Government

Southold Town looks to join health care savings program

Southold Town is looking into joining Suffolk County’s self-insured program to save costs on medical coverage for non-police town employees, according to the supervisor.

Supervisor Scott Russell is preparing to file the 2018 budget by Sept. 30 and present it in the following days.

“We’re in pretty good shape,” he said of the budget as a whole. “There are no surprises here.”

Switching to the county’s insurance program would save the town “minimally $855,000” each year, Mr. Russell said. Current costs per employee with family coverage are $24,600 annually, while the county’s program would cost about $18,000, he said. There are 114 family plan subscribers among town workers.

Making the switch would require a change at the state level, as the program already covers its maximum of three entities, he said.

Southold used to operate its own self-insurance account but rolled out of that to switch to Empire insurance, which is run by the state.

[email protected]