the last two weeks combing through 1500 documents,” Moore told the aldermen.

American Public Life, the city’s supplemental insurance carrier, also refunded the city $675,365 instead of paying on city claims. The city’s insurance consultant, Jim Baxter of Coalition, said half of that would be needed to cover outstanding claims.

Moore said at one point, Coalition was also paying claims to Blessing Health directly in large sums through wire transfers and Blessing rejected that payment method because it was bypassing the employees’ patient account.

Alderman Mike Farha (R-4th Ward) called that method of payment a “red flag” and called for better vetting of future vendors, although Moore said paying with wire transfers was common when dealing with large sums.

“We should never go through this again, without having a background check,” said Farha, who has been critical of Baxter throughout this process. “Let me just tell you on my own research…I found 12, not one, not two, not three, not four, that you can find in the group and I found 12 separate shell companies.”

Farha added that while shell companies aren’t in and of themselves illegal, Baxter’s name is one that is consistently part of all of them.

The City Council has made clear it no longer wants to do business with Baxter and Coalition and its Personnel Committee took steps to move toward a new provider, although employees will still have to deal with Coalition through the end of the calendar year.

Human Resources Director Jennifer Winking said Mike McGaughey with AJ Gallagher Insurance has been recommended and as the transition is made, she hopes to begin open enrollment by the end of November.

Moore said she would recommended staying with Blue Cross Blue Shield. Gallagher would be new broker in that process.