Bucks Commissioners Want Less Intrusive Audit of County Workers' Health Coverage
By Brad Segall
DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (CBS) -- Officials in Bucks County, Pa. are now taking a second look at whether the county will investigate the health care coverage it provides its government workers.
The reconsideration comes after some details were revealed of the how the audit was being done.
The audit is designed to verify the identities of children and husbands and wives who are listed as dependents on taxpayer-funded health care plans. However, the program could require employees to provide their tax returns to a third party -- a move that county commissioner Charley Martin says intrudes too far into the lives of county employees.
"When I found that out, that was to me particularly offensive," he tells KYW Newsradio, "and we raised the issue at the meeting and suggested that the company provide alternative ways to obtain that information."
There are nearly 2,400 government workers in Bucks County. Each dependent on those health plans costs the county between $4,000 and $6,000 a year.
Martin points out that spouses pass away, couples divorce, and children age out, so the savings to the county could be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars if the audit finds a significant number of claimed dependents who shouldn't be covered.
