Crawford County Commissioners announced on April 21 that the county has been deeded the one-acre Coffee Community Church property, and on April 28, they decided their next steps in selling it.

On April 21, they voted on getting two real estate agents to appraise the property instead of an appraiser.

Presiding Commissioner Steve Black said that one agent valued the property at $187,000 and the other at $153,000, but neither could enter the building on the property, so they had to look through the windows. Black emailed Attorney Brooks Kenagy, who originally informed the commissioners of the property, on how to access the building, and is waiting for a response.

“It appears that the property is not as dilapidated as I was told on the phone by a local landowner,” Black said. “It’s got a well. They said it looked like the well wasn’t a real old well, 20 years maybe more, in that neighborhood.

Associate Commissioner of District 1 Mark Pfeiffer suggested that they run an ad in the newspaper for two weeks.

“Requesting realtors to bid on their lowest rate, and then we can put that, I believe we do with a six-month contract,” Pfeiffer said.

A motion to accept Pfeiffer’s suggestion was approved with a 3-0 vote. 

The commissioners have been looking at two options for the county’s health insurance: renewing with United Healthcare (UHC) or switching to Anthem.

County insurance broker Dustin Bly, with Legacy Advisors, was unable to make it due to a family emergency, but he did send a letter with his thoughts on the discussion.

“I’m confident that moving forward with the Anthem Blue Access Network would be a strong comparable option for the county. This network closely mirrors UHC’s Choice Plus Network, your current network, including Mercy, Phelps Health and Missouri Baptist, as well as Barnes-Jewish (BJC) and Washington University (WashU),” Bly wrote.

Bly acknowledged that when the county experienced issues when they had Anthem in the past, but many of those were tied to their Blue Preferred Network, which didn’t include BJC or WashU.

“If the commissioners elected Anthem, it would be most advantageous to bundle the ancillary lines, as doing so would provide an additional 2.25 percent reduction in medical rates,” Bly wrote.

It would make the rates 7.4 percent instead of 9.65 percent. 

With UHC, they initially offered a 23 percent rate increase, with a 3 percent rate relief if the county renews with them. Bly has now gotten them to go down to a 17 percent increase.

Associate Commissioner of District 2 Jared Boast did some quick math and said that if they went with Anthem, the county would be spending approximately $75,000 less than renewing with UHC.

“To mitigate the increase, to lessen the blow of the increase, if you change companies and go to Anthem, it’s approximately a $75,000 less expense. It’s not a savings, it’s a less expense,” Boast said.

Sheriff Darin Layman said that when they previously had Anthem, he got a bunch of complaints, but has had none since switching to UHC. He was also concerned about whether there would be a lapse in coverage.

County Clerk Kim Gibbs said that there wouldn’t be, and that Bly explained that this new plan from Anthem is more comparable to the county’s current plan, so there should be fewer complaints if they switched.

Pfeiffer read about some of the ways the plans were different.

“On a specialist, it’s $100 on the UHC, and it’s $70 on Anthem. Your urgent care visit is the exact same $50 copayment. Emergency room visit, you know, is $250 with UHC and $300 with Anthem,” Pfeiffer said.

Boast explained his understanding of the deductible for each plan. With UHC, once the deductible is met, the insurance will pay 80 percent, and the rest is out of pocket. With Anthem, to his understanding, is that once the deductible is met, the insurance will pay 100 percent.

No decision on the health insurance was made because they want Bly to clarify some of the insurance details, so they have tabled the discussion until the next meeting at 9 a.m. on May 5 in the Crawford County Courthouse.