In 1991 it established its own health maintenance organization to try to reduce the expenses. Unfortunately many employees do not believe the city HMO provides as good care as the alternatives. Several hundred have quit. Ms. Jones is working with the benefits section to plan improvements to the health package. She fears that employees feel so negatively about the HMO that the city will have to abandon it.
Expenses seem certain to go up sharply.
Last month Ms. Jones went to New York for a conference on health plans, where the general consensus was that little could be done since the Clinton proposal had failed last year. Ms. Jones remarked that personnel is not as much fun at the more senior level as it was early in her career when she was more involved with job applicants and employees. She misses the direct contact. On the other hand, she believes she can accomplish more as a section chief than at the junior level. In her concerns about EEO, unions and health benefits Ms. Jones matched the typical focus of most personnel officers today.