Medical costs for municipal employees and the town are growing so rapidly that officials have been looking to determine how – or if – Belmont can control them.

To that end, the Warrant Committee reached out at its Wednesday, Oct. 26 meeting for more information on recent changes in state law that gave municipalities new tools for controlling health-care costs.

John Robertson and Kelly McCue of the Massachusetts Municipal Association joined the committee to provide information on Chapter 19, the local option through which communities can enact changes in the health-care features offered to municipal employees.

Robertson and McCue also discussed whether it makes sense for the town to join the state’s Group Insurance Commission (GIC) health care arrangement.

Ultimately, members of the committee – along with Town Administrator Tom Younger – took what they heard during the discussion along with the advice of Town Moderator Mike Widmer (former chairman of the Warrant Committee and president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation) and agreed the plan design option looks much more promising than joining the GIC.

Therefore, the committee will be conducting a proof of concept analysis of the plan design option. The next step will be discussing the result of that analysis with the Board of Selectmen. Belmont Patch intends to report specifics of this plan design concept immediately after the meeting.

Ultimately, the Selectmen will decide whether in principle they would like to move forward with the proposed tools and pay a consultant for an outside analysis.

With the new legislation, Robertson explained Belmont could enter negotiations with its municipal unions with a 30-day period to bargain over health plan design changes.

The negotiations, he said, would include following the law of sharing 25 percent of savings in the first year among employees to counterbalance any shift in health care costs to the town workers.

Should an agreement not be reached within that time frame, Robertson pointed out, it would be handed over to a three-member arbitration panel.

30-day time line

“Communities are highly motivated to reach agreement in the first 30 days,” Robertson said. “The panel would be looking at how you do the calculations and assess whether it’s a fair calculation.”

The new legislation allows communities to increase co-payments and deductibles up to the amount included in the most popular health-insurance plan offered by the GIC to state employees.

Robertson said many communities are using consultants to walk them through the process and advised that officials compare Belmont’s current health-care plan for employees with the state’s GIC or with plan re-design.

Warrant Committee Chairman Elizabeth Allison said there does not seem to be any financial downside to the town looking into a plan design option as it would lower the rate of increase in employees’ health care costs.

Should Belmont wish to switch to the insurance exchange run by the state Robertson said, it would have to prove savings of five percent more on such features as co-payments and deductibles.

Moreover, Belmont would be obligated to stay in the program for three years.

Robert McLaughlin asked if the town, should it switch to the plan, be able to get out of it in later years.

After three years, Robertson said, Belmont could opt out of the GIC plan.

Younger noted if the state decides to impose a 20 percent increase in premiums, hike co-payments or change the benefits midway through the contract "the town does not have a say."

At last night’s meeting, Selectmen Vice Chairman Mark Paolillo – liaison to the Warrant Committee – said the board will meet with the town’s labor counsel on Nov. 7 to discuss options.