(1)
Creation of the Panel.
(a) The appropriate public authority shall
notify the Secretary by email within three business days after the beginning of
the 30-day negotiation period under
801 CMR
52.04. The notice shall include the start and
end dates of the 30-day negotiation period, and the name and contact
information of the public authority's representative for the health insurance
review panel. The appropriate public authority shall provide each member of the
public employee committee with a copy of the notice to the Secretary.
(b) Within three business days after
receiving copies of notice to the Secretary under 801 CMR 52.05(1)(a), the
public employee committee shall select one representative for the panel and
give notice to the appropriate public authority and the Secretary. If the
public employee committee does not select a representative within three days,
the representative shall be deemed to be the member of the public employee
committee who represents the collective bargaining unit with the largest number
of subscribers. Within ten days after receiving notice from the public employee
committee, or, if no such notice is received, within 13 days of receiving
notice from the appropriate public authority, the Secretary shall provide the
appropriate public authority, the public employee committee, and the designated
panel representatives (the parties) with a list (the list) of three qualified,
impartial potential members available to serve on the review panel. Impartial
members shall have professional experience in dispute mediation and
professional experience in municipal finance or municipal health benefits. The
Secretary shall also provide the parties with the name of an actuary selected
by the Commission to assist the panel in verifying the savings calculations if
no agreement is reached within the 30-day period and a panel is
convened.
(c) Within three business
days after receiving the list, the appropriate public authority and the public
employee committee shall jointly select the third member for the panel from the
list and shall notify the Secretary of their joint selection.
(d) If the appropriate public authority and
the public employee committee cannot agree within three business days on which
person from the list to select as the third member of the review panel, the
notice by the public authority to the Secretary shall include notification that
the parties have been unable to reach agreement on the selection of a name from
the list of potential impartial panel members. If the public authority and the
public employee committee cannot agree, the Secretary shall appoint the
impartial member from the list and notify the parties not later than the end of
the 30-day negotiation period.
(2) If the appropriate public authority and
the public employee committee are unable to reach a written agreement on the
public authority's proposal within 30 calendar days, the matter shall be
submitted to the municipal health insurance review panel. The appropriate
public authority shall submit its original proposal to the panel within three
business days after the end of the 30-day negotiation period, with a copy sent
to the Secretary and each member of the public employee committee. The
appropriate public authority shall submit to the panel the same proposal that
it made to the public employee committee. If the proposal includes the
introduction of a limited network plan, the appropriate public authority shall
provide an enrollment survey, a determination of which subscribers would enroll
in a broad plan and which subscribers would enroll in a limited network plan,
and the effect that the addition of a limited network plan would have on total
premium costs and on disproportionately affected subscribers. The results of
the enrollment survey shall be considered in the savings analysis.
(3) The public employee committee shall also
submit any alternate mitigation proposal to the panel and any other information
the public employee committee wants the panel to consider with respect to any
other matters before them within three business days after the end of the
30-day negotiation period, with a copy sent to the Secretary and the other
parties.
(4) Any fee or
compensation provided to the impartial panel member for service on the panel
shall be shared equally between the public employee committee and the
appropriate public authority. The impartial members selected from the lists
provided by the Secretary will be reimbursed only for reasonable travel
expenses.
