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County hires National Insurance Services to evaluate health benefits and near-site clinic options
Summary
Marathon County engaged National Insurance Services to run a market evaluation of its health plan in 2026, including modeling fully insured vs. self-insured options, assessing a near-site clinic and virtual-care tools, and preparing RFPs and renewal scenarios for the county administration and board.
Marathon County's HR & Finance Committee heard a detailed introduction from National Insurance Services (NIS), the firm selected through the county's RFP to consult on employee health benefits and plan funding. An NIS presenter told the committee the engagement is an evaluative, data-driven effort to assess whether the county's current fully insured model or alternatives such as self-insurance or level-funded plans would deliver better value.
An NIS presenter described a five-person account team and said NIS serves predominantly public-sector clients — municipalities, schools, hospitals and colleges. The firm said it will evaluate near-site clinic utilization (the county's current partnership with a near-site clinic was noted) and virtual care tools such as Teladoc to reduce nonemergent emergency-room visits. "We're very data driven," the presenter said, noting the firm will run modeling, stop-loss and pharmacy-benefit analyses and bring findings back to county administration and the committee.
Jordan Stanley of NIS, who identified herself as having prior public-sector HR and benefits experience, added that the firm's near-term work includes building 24-month claims datasets and preparing requests for proposals that reflect the county's census and prior cost-mitigation strategies. Vice Chair Marshall pressed the presenters for local per-member cost comparisons and strategies to reduce inappropriate emergency-room use; the NIS team said they will pull comparative public- and private-sector benchmarks once they have access to analytic tools.
NIS reiterated it has no preconception about the outcome and will assess reinsurance and stop-loss mechanisms, pharmacy trend drivers and high-cost claimants. The presenters said they will typically report progress quarterly to the committee and will provide a snapshot for the county's upcoming budget assumptions.
What happens next: NIS will continue data collection and modeling in 2026, provide periodic updates to the committee, and prepare any RFP materials and renewal scenarios that county administration directs them to pursue.
