The Intergovernmental Personnel Benefit Cooperative (IPBC) is an intergovernmental agency created under Illinois statutes, which allows units of local government to band together for the purposes of insurance and is open to municipalities, counties, special districts and intergovernmental agencies. The IPBC was established in 1979 and as of July 1, 2024 has over 160 members spread across the state of Illinois.
Purpose
The purpose of the IPBC is to provide economies of scale and risk pooling that will allow members more financial stability than offered by the commercial insurance market in a fully transparent environment. Members also operate as part of a larger Board of Directors to control the finances within the pool.
Members
Long-term commitment by members to the philosophy of risk pooling has been instrumental in the success of the IPBC. Many members have been part of the organization for more than three decades.
Products
The IPBC offers:
- Medical:
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Self-insured PPO: The PPO program allows members authority over plan design, but provides a unique pooling of risk among all members for individual claims between $50,000 and $1,500,000. Claims over $1,500,000 are fully reinsured. Therefore, members are responsible for claims under $50,000 and the redistributed claims cost for claims between $50,000 and $1,500,000. This allows for enhanced budgeting and stability from year to year.
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HMO: The HMO product is also self-insured through a special arrangement. Members pay for fixed costs of capitation (monthly stipend paid to primary care physician) for hospital and Rx charges. There are several different choices of plan designs with different levels of office visit and prescription drug co-pays. All members pay the same rates based on plan design offerings.
- Dental: The IPBC offers both a self-insured and a fully-insured Dental program. For the self-insured plan, each member has flexibility over plan design.
- Life: Upon entering the IPBC, each community will have access to a Life/AD&D benefit as well as a multitude of other voluntary products including supplemental life, identity theft and supplemental health.
- Vision: The IPBC also offers a voluntary fully-insured Vision plan with multiple plan designs.
- EAP: A voluntary EAP program is available to IPBC members with 4 different plan designs.
- Spending Accounts: IPBC offers FSA, DCFSA, HSA and commuter benefits.
- COBRA and ACA: COBRA and ACA services are available through the benefits administration platform.
If you are a local government entity interested in learning more about the IPBC, please contact Executive Director Dave Cook at davec@ipbchealth.org.