The town board of Marcellus, New York, last week voted to switch the town’s workers' compensation insurance provider from Public Employer Risk Management Association to Comp Alliance, the Auburn Citizen reported.

Officials said the change would save the town $30,000 a year.

Reagan Companies, the town’s insurance agency, compared rates from PERMA, Comp Alliance and the New York State Insurance Fund.

In a letter to board members, the agency said Comp Alliance would charge $92,312 a year, broken down into $40,216 for municipal workers, $41,791 for volunteer firefighters and $10,305 for volunteer ambulance crews.

A total cost wasn’t given for PERMA because the association didn’t provide a quote for volunteer ambulance. PERMA’s quote included $47,245 for municipal workers and $61,325 for volunteer firefighters.

NYSIF's quote consisted of $56,957 for municipal workers, $70,155 for volunteer firefighters and $14,801 for volunteer ambulance, for a total of $141,913. That cost could potentially be offset by dividends, which the insurance agent estimated at $27,414, based on a dividend average of 23.5%.

Neither PERMA nor Comp Alliance are included in the New York State Guarantee Fund, the agent said, meaning the town could be responsible for paying its own claims if the company folded.

In its Winter 2015 newsletter, PERMA said it had fielded more than 300 questions from the New York State Workers' Compensation Board as part of an inquiry focused on financial management, underwriting, risk management, loss control and PERMA’s relationship with its third-party administrator.

The association said an inquiry launched by SWCB in 2013 had focused on PERMA's plan to retire a $21.7 million deficit logged in 2010, the role of PERMA's governing board and its approach to risk management and loss control.

Questions also arose over PERMA’s relationship to Northeast Association Management Inc., a third-party administrator that formerly shared corporate officers with PERMA and which operates out of the same headquarters in Latham, New York.

In April 2013, the state board voted to deny NEAMI's license renewal because of corporate ties to PERMA and due to its handling of injury claims filed by an employee of the Village of Scotia.

The board reversed its position two months later following the resignation of John Nielsen, PERMA's president and an officer of NEAMI, and after assurances that PERMA would hire an independent financial adviser and limit its large-deductible program to current participating members.