The Western Michigan Health Insurance Pool was formed by public and intermediate school districts looking to reduce the cost of their health insurance coverage by managing their own benefit plans. Following its inception, the Pool has expanded to include cities, counties, and governmental organizations, covering over 21,000 lives in 81 member organizations.

Originally formed in 2005 as the West Michigan Health Insurance Pool, the cooperative received approval to be the first PA 106 pool upon the passage of this legislation. Gallagher Benefit Services consults with the pool on plan design, underwriting, claims analysis, compliance, legal requirements, and employee communication. Gallagher has extensive experience in the public entity marketplace, with over 200 public entity clients in The State of Michigan.

Pool members have access to a wide variety of benefits including: increased transparency, comprehensive wellness programs, local member organization ownership, reduction of fixed cost, and shared risk for self-insured public entity groups who individually would see greater claims fluctuation from year to year.

A review of the Pool’s major accomplishments for 2016 can be found in this illustration.