Healthcare with Purpose: Why Captives Matter for Women and Employers

As we wrap up Women’s History Month, I’m reminded not only of how far women have come in the workplace, but also of the work still ahead—especially when it comes to healthcare.

After nearly 20 years in this industry, this moment in the year prompts reflection on how rapidly the market has evolved, and how those shifts uniquely impact women. The healthcare system, often defined by rising costs, opacity, and persistent confusion, can feel overwhelming. Yet there is reason for optimism. We’re seeing real movement toward transparency, meaningful health improvement, and smarter cost management. These changes matter, especially for women who rely heavily on comprehensive, accessible healthcare to support their families, their careers, and their own well‑being.

At Innovative Captive Strategies (ICS), our tagline Doing Business Boldly isn’t just a statement: it’s a commitment. Doing the right thing in healthcare benefits isn’t always the easiest or most convenient path, but it is the necessary one. That’s why we work with broker consultants who are willing to challenge outdated models and push for employer strategies that prioritize people—women included—over the status quo. They cut through the noise and offer bold recommendations that empower employers to move from the standard market into an employee benefits group captive, gaining the ability to deliver stronger, more equitable coverage.

Health Insurance Captives: Stability and Savings Without Sacrificing Care

Rising healthcare and Rx trends—especially the surge in GLP‑1 medications and the arrival of high‑cost cell and gene therapies—have made medical spend the unpredictable wild card in employer budgets. For women, who often experience higher lifetime healthcare costs, interruptions in care and coverage limitations, this volatility can directly impact their access to essential treatments.

At ICS, we help employers rethink and rebuild their healthcare strategy to better serve all employees. Our mission is simple: enable organizations to offer better benefits at a lower, more sustainable cost. We go deeper than traditional insurance models, unbundling conventional plans, analyzing cost drivers, and constructing benefit designs tailored to each employer’s needs, including those centered on improving women’s health outcomes.

This level of customization is nearly impossible within the standard market’s one‑size‑fits‑all approach. But its exactly what captives were created to do. By leveraging a captive, employers gain transparency, control, and the ability to directly influence their populations’ health—ensuring women receive the comprehensive, continuous, and affordable care they deserve.

In a rapidly changing healthcare environment, that kind of control isn’t just a strategic advantage—it’s a powerful step toward advancing equity, supporting women in the workforce, and continuing the progress we celebrate during Women’s History Month.

For this blog, I had the privilege to connect with two of the amazing leaders and consultants we work with at ICS who are making big strides in their respective markets by way of their captive expertise.

Claire Grundhoffer

Claire Grundhoffer, an employee benefits consultant for M3 Insurance, shared with me how her relationship with ICS has helped strengthen her career and how she is able to help her clients.

After beginning her career in a service role and advancing through M3’s Business Insurance Associate Program, she quickly recognized that employers needed more than traditional plans to combat rising healthcare costs. By introducing captives, she has helped clients gain transparency, control, and long‑term savings while creating space for programs that better support women’s health needs.

Her ability to guide employers beyond the convenience of fully insured renewals and toward strategic, data‑driven solutions has strengthened her skills as a consultant and improved outcomes for her clients. She credits ICS’s transparent model, proven stability, and strong service team as essential partners in this work—empowering her to challenge the status quo, elevate her clients’ strategies, and reflect the bold leadership Women’s History Month is all about.

Kassi O’Brien

Kassi O’Brien, Vice President of Benefit Services for Scott Insurance, shared with me how captives have become one the key tools she shares with her clients, and how they transform the approaches her clients take when selecting healthcare benefit plans.

Captives have become a pivotal part of her consulting strategy, enabling her to design highly customized, carved‑out programs that integrate TPAs, PBMs, and stop‑loss structures in ways traditional insurance can’t—giving employers true cost control and long‑term sustainability. This work has deepened her expertise in financial modeling, pharmacy strategy, and plan architecture, allowing her to merge her analytical strengths with creative problem‑solving to deliver meaningful results.

Although helping clients look beyond the perceived simplicity of fully insured plans can be challenging, she guides them through the complexity with clarity, showing how captives create lasting stability for their organizations and their people. What she values most is the community and transparency cultivated within ICS’s member‑owned captive model, where employers learn from one another and stay engaged in their plan’s performance.

For women in the captive insurance industry, her journey illustrates how technical expertise, relationship‑building, and confidence in innovative solutions can create real influence—empowering them to lead strategic conversations, drive financial impact, and expand opportunities in a field where women continue carving paths forward.

What’s Coming in 2026?

Captives are having another “big year” in 2026—not because the traditional market is in crisis, but because owners have become far more sophisticated in how they use them. What was once seen as an alternative solution is now recognized as a flexible, analytical, purpose‑built engine for smarter risk financing.

Nowhere is that more evident than in health insurance captives, which continue to deliver exactly what employers are searching for: stability in volatile markets, meaningful long‑term savings, and increased control over plan design and claims management, all without cutting the quality of employee benefits. And notably, women are playing a driving role in this evolution.

Across the industry, women are leading captive boards, coordinating member collaboration, insisting on deeper data transparency, and designing structures that perform consistently in both favorable and challenging years. Their influence is reshaping how employers think, plan, and ultimately taking ownership of their healthcare strategies.

Our team at ICS is here to help you support your employees, improve health outcomes, and take control of your insurance strategy. Reach out to discover if a captive is right for you!