Group Captives in Bloomfield Hills for Employers Ready to Stop Renting Their Health Plan
Many mid-sized employers pay a fully insured premium year after year and never see where the money went. When claims run low, the carrier keeps the difference. Group captives in Bloomfield Hills give employers another path: fund your own claims, share the big-claim risk with other employers, and keep what you don’t spend.
We are CFH Insurance Consultants, an independent employee benefits consulting firm on Woodward Avenue, in business since 2007. No carrier owns us. We place group health captives for employers in Bloomfield Hills, Troy, Southfield, Birmingham and across Michigan.
Group Captives
A group health captive is a way to self-fund your health plan alongside other employers. Each employer sets aside money for its own expected claims. Stop-loss insurance covers large claims above a set amount. The captive is an insurance company owned by its member employers, and it shares a middle layer of risk across the group.
Here is what that means in plain words:
- Your own claims fund. You pay for your people’s routine claims, not the whole market’s.
- Shared protection. One very large claim does not land on you alone.
- Money back when it goes well. If the group’s claims run below plan, members may get part of the surplus back.
- Your data. You see your claims reports, so you can manage cost drivers.
Our part is to test whether a captive fits, compare captive programs, place the coverage and stay on the account every year. We are not the plan administrator. A third-party administrator pays the claims, and we hold each vendor to its contract. We also help keep you ERISA compliant.
Is a group captive right for my company?
It fits some employers better than others. A captive usually makes sense when you have enough people on the plan for your own claims to be predictable, a steady workforce, and the cash flow to handle a year with higher claims.
It is a longer-term choice. Most programs expect you to stay several years so the risk sharing works. There may be an up-front collateral payment, and leaving has rules. We walk through those terms with you before you sign anything.
What do I do if my fully insured renewal keeps going up?
Start with the facts. Ask your carrier for claims data if you have more than 50 employees. In Michigan, your own claims start to count at that size. Then compare four options side by side: fully insured, level-funded, self-funded with stop-loss, and a group captive. Seeing all four with the same census makes the choice clear.
Common questions
Is a captive the same as self-funding?
It is a form of self-funding. The difference is the shared risk layer with other employers, which smooths out bad years. In a straight self-funded plan with stop-loss, claims below the stop-loss deductible are yours alone; in a captive, a band of claims above your own layer is pooled with the other members. The trade-off is that a bad year for the group can affect your renewal or your share of any surplus.
Do employees notice a difference?
Usually not. They still get ID cards, a network and a plan design you choose. A third-party administrator pays the claims and issues the plan materials, usually on a national or regional network, so most of the change sits on the employer’s side of the ledger. We check the network against where your employees get care before any move, since that is the part they would notice.
Do you place captives or only talk about them?
We place them. We also compare them with your other funding options so you can decide. Placing one includes reviewing the captive’s membership rules, collateral, stop-loss terms and exit provisions with you before you sign, then reviewing results with you at each renewal. If a captive is not the right answer for your group, we say so and show why.
Talk to us about group captives in Bloomfield Hills
Send us your renewal and census, or book a 30-minute call. We will tell you whether a captive is worth a closer look. Visit us at 41000 Woodward Avenue, Suite 350 East, Bloomfield Hills, MI 48304, or call 248.370.8853.
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Switching to CFH takes one signed letter. Your carrier, plan, ID cards and payroll deductions stay the same.
An independent employee benefits consulting firm. We look at the entire benefits program — cost, plan performance, risk and administration.
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