Fayette

County employees may have to use preferred

providers for medical service or else pay higher

insurance premiums.

County

commissioners tomorrow will continue a discussion

of employees' insurance benefits that began last

week. Tomorrow's meeting is at 7 p.m. at the

County Administrative Complex.

"Insurance

costs were up 19 percent last year," said

commission Chairman Harold Bost, "and

they'll go up another 15 percent this year if

there's no change," he added.

Claims

are up 15 percent, Bost added.

Under

a preferred provider system, employees would be

able to choose from a list of preferred doctors

and hospitals, rather than having the same

benefit no matter which doctors they use. A

worker would still be able to choose his or her

own doctor, but if the doctor was not on the

preferred list, a larger percentage of the cost

would come out of the employee's pockets.

Bost

said county officials are working to make sure

that the preferred list includes the doctors on

staff at Fayette Community Hospital before

recommending the change.

Pointing

out that there is about a $1.3 million reserve in

the county's self-insurance fund, Commissioner

Herb Frady said last week he wasn't ready to

increase costs or reduce choices for employees

yet.

"I'm

unwilling to raise anything until somebody can

show me that this money is going to be

here," he said.

Also

on the March 9 agenda, commissioners will

consider a new set of development regulations,

rules that govern everything from the types of

materials used for paving to how one measures the

depth of a detention pond.

The

county's engineering staff worked for most of

last year rewriting and updating the rules, and

the Planning Commission spent several meetings

poring over the changes before recommending them

to the commission.

Commissioners

looked at the changes Feb. 24, but tabled the

matter saying they needed more time to digest the

volumes of information involved.

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