22 September 2015Bermuda analysis

ObamaCare has resulted in expanded need for captives in Bermuda: BDA


New United States healthcare legislation has provided Bermuda's captive sector a healthy capital injection.

Healthcare policy changes in the US under the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA, or more commonly ObamaCare), have driven mergers of hospitals and other healthcare entities and expanded Medicaid coverage to millions more Americans. This has lead to a greater demand for healthcare captives to offset the corresponding upsurge in potential risks.

Now the Bermuda Business Development Agency (BDA) has announced it will host a webinar later this month about Bermuda's expanding healthcare insurance market. This will feature an expert panel discussing these trends and the ways in which the Bermuda insurance market has responded with innovative risk-transfer products.

The hour-long webinar will be broadcast at 12pm (Bermuda-Atlantic Standard Time) on Wednesday September 30. It will also highlight the regulatory, legal and tax issues as well as the substantial benefits of establishing a Bermuda healthcare captive, including risk management, asset protection, and efficient access to the global reinsurance market.

Those who register will receive online access to the live webinar followed by a question-and-answer session, and a post-webinar download of the presentation.

Featured speakers include Oceana Yates, vice president, captives R&Q Quest Management Services; Butch Agnew, vice president, Dyna Management Services; and Anne Sousa, senior vice president, casualty healthcare, Aon Risk Solutions.

Yates said: "With more captives than any other domicile in the world and now on track to achieve Solvency II equivalence, Bermuda continues to be at the forefront of global captive developments.

"Much investment has been made in providing truly innovative and relevant solutions to healthcare-related entities. As a result of the new legislation in the US, there has been an increase in American hospitals employing physicians who were traditionally self-employed, buying physician groups and entering into joint ventures with other entities to help manage healthcare costs.

“The expansion of the reach of hospitals and other healthcare facilities is driving this captive growth in Bermuda."

The island provides a diverse range of healthcare risk solutions, catering to standalone hospitals, long-term care, fully integrated healthcare delivery systems, and countrywide, for-profit hospital chains, according to Yates.