A new insurance plan that is specific to stop-loss coverage will lower costs for town employees and keep expenses down for taxpayers to the tune of at least $1.4 million, according to town officials. The Town will retain its standard coverage insurance, and this plan change will not necessarily affect this current year’s budget in terms of savings but is expected to reap benefits for employees and taxpayers with next year’s budget.

According to Finance Department Director Maryjane Malavasi, stop-loss insurance coverage covers catastrophic illness or injury exceeding a specific threshold.

“We went out to bid for our catastrophic claims or stop-loss coverage for people who have claims for more than $150,000 in a year,” Malavasi said. “So, we didn’t really change our insurance, but we did change our carrier for that stop-loss aspect of coverage.”

According to, Malavasi, employees should see a 2 to 3% drop in their premiums throughout their payments, and costs via the Board of Education (BOE) and town budgets are expected to drop significantly; more than one million for the BOE and more than $349,000 on the town side.

“By doing this, we saved just shy of $1.4 million. The savings are split between the town and Board of Education, so we have savings on both sides. The savings on the Board side was approximately $1.044, and the town will have savings of $349,000,” said Malavasi.

Malavasi said the savings to taxpayers, especially individual employees, will be consequential.

“I would consider this a very significant savings. Stop-loss is expensive coverage, and it’s been getting more expensive every year for us. That is why we went out to bid to see if we could do better. It is very significant. Our overall budget that was approved for the upcoming year of 2024 was just over $16 million. This savings brings us down to about $14.7 million, so this really is a significant savings,” said Malavasi. “We would have liked it if we had known that before the budget passed, but the way this insurance is bid on, we weren’t able to get our numbers until June.”

Malavasi added that town employees will see immediate benefits, “Employees will also see a reduction in their co-pay, which comes out of their paycheck. It was, on average, 2 to 3% for them. Any savings we have for any medical plan always trickles down to the employees as well. So, the town has a savings, and so have all our employees.”

Malavasi said stop-loss coverage is put to bid every year, and the new figure will assist in future years as a “baseline” for what the town should be paying. Currently, the town’s insurance is provided through Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield.

“We do plan to bid out all of our insurance next year to see if there is any savings in the overall plan. So the possibility of changing from Anthem to another plan will be on the table next year,” said Malavasi.

According to Malavasi, “shopping” for the best price and the bidding process is a standard annual activity for all municipalities.

“This is something the insurance companies do every year. Not only municipalities but corporations; they are changing from one to the other all the time,” Malavasi said. “Every year, we try to do the best for our taxpayers by seeking out the best numbers we can and the best budgets, and we will continue to do that.”

First Selectman Matt Hoey praised staff for their dedication in bargaining for these new rates. He added that the savings would bring significant reductions to the BOE budget, where a majority of these insurance contracts are under purview.

“This was a wonderful result for us, going out to bid for services, particularly the stop-loss insurance, as well as the administrative function for managing our self-insured healthcare plan for our employees,” Hoey said. “Over the past couple of years, the stop-loss insurance has not been as effective as it has in years prior to that, and that is largely due to the fact that we have experienced some positive outcomes as we paid less in premiums than we did in coverage. But eventually, the insurance company caught up with us. So, it was great work by our staff, in particular, Maryjane Malavasi and [Human Resources Director] Mitch Goldblatt, who worked with our insurance consultant…to see what we could do. Those kinds of savings bode well not only for next year’s budget but future budgets as well.”

Hoey said though the savings can’t be immediately recognized regarding the budget, the longer-term benefits will be welcome over the next few budget seasons.

“Unfortunately, insurance companies are loath to give quotes until they have a statistically valid sample of the previous year’s experience in terms of claims. They traditionally like to have ten months of data in the current year plus the trailing months of the previous fiscal year to get a true picture, so they can estimate what their impact is going to be. So that is why we did not have these numbers earlier in the year. We went out to bid prior to this year’s budget process, but they just would not provide quotes until that time,” said Hoey. “Congratulations to the staff for doing such great work on this.”

Hoey said the money saved will be set aside in the town’s general fund balance.

‘We anticipate that that money will fall to the general fund, unallocated fund balance,” Hoey said. “Next year, that line item will show savings on the town side and the Board of Education budgets. The lion’s share will be on the Board of Education budget.”