Healthcare Industry Risk
Healthcare Industry Risk
The right healthcare coverage for your clients.
If the healthcare industry has taught us anything, it's that preparation is key. Whether it's unprecedented cyber-attacks or a global pandemic, access to specialized healthcare industry insurance is vital for your clients to operate safely.
Amwins mobilizes hundreds of healthcare insurance specialists across the country to place property, casualty, professional lines and group benefits coverages for a variety of classes and employer groups. Through our longstanding commitment to the healthcare industry, we've forged significant relationships with top-tier, specialty carriers and have even developed exclusive products that address your clients’ needs. We work collaboratively with you to secure the most comprehensive, competitive coverage for your healthcare clients.
In-house underwriting programs + exclusive products
Actuarial capabilities
Our in-house team of actuaries’ licenses cutting-edge software to deliver catastrophe risk data analysis and the most accurate pricing possible.
Complex claims advocacy
From designing a proactive claims management plan to engaging on difficult and complex claims, Amwins supports you when you need us most.
$1.7B
in P&C premium placed annually
$1.5B
stop-loss premium placed
12
in-house products
Healthcare insurance resources + insights
Stay up to date on emerging industry trends and topics.
ACA Costs and Regulations Drive Self-Funding Down Market
Self-funding, however, is not without risk, which is a major reason many smaller employers have shied away from it in the past. In 2013, 94 percent of employers with 5,000 or more employees self-funded their health insurance plans. The percentage shrinks to 79 percent of employers with fewer than 5,000 but more than 1,000 employees, and falls to 58 percent for those with fewer than 1,000 employees but more than 200. Only one in seven employers with fewer than 200 employees self-funds their medical plans.
It’s expected that the last percentage – 16 percent – will change as this group of smaller employers consider self-funding their benefits after comparing them to their fully insured renewals. The key drivers will be not only the avoidance of federal and state premium taxes and fees but also the avoidance of modified community rates and state-mandated benefits.
Insurers’ shrinking margins could also play a role in smaller employers seeking out self-funded arrangements, as insurers will likely attempt to pass some of their increased costs on to them. Add these costs to other drivers mentioned earlier in this article, and you have a recipe for a growing exodus from fully insured to self-funded plans.
Why the Shift?
And that’s not all. Add $1 per member, per year charge as a risk-adjustment fee to fund adverse selection and fully insured plans now have an entire menu of new costs; self-funded plans are exempt from these costs. While fully insured plans bear the burden of modified community rating, additional taxes and fees, as well as state-mandated benefits, self-funded plans bypass these and many other ACA regulations. The savings can be significant.
Greater Control
Determining Appropriateness
Once comparing the pros and cons of self-funding, brokers can help smaller employers assess their risk profile. To achieve this, brokers need to gather information on claims and/or the employee population’s health status. Comprehensive employee questionnaires are vital when plan participant claim and health information is not available.
Bringing Stability to Self-Insurance
Opponents of self-funding make the valid point that very large claims do happen. However, as a group matures, the following four strategies can carve out the most likely high-cost risks.
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Cover organ transplants such as heart or lung transplants, which can cost up to $1 million or more outside of the self-funded plan, by purchasing a fully insured organ transplant carve-out policy
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Work with dialysis management specialists to control the increasing costs of this treatment for the growing number of people with end-stage renal disease
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Contract with a specialty pharmaceutical manager to control costs of higher-priced prescription drugs
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Work with plan participants to better manage chronic conditions, including diabetes and cardiovascular disease
While the preceding options may be parts of a comprehensive cost containment strategy for self-funded medical plans, level-premium equivalent plans bend the cost curve even further. By purchasing aggregate stop-loss with accommodation as well as specific stop-loss with immediate reimbursement, employers are guaranteed maximum annual costs and fixed monthly payments.
The Self-funding Solution
A comprehensive self-funded medical plan should offer more flexibility and greater control with potentially lower costs than a fully insured arrangement. When these attributes work together, employers have more plan options and the opportunity to offer higher quality of care.
Smaller employers can compete with larger organizations when it comes to self-funding medical benefits through a level premium equivalent arrangement. This approach is not for every employer, but a self-funded medical plan can provide big-employer advantages for those smaller employers that fit the bill.
- Group Benefits
