Skip Navigation
  • Careers
  • Report a Claim
  • Clients
  • Contact Us
  • Employees
Risk Strategies Logo
  • Industries

    • Architects & Engineers
    • Aviation
    • Cannabis
    • Construction
    • Education
    • Entertainment
    • Financial Services
    • Fine Art
    • Healthcare
    • Law Firms
    • Marine & Yacht
    • Nonprofit & Human Services
    • Private Equity
    • Public Sector
    • Real Estate
    • Relocation
    • Transportation
    • Waste & Recycling
  • Solutions

      • Captives
      • Casualty
      • Cyber
      • Environmental
      • International Liability
      • Management Liability
      • Property
      • Surety
      • Employee Benefits Overview
      • Benefit Administration and Technology
      • Benefits Compliance Support
      • Data & Analytics
      • Human Capital Management
      • International Benefits
      • Absence Management & Ancillary Programs
      • Voluntary & Lifestyle Benefits
      • Financial & Wealth Overview
      • Life Insurance
      • Private Client Services Overview
      • Homeowners
      • Collections
      • Umbrella & Excess Liability
      • Auto
      • Boat & Yacht
      • Family Office
      • Specialty Coverages
    • Reinsurance
      • Risk Management Services Overview
      • Analytics
      • Claims Management & Advocacy
      • Loss Control
      • Safety Consulting Services
  • Consulting

    • Consulting Overview
    • Actuarial Services
    • Healthcare Claim Audit Services
    • Health and Welfare
    • Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Pharmacy
    • Retirement Benefits
  • News and Insights

    • All Insights
    • Blog
    • Emergency Resource Centers
    • Employee Benefits Compliance Center
    • Events
    • Media Coverage
    • State of the Market Reports
    • Press Releases
  • Company

