In an April 2026 Captive.com article, “Captive Insurance Seen as a Jump Start to DPC Model,” Mike Van Ham, Senior Vice President of Health Risk Management (HRM) at Captive Resources, discusses the increasingly strategic role of Direct Primary Care (DPC) within Medical Stop Loss (MSL) group captives.
Below is an excerpt from the article:
Captives are increasingly serving as incubators for innovation that provide supportive environments wherein employers are road-testing solutions like DPC as part of a more integrated, first-dollar strategy, explains [Van Ham], often through a captive insurance program structure.
In the case of [an MSL] group captive, he says widening access to primary care services such as DPC that emphasize prevention and earlier interventions will lead to better front-end management of chronic disease and serious conditions such as cancer.
The article also highlights how Captive Resources’ HRM team remains focused on the total medical spend, not just specific stop-loss costs, and on strategies that can reduce costs while improving health outcomes.
[Van Ham] sees more group captives pooling their resources to enable near-site clinics and DPC model offerings, with the captive insurance structure providing the financing mechanism to support these initiatives.
Leaning into prevention and screenings will help employers avoid treating health plan members after they've already entered the healthcare system at a higher acuity level, which he says will not only save money but also improve the patient experience and potential outcomes.
