Butler County commissioners unanimously approved three revisions to hospitalization and prescription drug coverage in 2027 for eligible full-time, nonunion employees in its renewal of healthcare premium through Highmark during their meeting Wednesday, Oct. 28.

The spending increase was reduced to under 2% from the initial projected surge of 17%, according to Maria Malloy, the county’s director of human resources. She said about $220,000 will be saved annually from the changes to benefits.

Commissioners said they had never seen a renewal cost increase so low before.

“There’s a lot of savings in that,” Commissioner Kevin Boozel said.

Malloy presented the main changes to commissioners, as well as updates to retirement and dental coverage at Wednesday’s board of commissioners meeting.

Changes include increase of deductible for health and prescription drug plans from $250/$500 to $500/$1,000 for all participants hired prior to 2019.

“That matches currently anybody hired after 2019 brought in with the higher deductible,” Malloy said.

The changes also increased prescription co-pays from $5/$20/$40 to $10/$30/$60 and mail-order co-pays from $10/$40/$80 to $20/$60/$120, and removed coverage for anti-obesity medication.

Regarding the dropping of anti-obesity medication coverage, Malloy said Highmark had narrowed its eligibility. “Our coverage initially covered 30% BMI (body mass index) or higher,” she said. Changes that are already in affect raised the figure to 40% BMI or higher, with two co-occurring comorbidities.

Commissioners also approved renewal of dental coverage for county employees at an increase of 3.456% for 2027 and 2028 through United Concordia, and to formally add a Roth Individual Retirement Account (IRA) option for employees.