    • About Us
    • Careers
    • Culture and Values
    • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
    • Environmental, Social, & Governance
    • General Terms of Business
    • Leaders
    • Local Expertise
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Recognition & Awards
    • Risk Strategies Charitable Foundation
    • Transparency and Disclosures
  • Join Us
    • Careers
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Industries
    • Architects & Engineers
    • Aviation
      • Aviation Business Insurance - Manned Risk
      • Non-Owned Aviation
      • Unmanned Aerial System and Drones
    • Cannabis
    • Construction
      • Alternative Solutions
      • Financing & Pre-Construction
      • Insurance Solutions
      • Risk Management
      • Surety
    • Education
      • Employee Benefits for Education
      • Property, Casualty & Liability for Education
      • Student Health & Wellness
    • Entertainment
      • Film & Television
      • Advertising Wrap-Ups
      • Event Cancellation & Non-Appearance
      • Music & Touring
      • Theatrical Production & Live Performance 
    • Financial Services
      • Asset Managers
      • Banks & Non-Bank Lending
      • Collections
      • Consumer Financial Services
      • Financial Tech
      • Insurance Companies
    • Fine Art
      • Artists
      • Artist Endowed Foundations
      • Auction Houses
      • Fine Art Packers / Shippers / Warehouses
      • Galleries
      • Museums
      • Private Art Dealers / Advisors
      • Private Collectors
    • Healthcare
      • Employee Benefits - Healthcare
      • Managed Care / Stop Loss
      • Medical Malpractice
      • Property & Casualty - Healthcare
      • Reinsurance
    • Law Firms
    • Marine & Yacht
      • Boat & Yacht For Individuals
      • Classic Yachts
      • Commercial & Recreational Marine Businesses
        • Marine Businesses
        • Sailing Organizations - Burgee Program
      • High Performance Boats
      • Jackline Program for Cruising Yachts
      • Mega Yachts
      • One-Design Insurance Program
      • Travel Medical & Trip Insurance
    • Nonprofit & Human Services
    • Private Equity
    • Public Sector
    • Real Estate
      • Commercial
      • Community Associations
      • Hospitality
      • Residential / Habitational
      • REITs
      • Retail
      • Specialty Programs
    • Relocation
      • Domestic Household Goods
      • Expat Renters & Living Insurance
      • Relocation Claims Service
      • International Household Goods
      • Supplemental Movers Coverage
      • Temporary Living Insurance
      • Vacant Home
    • Transportation
      • Business Auto Insurance
      • Last Mile Delivery
      • Forwarding & Brokering
      • Workers' Compensation
    • Waste & Recycling
  • Solutions
    • Business Insurance
      • Captives
      • Casualty
        • Analytics
        • Auto Liability & Physical Damage
        • Captives & Alternative Risk Financing
        • Claims Advocacy & Loss Control
        • Excess Liability
        • General Liability
        • Product Recall
        • Workers' Compensation
      • Cyber
        • Cyber Resolute
        • Cyber Risk Assessment and Analytics
        • Cyber Risk Response & Claims Advocacy
      • Environmental
        • Contractors Pollution Liability
        • Environmental Excess
        • Environmental Liability Transfer
        • Environmental Liability - Healthcare
        • Environmental Liability - Higher Education
        • Pollution Legal Liability
        • Environmental Liability - Private Equity
        • Professional Environmental Liability Insurance
        • Real Estate Development
        • Remediation Cost Cap
        • Secured Creditor Protection for Lenders
        • Underground Storage Tanks
      • International Liability
      • Management Liability
        • Management Liability - Entertainment
        • Management Liability - Financial Institutions
        • Management Liability - Healthcare
        • Management Liability - Real Estate
      • Property
        • Builder's Risk
        • Property Claims Services
        • Inland Transit and Ocean Cargo
        • Natural Hazard Catastrophe Modeling
        • Political Violence and Terrorism
        • Property Damage & Business Interruptions Valuations
        • Property Loss Prevention and Control
      • Surety
    • Employee Benefits
      • Employee Benefits Overview
      • Benefit Administration and Technology
      • Benefits Compliance Support
      • Data & Analytics
      • Human Capital Management
      • International Benefits
      • Absence Management & Ancillary Programs
      • Voluntary & Lifestyle Benefits
    • Financial & Wealth
      • Financial & Wealth Overview
      • Life Insurance
    • Private Client Services
      • Private Client Services Overview
      • Homeowners
      • Collections
      • Umbrella & Excess Liability
      • Auto
      • Boat & Yacht
      • Family Office
      • Specialty Coverages
    • Reinsurance
    • Risk Management Services
      • Risk Management Services Overview
      • Analytics
      • Claims Management & Advocacy
      • Loss Control
      • Safety Consulting Services
  • Consulting
    • Consulting Overview
    • Actuarial Services
    • Healthcare Claim Audit Services
    • Health and Welfare
    • Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Pharmacy
    • Retirement Benefits
  • News and Insights
    • All Insights
    • Blog
    • Emergency Resource Centers
      • Cybersecurity
      • Earthquake
      • Hurricane
      • Pandemic
      • Riot & Civil Unrest
      • Severe Storms
      • Violence & Active Shooter
      • Wildfire
      • Winter Weather
    • Employee Benefits Compliance Center
    • Events
    • Media Coverage
    • State of the Market Reports
    • Press Releases
  • Company
    • About Us
    • Careers
    • Culture and Values
    • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
      • BeHEARD Series
      • DE&I Structure
      • Employee Resource Groups
    • Environmental, Social, & Governance
    • General Terms of Business
    • Leaders
    • Local Expertise
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Recognition & Awards
    • Risk Strategies Charitable Foundation
    • Transparency and Disclosures
      • General Terms of Business
      • Conflict of Interest Policy
      • Compensation Disclosure
      • Enterprise Risk Management
  • Join Us
    • Careers
      • Benefits & Wellness
      • Investing in Growth & Leadership
      • Life at Risk Strategies
      • Next Steps
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
      • Partnership Benefits
      • Why Join Us?
      • Onboarding & Integration
  • Careers
  • Report a Claim
  • Clients
  • Contact Us
  • Employees

You are about to leave Risk Strategies website and view the content of an external website.

You are leaving risk-strategies.com

By accessing this link, you will be leaving Risk Strategies website and entering a website hosted by another party. Please be advised that you will no longer be subject to, or under the protection of, the privacy and security policies of Risk Strategies website. We encourage you to read and evaluate the privacy and security policies of the site you are entering, which may be different than those of Risk Strategies.

