The healthcare cost is calculated using several components, but the core components are utilization of services, technology, cost shifting, plan design and unit cost. The healthcare trend is the change in Medical Plan (Medical & Pharmacy) cost per member per month for Current Fiscal Year when compared to Prior Fiscal Year. The annual percentage change targeted for this fiscal year is less than the Regional trend. This change represents the current year trend to compare against regional trends for similarly situated employers, with similar plans designs and networks. This metric will allow the City to accurately measure plan performance of its Medical Plan for the purpose of future changes needed to continue to offer a market competitive plan design, while also controlling future costs. Previous annual percentage changes were  FY2017 1.2% and FY2018  -13.43%.

The regional healthcare trend comes from the regional surveys where data is collected by Holmes Murphy from client annual renewals. This data is saved at Holmes Murphy for historical purposes. Information is retrieved from Holmes Murphy via a request by sending an email which states the project and purpose of the data to the current Vice President of Client Service, Morgan Young.

The healthcare trend is the change in Medical Plan (Medical & Pharmacy) cost per member per month for Current Fiscal Year when compared to Prior Fiscal Year; and the data is stored at Holmes Murphy.

% change in annual claim cost = (total claim cost this year - total claim cost last year)/total claim cost last year)*100

% change in annual claim cost is compared to the regional trend.