The Brownfield Regional Medical Center Board of Directors met Monday night, Nov. 14, 2022, with a full agenda, however, most of the items were taken into executive session, except for the approval of an insurance agency to cover BRMC’s property, liability, etc which was listed on the agenda as, “discuss, consider, and act on as appropriate, appoint insurance agent of record.”
Currently, BRMC holds insurance through Texas Hospital Insurance Exchange (THIE) for risk management and they use Texas Municipal League (TML) for property and liability. A couple of months ago, BRMC CEO Bob Pascasio was made aware that TML would be dropping BRMC from the property and liability insurance. This triggered the Board of Directors to seek other options for property and liability insurance.
The Board decided it would be wise to place all insurance (not medical) under one umbrella, including EMS. Currently, EMS has its own risk management insurance. The Board heard from two insurance brokers who deal in healthcare industries. The Board heard from Insurica (INSURICA) representatives first. BRMC currently has INSURICA which uses THIE for workers’ compensation, professional & general liability, and management liability. According to representatives with INSURICA, they recommended that the EMS service should be added to the general liability of the hospital and would “save several thousands of dollars”. INSURICA is endorsed by Texas Hospital Association.
The Board moved on to the next broker which was Health Sure. According to Health Sure CEO Brant Couch, they serve 77 other Texas hospitals and they are recommended by the Texas Organization of Rural & Community Hospitals (TORCH). This was the consulting firm that helped recruit the current BRMC CEO Bob Pascasio. Unlike INSURICA, Health Sure was not able to put a premium price on their insurance due to certain laws.
Chairman of the Board Brian Paiva asked Couch, “How quickly can you put together… if we chose to go in your direction.” Couch responded, “Pretty quick. The question I think I would ask… the current insurance companies you have, THIE for example… Beasley the current D & O insurance company… would you want us to try to use TORCH’s leverage to negotiate the best terms that you can get from that current company Beasley?”
Paiva answered saying, “We really need just a cost of for overall. If you have other agencies that could come up with comparable coverages and produce that, we’re not stuck with any one individual place.”
Pascasio then asked Couch, “If another agency is the agent of record, can you go to a current underwriter insurance company and get a quote from them?”
Couch responded, “I cannot.”
Paiva asked if there were any more questions for Couch, and Director Sue Cottrell asked, “Is this connected to TORCH or separate?” Pascasio responded by saying, “It’s an agency that works with TORCH, it is not owned by TORCH. It is a separate company.”
Couch then responded, “Just to add a little bit of color to that, TORCH does own an insurance agency, we are their appointed manager of their insurance agency.” After a short pause, Couch went on to say, “So every dollar of premium that does 77 hospitals that participate in the program… the property insurance and cyber insurance that you all purchased through us last month, a small portion of that does go back to TORCH to support TORCH. Every penny that goes toward this program is invested back into TORCH in one way or the other through their agency.”
Couch and the Board continue to discuss options, which Health Sure could not give an estimated quote on insurance. The Board continued to discuss the idea of placing all its insurance under one company. The Board made the decision to do that and Director Justin Hesse made a motion to go with Health Sure as the insurance agent of record, and Director June Cooper seconded the motion with all other directors voting in favor.
Paiva moved on to the next items of business on the action portion of the agenda, however, items 10 through 15 on the action agenda were moved to the executive session.
