McComb officials are looking to cut down on health insurance expenses and possibly searching for a new provider.
“This year was the first time we had an increase because of the claims,” said Mayor Quordiniah Lockley. “It was the first time in two or three years we had a rate increase of insurance.”
The Oakes & Johnston Agency have provided the city’s insurance and routinely give end-of-year policy updates to the board.
“He is out negotiating with other insurance companies on behalf of the city to determine which insurance would be best for us,” Lockley said of broker Scott Oakes.
James Moody of BXS Insurance pitched the company’s services to city officials Wednesday.
Moody and Reggie Thompson, Southgroup Insurance Services the Evans Agency COO, said they have worked with Greenville, Gulfport and Biloxi. He also said McComb has 180 employees and most of them get their insurance with the city.
“Typically, it’s the second or third largest line in your budget so it’s a pretty significant number,” Moody said. “What we like to do is talk to entities, especially public entities because we know in the state of Mississippi, we have a lot of decline in revenues. We have aging workforces and we use benefits as a way to recruit and retain employees. So we work with municipalities and entities just like yourselves to look at strategic placement of insurance and ways we can approach the healthcare cost in order to maintain, if not drive that cost down.”