OK
  • News & Insights
  • Mergers & Acquisitions | Testimonials
September 16, 2021

Going National, But Keeping the Caring

Healthcare
4 min read
Matt Gracey
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
Going National, But Keeping the Caring | Risk Strategies

When Julie Danna and I left the agency started by my great uncle and grandfather to start Danna-Gracey, our primary motivation was specialization. Working at that agency, we had experienced first-hand the complex challenges medical professionals faced in obtaining and retaining affordable professional liability coverage.

My ancestors’s agency was a generalist, but had a number of dentists and oral surgeons as clients. I gravitated to helping medical clients navigate what was rapidly becoming a “wild west” market for the liability coverages they needed in order to practice. One carrier we worked with was writing doctors at a good rate, so we created a whole division dedicated to doctors and built it into a significant part of the agency business.

I enjoyed the challenge, but believed an agency with a laser-focus on the problem would be more effective and find success in the market. So, in 2001, Julie and I left to co-found Danna-Gracey.

Not all of our doctor clients came with us, but after some hard struggles, long hours, and precarious early going, the thesis panned out. Danna-Gracey’s specialty focus drove real innovations like our risk purchasing groups –a kind of “collective bargaining” structure for doctor groups - and made us a leading medical malpractice insurance provider in Florida. It was all great, until it wasn’t enough.

The doctor groups began getting bigger. They’d sell to a hospital or a private equity group, merge with a big umbrella group. Groups began expanding out of state. Programs began expanding out of state. We started getting those dreaded phone calls, “we love you but…” We’d be left at the curb with a glowing referral and another cancellation request.

We knew we needed to get more horsepower on our side or resign ourselves to a shrinking market of small doctor practices. But we wanted to keep the great client service and specialty focus, just on a bigger platform. We believed we could have it all.

A local agency specializing in employee benefits made a strong push, but wasn’t a cultural fit - they were largely interested in selling benefits programs to our client base. Our focus was helping clients meet their goals, not just finding ways to sell them more coverage.

We knew Risk Strategies had a leading national health care practice, so it really caught our attention when they approached us. We also saw they had strong in-house specialty capabilities we lacked –sophisticated actuarial services and alternate risk structures, including captives.

Beyond scale and capabilities, what initially impressed me was finding just really good people all up and down the line - business leaders to practice leaders and associates. They were also really interested in our team.

Making sure the deal would benefit our people – a real career path, not getting fired or kicked to the curb doing some menial dead-end job – was a primary concern. Risk Strategies asked about our team – the people, not just the positions - as much as they did our business and clients. I also saw a path for myself. I didn’t want to just cash-in and go surfing. I wanted a career for the next chapter of my life that would benefit my clients and help my team be part of an even bigger team that I fully respect. We’d been an innovator in creating risk purchasing groups. Risk Strategies had some experience with these, but our deep expertise will make a real contribution in this area as we expand that capability nationally.

Sir William Osler, the doctor who started the Johns Hopkins hospital, said, “patients don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” That’s been our guiding principle and that’s what we found at Risk Strategies. A specialty broker with a real culture of caring. It’s not some roll-up, buying agencies and brokers just to triple the stock. This is a real insurance broker centered on clients and their success. That’s why we joined.

The contents of this article are for general informational purposes only and Risk Strategies Company makes no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy or completeness of any information contained herein. Any recommendations contained herein are intended to provide insight based on currently available information for consideration and should be vetted against applicable legal and business needs before application to a specific client. 

Related Posts

See all posts

Healthcare 3 min read A National Player Sees Bigger Poten... May 25, 2021
Healthcare 3 min read Following An Unexpected Career Path February 05, 2021

Subscribe via Email

Risk Strategies Logo
  • Report a Claim
  • Clients
  • Contact
  • Employees
  • Terms of Use
  • Cookie Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Accessibility
  • Health Plan Transparency Compliance
©2023 Risk Strategies. All rights reserved.

Connect with Us

  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Facebook