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www.HartfordBusiness.com • March 26, 2018 • Hartford Business Journal 7 — less affordable, Glick said. As a result, the number of compa- nies that purchase insurance through CIT has plummeted. In the mid-2000s, about 40,000 people were covered by a chamber policy sold by CIT. Today, that number has been cut in half, said Glick. Meanwhile, many chambers have seen double-digit percentage declines in their membership counts over the past decade. While Glick and some key allies in chamber leadership are sold on Round- stone, they have work to do convincing businesses to join the relatively com- plex self-insurance arrangement. CIT is working with its network of brokers as well as chambers to help sell it. "This is a learning curve," said Can- dice Corcione, executive director of the Tolland County Chamber of Commerce. "People have to understand what a cap- tive is." Legally, self-insured companies are able to avoid many Obamacare man- dates, which can lower premiums. Under the Roundstone model, in good years, unspent premiums are returned to member companies. "It's an honest type of program and profits are not being diluted directly to the principals of a major insurance company," Glick said. Roundstone President Michael Schroeder said that employers enrolled in his company's risk pools, which contain at least 15,000 people each, have seen over the past 12 years annual premium increases closer to 2 percent to 3 percent, com- pared to some of the big hikes in the small- group market. "In four years with a tradition- al insurer you will come close to doubling your cost, whereas four years in our model, you've gone up 10 per- cent," Schroeder said. He said Roundstone has worked with chambers in Nevada and Ohio, as well as several private schools in Con- necticut. Worst-case scenario While self-insurance often brings concerns about potential big swings in claim payments from year to year, Schroeder said the typical worst-case scenario is that a company with a lot of claims might see its premiums grow at a similar rate to the regular, fully insured market. "What the captive has brought to the table in the past 10 years has been the ability to really reduce that volatil- ity," he said. "That fear of volatility is lessened in these pooling models." Besides the Roundstone offering, another self-insurance option that's emerged from the likes of Aetna, An- them, Cigna and others is known as a "level-funded" plan, which returns a portion of premiums to employers in years with light claims activity. Todd Rein, a partner at Hartford Fi- nancial Associates in East Hartford who focuses mainly on small group health insurance, said a 40-employee company may find the captive model too risky. "It's a bit of a tougher sell for a smaller company because there's a little bit more risk," he said. Still, Rein is happy to have any new options to show his clients, which have been hit with premium increases this year ranging from 10 percent to as high as 50 percent. "I've been doing this 35 years, and across the board it's the worst re- newal season I've ever been through," Rein said. Size matters While CIT's enrollment efforts are in their infancy, the hope is to get 3,000 to 4,000 companies signed up with Roundstone, which the Ohio captive insurer says would be sufficient to form a Connecticut-specific risk pool. At that point, the chambers and their benefit advisors could customize the health plan by adding cost-contain- ment strategies, including leveraging their numbers to contract with certain provider networks or get discounts on specialty phar- macy products — much like a regular insurer does. Glick said he also hopes that smaller employ- ers, with fewer than 40 work- ers, could join the plan at that point. Schroeder said the effort is unique for Roundstone, which has not built a state- specific pool for any other group, though it has worked with industry as- sociations with members in multiple states. But even if CIT can't wrangle enough enrollees, companies that do sign up could still see some healthcare-costs relief. Glick said he's hopeful about what the self-insurance model could mean for the chambers he has served for over 25 years. He views the effort as part of his legacy. "I believe the value of the benefits would be an anchor for membership," he said. PDS has been meeting the needs of the construction industry since 1965. Our dedicated team of design and construction professionals welcomes the challenge of serving its past and future customers on their most demanding projects. Davenport Landing Boat Storage Facility | Stamford, Connecticut PDS was selected to construct the new 26,000 square foot marine home of Hinckley Yachts. The 45' high facility provides a galvanized boat rack system for the storage of 52 boats. It also contains a maintenance workspace area that includes a 60' long paint spray booth and accommodations for an additional booth for prep work before painting. A specialized fi re suppression system was incorporated within the boat rack system, addressing the hazards of boat storage. The building includes an oversized 35' X 40' overhead door for the convenient movement of boats in and out of the facility. Two additional overhead doors were included to provide access to the Spray and Prep booths. The facility included build-out space for Hinckley's sales showroom and offi ces, a parts sales offi ce and locker rooms, including washer and dryers for the marine dock patrons. The new facility also housed the electrical services for the new 35 slip dockage. Project Size: 26,000 SF DESIGN BUILDERS • GENERAL CONTRACTORS • CONSTRUCTION MANAGERS SPOTLIGHT ON: I 107 Old Windsor Road, Bloomfi eld, CT 06002 (860) 242-8586 | Fax (860) 242-8587 www.pdsec.com PDS ENGINEERING & CONSTRUCTION, INC. THINK • PLAN • BUILD Plan Your Next Meeting at Saybrook Point Inn This Could Be Your Office For The Day Let our professional Meeting Planners customize your next meeting or event. Experience what our unique meeting spaces can offer with team building opportunities and farm to table menus. Located only two hours from New York and Boston. Learn more at Saybrook.com. and Boston. Learn more at Saybrook.com. 2 Bridge Street, Old Saybrook, CT 06475|860.388.0000 Self-insurance Trickles Down To Small Employers While self-insuring remains most common among companies with 500 or more workers, those with fewer than 100 workers are catching on. In 2016, 17.4 percent of U.S. companies with fewer than 100 employees offered at least one self-in- sured plan, according to a recent analysis of federal data by the Employee Benefit Research Institute. That ratio has been growing for five years, up from 11.9 percent in 2011. Connecticut, too, has seen growth. The most recent state data available suggests that companies with 50 or fewer workers are starting to move into self-insurance. In 2016, there were 2,583 people enrolled in the non-fully-insured small group category, up from zero the year before, according to the Connecticut Insurance Department, which said that category mainly includes self-insurance.