SLED Opportunity · MARYLAND · MARYLAND
AI Summary
The Eastern Shore of Maryland Educational Consortium Health Insurance Alliance seeks proposals for voluntary benefits products including disability, critical illness, accident, hospital indemnity, and life insurance. Enrollment is managed via Bolton on the bswift platform with payroll deduction. Proposals due by February 18, 2026.
Proposals must be uploaded to Bolton’s Secure File Sharing site using the following link: https://boltonpartners.sharefile.com/r-re5e90f1bce67400282da154164d9ddb7 A proposal that is not submitted in complete form to Bolton by 4:00 p.m., Eastern Time on Wednesday, February 18, 2026 may be rejected. However, during the preliminary review stage only, Bolton, in the exercise of its exclusive discretion, may permit the Proposer to correct any error or omission. All questions should be emailed to Sandy Geho at sgeho@boltonusa.com and copied to service@boltonusa.com. Questions are due no later than February 6, 2026. The Eastern Shore of Maryland Educational Consortium (ESMEC) Health Insurance Alliance (HIA) has engaged Bolton to solicit voluntary benefits product proposals. It is anticipated that any new voluntary benefits plans selected will be effective in conjunction with their core benefit plan year of September 1, 2026 and will be enrolled as early as May 2026. For many of the ESMEC entities Bolton currently supports the enrollment of the voluntary benefits utilizing our Decision Support Specialists for Face-to-Face and call center supported enrollment. Enrollment will be managed on their current bswift benefits administration platform, which is maintained by Bolton for all entities. The ESMEC HIA consists of seven entities: • Caroline County Public Schools – 990 benefit eligible employees • Dorchester County Public Schools – 819 benefit eligible employees • Kent County Public Schools – 333 benefit eligible employees • Queen Anne’s County Public Schools – 945 benefit eligible employees • Queen Anne’s County Government – 652 benefit eligible employees • Somerset County Public Schools – 567 benefit eligible employees • Talbot County Public Schools – 763 benefit eligible employees While Bolton currently supports on bswift the core benefits enrollment for all seven ESMEC HIA entities, there are a variety of voluntary offerings in place with numerous carriers across the HIA. Bolton is seeking proposals for the following voluntary products, to be sitused in the State of Maryland, to offer to the seven ESMEC HIA employers: 1. Voluntary Short-Term Disability 2. Voluntary Long-Term Disability 3. Critical Illness 4. Accident Insurance 5. Hospital Indemnity 6. Permanent Life with Long-Term Care / Critical Care Rider Voluntary benefits will be enrolled in conjunction with the core benefits. They will be on payroll deduction. Bolton will assist with managing the billing and reconciliation process. Each entity will pay for its own enrolled population, with varying billing frequencies among entities, preferably using a self-billing method. Bolton and the HIA seek to partner with the vendor who can best demonstrate: • Effective quality customer service • Consistent, responsive, professional administrative service backed by verifiable performance measurements • Best in class voluntary products
SLED stands for State, Local, and Education. These are solicitations issued by state governments, counties, cities, school districts, utilities, and higher education institutions — as opposed to federal agencies.
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