Earlier this month, Dutch Rojas—who authors a Substack newsletter on topics related to affordable and accessible healthcare—questioned the traditional insurance model when he posed the question, “Why pay for insurance when it can pay for itself?”
That may sound like a compelling question for surgical facility owners who aim to protect their businesses from potential claims by sitting down to write check-after-check … only to send those checks straight into the never-full, always-hungry blackhole that is insurance carriers.
What if you could stop the cycle of losing out on unused premiums when claims stay low or don’t occur? Rojas posed the scenario only to provide the solution: captive insurance, borrowing a solution used by commercial real estate executives.
“A captive insurance company enables you to insure the business or portfolio by creating an insurance entity. Instead of paying premiums to a third-party carrier, you direct those funds to your captive,” he explains.
Simply put, the idea is this: reduce insurance costs by cutting carrier profits, retain unused funds to use in-house and customize your coverage.
As Rojas puts it: “Turn insurance from a liability into an asset.”
“Within 5–7 years, your captive can grow enough reserves to self-fund future insurance needs, turning premiums into a financial asset for your business,” he writes.
Rojas is on a roll with this one. No, literally, he said he’s rolling out articles detailing real-world results of how captives have transformed insurance strategies.
If it’s true what he’s teasing (an ambulatory surgery center that reduced premiums by 30% or a physician-owned surgical hospital that saved over $1 million), there may be enough here to convince some very smart people to ditch the traditional model.
“Captives don’t just lower expenses—they give healthcare real estate executives and providers the power to control risk, optimize cash flow, and build financial independence,” he wrote.
What’s your take on this hot take? What would it take for your practice to make the leap?
Who is Dutch Rojas? Rojas is a healthcare startup founder and investor, as well as an advisor to independent health systems and private practices. His self-proclaimed mission is to “Make healthcare affordable and accessible for everyone, everywhere,” and, through his Substack, he poses thought-provoking questions which often challenge the status quo in healthcare.
You gotta love the outside the box thinking coming from Dutch Rojas!