Hancock Health projects $3.7M in annual savings with switch to ICHRA
Organization
Hancock Health
Market
Hospital system
Previous Plan
Self-funded group plan
Location
Hancock County, Indiana
Size
700+ participating employees
Challenges
Hospitals and healthcare organizations feel the cost of employee benefits differently than most industries. They’re managing thin margins on the care side while also functioning as one of their region’s largest employers. When a traditional group health insurance plan strains the budget, it competes directly with needs for staffing, equipment, and patient care.
Self-funded employers, in particular, feel these costs because they bear the claims risk directly. A handful of high-cost medical claims in a given year, or a stop-loss premium increase, lands on the organization’s own books rather than an insurer’s.
Hancock Health serves Hancock County and the surrounding communities through its hospital, wellness centers, physician offices, and other healthcare practices. The system employs about 1,500 associates, with roughly 1,000 of whom are eligible for medical benefits.
For more than 20 years, Hancock Health administered a traditional self-funded group plan.
The model had worked for two decades, but leadership began seeing two problems:
Healthcare costs kept climbing
Associate satisfaction kept falling
“A 2025 survey found that nearly 95% of respondents were dissatisfied with some aspect of our medical benefit offering. Three key concerns emerged: premium costs, specialty medication access, and narrow provider networks. We recognized that incremental changes would not address these underlying issues. We needed to rethink the model itself.”
Jenny Weidner
Director of Human Resources, Hancock Health
The solution: Transition to ICHRA
Hancock Health worked with its benefits consultant, Gallagher, to explore alternatives to its self-funded group plan. Rather than continue absorbing the risk, cost, and employee dissatisfaction, the health system moved its workforce to an individual coverage health reimbursement arrangement (ICHRA) with Remodel Health.
ICHRA allowed Hancock Health to offer employees a tax-free contribution to enroll in their own qualified individual health insurance coverage, rather than underwriting a shared risk pool.
“We asked what we could do to improve their healthcare experience, and we followed through on what we heard. Instead of asking employees to fit into the plan we selected, we shifted to a model that gives them the resources, flexibility, and choice to select coverage that fits their needs.”
Jenny Weidner
Director of Human Resources, Hancock Health
Moving an entire workforce from a group plan to individual coverage is a significant change, and Hancock anticipated some hesitation. Adoption came in ahead of that expectation, with 70% of eligible associates enrolling in ICHRA.
The biggest adjustment for associates was evaluating coverage on their own, weighing providers, prescriptions, networks, and deductibles against their family's specific needs, rather than choosing among a short list Hancock had already narrowed down.
That shift required real investment in education and decision support. Through Remodel Health, associates received one-on-one meetings with licensed benefit advisors to help narrow their options, which Hancock credits with making the transition manageable.
“I can’t tell you how great the transition to ICHRA has been with Remodel Health. It went very smoothly, and the team has embraced the change to ICHRA extremely well. I had been expecting a lot of resistance to the change, but we have heard crickets. There’s been almost no negative feedback on our side. The Remodel team has been great to work with and a key partner.”
Matthew Browning
COO, Hancock Health
With ClearChoice by Remodel Health, employers and benefits consultants get an active partner at every stage of the ICHRA cycle, from guiding benefits change with a proven end-to-end process to advocating for employees facing complex medical situations.
“When we began the ICHRA evaluation with Hancock, it was clear that caring well for their employees was important alongside financial savings. Through thoughtful conversation, we evaluated savings and considered the employee experience. We met with the leadership team, involved key managers in the decision, and provided education ahead of Open Enrollment. Working with partners like Gallagher, who create opportunities like this for us to engage with clients, helps us stay aligned with the client's needs from start to finish."
Kelsey Frizzell
Territory Sales Lead, Remodel Health
The results
Hancock's projections show meaningful savings for the organization and for employees.
For its first year on ICHRA with Remodel Health, Hancock Health projects:
An 18% reduction in medical benefit costs, with approximately $2.2 million in annual savings
A 63% reduction in premium costs for employees, with approximately $1.5 million in annual savings
For a system that had been carrying the full weight of claims volatility under a self-funded plan, ICHRA represented a meaningful shift in both cost and risk.
Beyond cost savings for the organization, the switch changed what coverage looks like for Hancock Health associates. Instead of offering a single plan design for the entire workforce, each employee is empowered to choose the plan that best fits their unique needs. Across Hancock Health’s workforce, employees have collectively enrolled in roughly 5 different carriers and 100 different plans in 2026.
With 43% of employees now paying less than $10 per month for their share of premiums, ICHRA has also helped them save on healthcare costs, showing how a switch to ICHRA can be a financial win for all involved. Associates have been able to redirect part of their premium savings into a health savings account (HSA) to cover out-of-pocket medical expenses.
The switch to ICHRA has also had a meaningful impact on employee satisfaction. About 35% of Hancock Health survey respondents reported improved flexibility with their health benefit, while 61% said the ICHRA delivered lower-cost healthcare.
“Our move to ICHRA is more than a replacement for our traditional medical plan. It represents a new way of thinking about how we deliver healthcare benefits to the people who deliver healthcare to our community: combining access, choice, flexibility, and affordability while creating a more sustainable model for Hancock Health.”
Jenny Weidner
Director of Human Resources, Hancock Health
Looking ahead
Hancock Health’s experience reflects a broader shift that’s already underway. More healthcare organizations, many of them self-insured and facing similar challenges, are reevaluating whether traditional group health plans still serve their workforces.
"We're having this conversation with more and more health systems, because the traditional self-funded group plan is being asked to absorb cost pressure it was never built for. For a health system, every dollar spent covering claims volatility is a dollar not going toward advancing patient care or making coverage more affordable for the associates who deliver it. Hancock Health decided that tradeoff was no longer acceptable, and ICHRA gave them a way to stop managing volatility and start building a model that's sustainable year over year."
Andrew Loehr
Area Senior Vice President, Consulting Services at Gallagher
Remodel Health’s 2026 National ICHRA Report found that, among customers, hospitals were the top industry by revenue. Additionally, 11% of customers in February 2026 were healthcare organizations, showing that ICHRA is solving real problems for these groups.
The shift to ICHRA is one healthcare organizations are watching closely, and likely one more will make in the years ahead.