County health care scare
Officials at the county were very concerned that our story last week about the dispute with local doctors was giving county employees the incorrect message that their health care was at risk. I agreed to do a follow up, which ran Saturday, to give the county a chance to explain that while the dispute is serious, health care will continue.
All that aside, our conversations with the county over this tell me that the county has been seriously neglecting the employees' best interests here. First of all the HR director does not deny that the county screwed up when it sent some employees to Lake County doctors not in the contract and that the county screwed up when it did not answer the docs' concerns back in March when the dispute first arose. According to the docs, they were due some fee increases during the multi-year life of the contract that didn't appear. The county says, well, that's under negotiation. Interestingly, the county was suddenly "in negotiations" with the docs, who they wouldn't talk to before we did a story saying the docs were ready to cancel the contract and start charging county employees directly. Apparently, one health care clinic in the Willits area did just that.
If I was a county employee, I'd be seriously concerned that the county was about to let the docs start requiring me to pay up front and then try to get my money out of the county later. First of all, who has the money for that? Second, how long would it take for the county to pay up? And this may happen yet if the county and the docs don't come to some agreement by Aug. 28.
Seems to me that while the county is shouting "Everything's OK, you have health care!" to its employees, they are also non-plussed abut the idea that employees may get seriously screwed in the next couple of weeks. I don't call that good health care.