Alternative Risk Solutions
Fully Insured program follows a fixed model: you pay a premium, and your insurer decides how risk gets managed. Alternative risk financing flips that dynamic, giving your organization more control, flexibility and customization over how you fund and respond to the risks unique to your business. It's a strategic approach that lets you shape a benefits risk management program around your real exposure, goals and financial priorities rather than settling for a one-size-fits-all policy.
Why It Matters
Why smaller employers get stuck with fully insured pricing
Small and mid-sized employers negotiating alone typically lack the scale to access alternative risk-financing markets such as group medical stop loss captives, which generally require 150 or more employees to participate, leaving smaller and mid-market employers stuck with fully insured pricing even as costs climb year after year with no real alternative in view.
HUB's Approach
Evaluation built around your workforce and claims data
HUB's Alternative Risk Solutions practice evaluates the full spectrum of alternative benefits strategies against a specific employer's workforce demographics, claims history, financial position, risk tolerance and cost management objectives.
Options assessed include group medical stop loss captives, which let mid-sized employers pool risk with peer organizations and share in underwriting profits, level-funded programs, reference-based pricing, access-to-care programs (MEC+, AOM, DPC), and partially self-funded arrangements. These strategies, once only available to large corporations, are now accessible to small- and mid-sized employers. Because the right fit depends on where an employer stands today, HUB recommends starting the readiness conversation at least 120 days before a benefits renewal, giving enough runway to evaluate options properly rather than deciding under renewal-deadline pressure.
Insights for Your Business
Alternative Risk insight and research
