TESTIMONIAL: Moore County, TX
Recently, a County in the Texas Panhandle hired me to be their Consultant because we recommended strategies and solutions that made a significant impact in their community. For the first time in more than 15 years, Moore County was able to adopt a balanced budget because of the impact our solutions had on the County’s health benefits plan, and the savings those solutions generated.
Carolyn Moore worked for Moore County for more than 15 years, and she wrote this testimonial to share with other Texas Counties and public employers. Thank you so much Carolyn!
My name is Carolyn Moore. I recently retired from being the Administrative Assistant to the Moore County Judge. I worked in that position for over 15 years. For 13 of those years, I worked directly with Judge Rowdy Rhoades. From the beginning of his term, Judge Rhoades asked me to sit in Commissioners’ Court so I have been a party to the budget process for all of those years.
During the process for the 2020-2021 budget, Moore County accomplished something that I hadn’t seen accomplished in all the years I worked for the County. We adopted a balanced budget. Adopting a budget is hard. Everyone in the County feels that their budget requests are necessary, but it is taxpayer money being spent, and it is a huge responsibility for the Commissioners to balance the needs of the departments with fiscal accountability and responsibility.
What are the biggest expenses for your County? For us, it has always been salaries and benefits. I would think that is pretty common for most Counties. It takes good salaries and benefits to keep good quality employees. Health insurance is a big part of the benefits, and a huge expense for the County. How do you know what is the best coverage for the employees? How does the County make sure that they are spending wisely for the coverages needed? It’s a tough aspect of the budget. Commissioners don’t have the time, resources, nor expertise to research what is needed and then figure out how to most economically implement what will work best for the employees and the County at the same time. They need someone who will help them with all of this. It is a big expense and it requires skill and knowledge to go through all the information and options out there.
In April of 2020, Josh Butler came to visit with the Judge and County Treasurer about the choices we had been making regarding our health insurance. We have had a relationship with Josh Butler, President of Butler Benefits & Consulting going back about 8 years. Josh started his relationship with Moore County offering supplemental insurance plans to County employees. He later took over the dental and vision portions of our insurance. He asked the Treasurer if he could visit with her and the Judge about the major medical insurance. So, the Judge, Treasurer and Josh sat down and looked at what the County had been spending and what the County’s claims were over the last several years. He looked at several different options that maintained good coverage that would also save the County and employees money. He found that if the County changed its approach to purchasing insurance, started looking for strategies that would improve the quality of the care employees received, and began looking for innovative ways to invest in the employees’ future, the County could have the best possible outcomes.
Josh was able to show the Judge and Treasurer some options and strategies for managing insurance costs without losing the quality of benefits that the employees had been getting. In fact, Josh’s strategies improved employee benefits. He showed the County there are different ways to approach healthcare that would greatly benefit the County and its employees.
After the visit with the Judge and Treasurer, Josh was scheduled to visit with the Commissioners during a regular meeting of the Court. He came to several meetings, answered all the questions, explained the options, benefits, and risk, and showed the Commissioners how they could offer greater value to our employees while saving the County money, a great deal of money.
Our Commissioners did something that is very hard—they allowed change. Moore County Commissioners voted to hire Josh Butler as a Healthcare Consultant to help Moore County choose the best options and strategies for managing our heath care needs, and in the process, Moore County collectively saved over $500,000.00 in a single year! The solutions and strategies Josh recommended were things Moore County had never been shown before, but they were practical and not too difficult to understand. I believe Josh would be a valuable partner to any employer.
Carolyn is right, Moore County’s Commissioners did something that is very hard – they allowed change. Thank you again Carolyn for your kind testimony and support.
I have enjoyed working with Moore County so far, and look forward to working on Phase Two of our approach with them in the coming months…..stay tuned to hear more about that later!
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