Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com • July 8, 2019 • Hartford Business Journal 7 A former money maker Founded in 1995, CBIA Health Ser- vice Corp. is one of the oldest private benefits exchanges in the country, and has been viewed by some as one of the most successful. In 2014, CBIA Health Connections had four insurers, but it's lost carriers over the years. Passage of the ACA may have had the most dramatic impact. CBIA Health Connections had 91,000 benefit members during its 2006 peak, according to federal data. As of last year, however, that number had fallen below 20,000, according to the subsid- iary's federal labor department filing. That precipitous drop has had financial ramifications. CBIA's exchange used to regularly generate several million dollars in an- nual revenue for its parent, but it lost money during the past two years. The exchange lost $514,000 and $1.7 million in 2017 and 2018, respec- tively, according to CBIA's tax filings. It's a sizable hit, though CBIA's larg- est source of revenue, member dues, is still trending steady at more than $4.6 million a year "The past couple of years have been challenging, no question, but we've conservatively managed through that downturn," said CBIA CEO Joseph Brennan, who added the revenue dip hasn't detracted from CBIA's core mission of influencing public policy. "With luck, we'll be as strong or stronger than ever moving forward," he added. The flip side of self funding While self-funded policies can be a way for small businesses to save money, they could also have ramifica- tions for those who stay in the fully insured market. The Connecticut Insurance De- partment (CID), which regulates only the stop-loss insurance portion of self-funded plans, has been watch- ing self-funding rise in popularity for years now, with some concern. Experts say self-funded plans are pulling healthier groups from the small-group risk pool. The worry is the remaining pool will be unhealthi- er, leading to premium increases. "We are always concerned when consumers do not have the full pro- tection of state insurance laws and regulations," CID Commissioner An- drew N. Mais told HBJ in a statement. In some ways, the battle is already lost. More people in Connecticut have been covered by self-funded plans than by fully insured plans since 2011, ac- cording to UConn health economists. Meantime, the fully insured small group market continues to shrink. Total member lives in the small group market here have fallen from 226,836 in 2013 (the same year the state's Access Health CT exchange opened) to 151,226 in 2018, according to data analyzed by Kaiser. Celebrating 100 Years of Legal Services in Connecticut 100 1919 - 2019 Chamber Insurance Trust's stop-loss plan gains steam S tephen Glick, president of the Orange-based Chamber Insur- ance Trust (CIT), which offers insurance services to businesses and chambers of commerce in Connecti- cut and Massachusetts, is among those pushing a stop-loss health plan to small and mid-sized companies. The so-called Chamber Health Care Coalition offering is somewhat similar to level-funded plans offered by the Connecticut Business & In- dustry Association and others, but with a few differences. The chamber plan generally won't accept groups smaller than 20, while level-funded plans could go lower than that. There are also varying levels of financial risk and year-end refunds for employers. The chamber plan, designed by Ohio-based Roundstone Insurance, uses of a captive insurer as its stop- loss vehicle. Captives, controlled and owned by their insureds, are increasingly popular among big companies; introducing relatively small busi- nesses to that model is new. It's been just over a year, but Glick said the plan's advisors have signed up nearly 1,000 small group lives in the state so far. "We're really pleased with where we are," he said. Trey Bongiovanni, partner at Meriden-based Bongiovanni Insurance & Financial, has enrolled three group clients into the chamber plan thus far. Compared to a fully insured prod- uct, there's more real-time insight into what's driving costs, and more chances to do something about it as early as possible. "The employers are very excited about the fact that they have more control and transparency," Bon- giovanni said. Another advisor offering the plan is Richard Whitbeck of Avon-based Innovative Health Concepts. While self-funded plans aren't ex- actly new, many companies are still unfamiliar with them, he said. "Some people don't like change," Whitbeck said. However, he said he's commonly seeing potential savings of 10 or 15 percent for employers compared to regular health insurance, which could be enough to draw them out of the fully insured market. "Some of the businesses we're dealing with, they say 'my people just can't afford it,' " he said.

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