How did Risk and Analytics at Willis help cut the total cost of risk?
At a glance
The organization: A large U.S. healthcare provider with 28,000 employees, dozens of facilities and over $2 billion in annual revenue.
The challenge: Following a major merger, the business needed a single, evidence-based view of insurable risk across the combined organization to optimize coverage and costs.
The solution: Willis specialists used Connected Risk Intelligence to evaluate more than five million portfolio strategies, allowing the business to test tradeoffs across multiple lines of insurance rather than making decisions in isolation.
The impact: The business reduced expected costs by $1.79 million while maintaining alignment with risk tolerance and operational continuity plans.
The challenge
Optimizing coverage following merger
Insurance programs renewed at different points in the year and reflected legacy structures from each organization. Some risks were integrated, while others, such as cyber, remained separate due to differences in systems and controls.
The healthcare provider needed to compare options across lines and agree on changes that would reduce the total cost of risk without increasing exposure beyond its acceptable limits. While the team had strong instincts about where it could reduce coverage, it lacked the analytical evidence needed to justify those decisions to finance leadership and senior executives.
The solution
Comparing risk finance options using Connected Risk Intelligence
Risk and Analytics consultant actuaries began by quantifying each risk in scope using the healthcare provider’s internal data, supplemented with relevant industry data. The team reviewed each individual risk with the business to validate assumptions and confirm comfort with both inputs and outputs.
We then brought those individual risk models together using Connected Risk Intelligence. This portfolio approach allowed decision makers to see how changes across property, liability, cyber and medical stop loss interacted with one another, rather than assessing each program in isolation.
$1.79 mreduced expected costs
Through Connected Risk Intelligence, we evaluated more than five million portfolio strategies, each representing a different combination of limits and retentions. The business compared strategies on a cost-versus-risk basis, which made it clear how savings shifted exposures.
While finance leaders initially drove discussions, as results from the analysis became more tangible, the risk team increasingly used the outputs to explain tradeoffs, lead internal alignment and shape executive discussions.
The impact
Reduced expected costs by $1.79 million with decisions grounded in risk tolerance
The portfolio view delivered by Connected Risk Intelligence modeling gave the healthcare provider confidence to act on changes it had previously approached with caution. The analysis confirmed it could achieve meaningful savings without moving outside agreed risk tolerance thresholds.
Reduced expected cost by $1.79 million while deliberately increasing adverse year risk in a controlled and evidenced way.
In the 2025 renewal cycle, the business adjusted limits and retentions across several lines based on the portfolio results. These changes reduced expected cost by $1.79 million while deliberately increasing adverse year risk in a controlled and evidenced way. The business made these adjustments as a conscious shift along the cost/risk frontier, rather than as isolated coverage reductions. Examples of the changes included:
- Property limit cut
- Professional and general liability limits reduced
- Cyber limit dropped
- Medical stop loss retention reduced.
Because policies renewed at different points in the year, the business implemented changes iteratively rather than all at once. The portfolio view allowed the organization to make decisions line by line while still tracking the cumulative impact on total cost of risk.
Beyond the financial outcome, the project strengthened how the organization made and communicated risk decisions, equipping the risk team with a shared language and evidence base, which enabled clearer conversations with finance and executive stakeholders.
As roles evolved within the organization, the risk team retained ownership of the outputs and continues to use them as a reference point for future decisions.
As the healthcare provider continues to integrate operations, it can refresh its portfolio view with updated exposures, claims and pricing inputs. This on-demand approach supports proactive, data-driven discussions and keeps insurance decisions aligned with risk tolerance over time.
How could you cut your total cost of risk while optimizing coverage in line with your financial priorities? Find out with Connected Risk Intelligence and Willis’ Risk and Analytics specialists.
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