School District Seeks Consultant to Help Navigate Health Care Insurance Market

School officials will look for help from a consultant in sorting through health care plan options to offer district employees.

, officials start their next budget process by vetting health plans.

Business Manager Mark Boehlke said a health care insurance conference at Nicolet High School last week, where the Hays Group spoke, opened his eyes.

“I was amazed at the new things I learned,” Boehlke said. “Many of them were counterintuitive to what I thought I knew about what drives insurance rates.

"After going to that seminar, I think a health consultant could really come in and really help us."

The School Board directed Boehlke and Superintendent Blane McCann to start talking with different consultants.

Once hired, the consultant would begin to meet with stakeholders in January to help inform in areas of health care plan design, major cost drivers, benchmarking and long-term planning. A health care expert would also field quotes for the district and help build a health plan model.

The district has hired health care brokers to find plans in the past.

Shorewood's health care insurance provider is Wisconsin Education Association Trust, which the .