Insurance checks paid to Brookfield Township employees has trustee Chairman Phil Schmidt asking why the money isn't going to the township which pays the employees' premiums.

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the township's health insurer for employees for a couple of years, has been sending checks in the amount of about $900 to most of the 20-plus employees in the past week or two, according to Schmidt.

The insurance company has recently gone through "demutualization," a process that allows policyholder-owned companies to change into stock companies. The process, which included offering policyholders a choice of cash payments or stock in the new company, ended Nov. 2.

According to the insurance company's Web site, the net proceeds from Anthem's offerings were approximately $2.1 billion. "These net proceeds will be used primarily to distribute cash to Anthem's Statutory members as part of the Company's demutualization," the Web site stated.

Schmidt said he had no problem with a choice of stock or cash payments but noted that the township should have made the choice.

"My argument is the township pays the premium. In fairness, the money should have gone to the township," he said, adding that with 20-some employees who are covered by the township, the checks in the mail could total about $20,000.

"It doesn't seem right. We contract with them (Anthem) for health services, not financial services," Schmidt said.

The trustee said the trustees received a "legalese letter" in the spring which said "something about a choice of the option of taking stock or a check for a certain amount of money," but Brookfield Township Fire Chief Keith Barrett, who generally handles the township insurance, filed it away until further information could be discovered and until the company actually demutualized."Keith talked to an agent in the past week, and was told that a court ruling states the company had to follow the laws of the state they will be headquartered in which is Indiana. Had they followed Ohio law, it would've come back to the township," Schmidt said.

But Schmidt has asked the county prosecutor to look into it. "I thought it would be prudent on our part ... with an eye towards a class action suit. We're looking for a legal opinion from someone other than Anthem."

And though the approximately $20,000 would be split up among the fire and police departments and the township, Schmidt thinks the money could be put to good use by the township.

"The general fund might get $5,000 to $7,000 at the most, but it could be used to buy road equipment, or at least to put down a payment on a piece of road equipment," he said.

Schmidt said the prosecutor's office advised that township employees who receive the check should hold onto them, but the trustee said that the checks are only good for 100 days, so he advised cashing the checks and holding onto the money until the issue is cleared up.

The Anthem Demutualization Information Center number is (866) 299-9628.