History

WBCH is owned, operated, and managed by its members who know first-hand the challenges Rhode Island communities face.  Since its inception, the WBCH program was designed and governed with the sole purpose of ensuring that communities are offered a flexible and financially solvent method of offering benefits to employees while protecting the financial best interest of our communities – never with the intent of growing WBCH’s bottom line.

 

WBCH has saved our members millions of dollars in health and dental insurance expenses through lower fixed costs, vendor negotiation, stop loss administration, medical-pharmacy integration, health benefits advisory services and financial management. 

 

In addition to the competitive programs offered through WBCH, members are provided with the ability to plan for long-term benefit program success. This is done by protecting each Member’s individual fund balance and preserving it for their own use for rate stabilization, budget flexibility and long-range budgeting plans.  While in the custody of WBCH, a member’s reserve remains 100% as an asset to each member, respectively.  If a member chooses to leave WBCH, 100% of their member fund balance is available to them to pay off run-out claims, administrative costs and when all obligations are paid, is distributed back to the respective member. There are no penalties or loss of a member’s reserve for leaving WBCH.

 

WBCH has dedicated their mission to focusing on healthcare and employee benefits.  We are not an organization with the goal of being insurance generalists or to be the one-stop-shop for municipalities and schools for all their insurance needs.   We do not manage risk pools for property & casualty and/or liability coverages.  This was a strategic decision for two reasons 1. To not dilute our mission and 2. To not unnecessarily increase our administrative overhead costs to grow WBCH’s operations.  Our administrative expense ratio remains below 0.2% which is a clear indicator that our operational decisions are made for the best interest of our members.

 

We pride ourselves on being the most reliable, most transparent, and most qualified financial experts to manage healthcare spend and related costs on behalf of our members – because we understand the challenges our members face.