Fronting Firm of the Year—Winner Reinsurer of the Year—Winner
Iron Re
“Hundreds of employers have had applications for a PPP loan handled by Iron ReHealth.”
What is your unique selling point for clients?
Iron ReHealth’s proactive approach to developing leading edge programmes and services is the breadth of comprehensive resources that go into underwriting the Iron ReHealth medical benefits programme. Providing an alternative for employers to “opt out” of the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA), each employer is individually underwritten regardless of size.
Iron ReHealth offers a comprehensive and service responsive medical benefits programme that is normally not available to any but the largest employers including services such as pharmacy benefit management, telemedicine resources, and participation in the medical management programme.
Iron ReHealth takes an unprecedented approach to underwriting by using predictive analytics tools on small groups in the two to 50-employee range. This approach is an industry-first for small groups under 50. The underwriting process is managed in-house through Iron ReHealth’s proprietary software program, designed to administer alternative risk structured medical benefit programmes for companies with two or more employees.
Our mission and our commitment is to provide members with quality healthcare and industry-leading customer service. We strive to go beyond a quoted rate and focus on each life that we serve. To accomplish this, we offer access to quality healthcare networks, comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans and concierge-level customer service.
We offer a suite of health management tools such as TeleDoc, CareValet, and pharmacy benefit programmes that focus on member needs and member convenience.
What additional changes would you like to see industry adopt?
We would like to see the industry adopt any legislative and regulatory changes that are favourable to a captive insurance environment. We support the initiatives and changes that Alabama has made, and plans to make, to create a thriving environment for captives and other alternative risk transfer vehicles.
Regulation has evolved a lot over the years. What changes have you implemented to maintain compliance?
Industry regulations have changed, and we expect continued evolution in industry regulation and standards. Whether it’s recently implemented COVID-19 guidelines designed to help educate and assist our members with this global pandemic or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act guidelines that we follow to keep our members’ personal data safe, we work tirelessly to improve our systems, process, and policies.
Commencing in September 2018, Iron Re expanded its business to operate effectively as a risk-sharing pool providing excess medical benefit coverage to employers with two or more employees. In its most fundamental form, this allowed for employers with better loss experience to opt out of the ACA.
“Iron Re fronts both traditional and medical stop-loss for captive participants in a package that is seamlessly ceded to 831(b) microcaptives.”
The Iron Re programme allows for individual employers to be rated on their own results, which allows an employer to pay a premium more reflective of the specific entity’s experience, producing cost stabilisation. The ingenuity of the programme has generated a growing interest not only from employers but also from chambers of commerce and associations. More than 60 associations and chambers now endorse this programme.
Iron Re fronts both traditional and medical stop-loss for captive participants in a package that is seamlessly ceded to 831(b) microcaptives. Iron Re has been at the forefront of innovation and service in this realm: the fronting of medical benefits to assume medical stop-loss from a pool of unrelated employers that participate in the programme.
In light of recent Internal Revenue Service activity regarding microcaptives, this programme has enjoyed strong participation by microcaptives. These captives view this programme as another tool to illustrate a properly-run microcaptive programme.
How have you changed and adapted to the ‘new normal’ of working in recent months?
The COVID-19 crisis sent shockwaves through industries and the economy. Iron ReHealth acknowledges that the most significant impact of COVID-19 has been on our global community’s families and individuals. In response to this pandemic, we have acted both internally and externally to ensure the safety and comfort of our staff and member businesses while maintaining efficiency and high levels of service.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020, Iron ReHealth created a streamlined programme to help all businesses participating in the programme with an application for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). PPP was created to help small businesses continue to pay and provide benefits to employees.
Iron ReHealth provides all services needed to apply for a PPP loan and to obtain forgiveness of the loan under federal guidelines. This level of service and support is unprecedented in the medical stop-loss/health risk marketplace. As a result of this programme, hundreds of employers have had applications for a PPP loan handled by Iron ReHealth.
Why are fronting services increasingly important in the captives industry?
Regulation is determined on a state-by-state basis, so one way to alleviate regulation and licensing issues in multiple states with captives is to partner with a fronting carrier in order to offer your services with the licences they already have.
How significant a motivation is access to reinsurance for companies thinking of launching captives?
For a company wanting to launch a captive, access to reinsurance is vital. Unless you have significant capital as a captive to accept the total risk, you must have a reinsurer as a partner to take on the higher risk levels.
Therefore, captives need to have conversations with reinsurers and develop good relationships prior to launching a captive.
