Dodgeland board hears pitch for self‑funded insurance with local direct‑care option

At a special Dodgeland School District board meeting, representatives from Cell Phone Health and Dr. Eric Miller of Legacy Medical Services presented a proposal to move the district from a fully insured plan to a self‑funded model built around direct primary care and nurse navigation.

Ben John of Cell Phone Health told the board the proposal is intended to bring price transparency and “smart purchasing” to health care, and to steer routine and scheduled services to independent providers the plan design treats as preferred. “When you go to the preferred providers, because of how much it’s saving the plan, then you will get that service for absolutely no money out of pocket,” John said.

The presentation described a two‑path design: employees who choose the district’s wider, traditional network (“dirt road”) would face out‑of‑pocket deductibles similar to the current plan, while employees who use the preferred direct primary care (DPC) clinics and nurse navigators could receive many services at no cost. John outlined a $4,000 individual / $8,000 family medical deductible in the…