Switch Up the Funding! Self- and Level-Funding are on the Rise

By Chris Harris-Bissell • 12 Aug 2025 • 2 min read

For the past several years, the industry has repeatedly justified double-digit renewals with buzzwords like "inflation," "COVID," and "recession." These terms often feel designed to trap you. Our goal at Venbrook is to ensure that whatever else is happening in the world, you never find yourself in a situation where you feel out of control or without options!

Renewals can be especially difficult for our fully insured clients. For small businesses, renewals are dependent upon the pooled renewals. Couple that with limited plan options, and what freedom is there? Mid-size businesses frequently depend on the stability that can come from fully insured funding relationships. Large clients might look at two or three years of higher claims and mistakenly believe there's no benefit to leaving their fully insured safety net. We're here to tell you that is not the case!

Year after year, we are seeing more clients (regardless of size) leave standard funding arrangements and opt for the flexibility and customization that comes with level or self-funding. A change in funding type provides, on average, around 20% savings on your annual medical spend while also allowing you to customize your plan designs to fit your employees' needs.

A quick comparison of fully and self-insured arrangements:

Traditional Plans	Self-Funded Group Captives
No data access	Full claims transparency
No premium returns	100% premium returns
Limited plan options	Complete customization
No cost containment	Multiple saving strategies
No claims data	Real-time analytics
Standard networks only	Choice of providers and networks