The renewal meeting should start with where your plan stands, not with the carrier’s rate.
A renewal increase invites the question of what to cut. A plan score answers a better question first: where is your plan richer than the market, where is it thinner, and which of those gaps is driving cost. We bring that score to the table before any change is on it.
One overall grade hides the answer. We score each part of the plan on its own.
A plan can lead the market on medical and trail it on disability, and an average of the two tells you nothing. We score medical and ancillary coverage pillar by pillar against employers who match you on size, industry and region.
Medical Design
Deductibles, out-of-pocket limits, copays and pharmacy tiers, compared with peers. A rich design is not automatically a good score, because richness you pay for and employees do not use is a cost without a return. Medical design scoring shows value, not just richness.
Employee Cost Share
What employees contribute by tier and what they pay at the point of care. This pillar usually explains more about how the plan is perceived than design does, so we weigh it on its own. Employee cost share drives how the plan is perceived.
Ancillary Coverage
Dental, vision, life and disability scored against the same peers. These lines are easy to forget between renewals, which is why the score often finds its quickest wins here. Ancillary coverage scoring often finds quick wins. These lines are easy to forget.
The Cost Drivers
Next to each pillar we flag the gaps that move cost, so the discussion separates the gaps worth closing from the ones that only look bad on paper. Cost driver flags focus the renewal discussion. Some gaps only look bad on paper.
A score changes the conversation from “what can we cut” to “what should we change.”
Without a reference point, every renewal lever looks equally reasonable. With one, some levers are obviously wrong for your plan and a few are obviously right.
Cutting Where You Lead
If your medical design is well ahead of peers, a modest change there may cost little in recruiting value, so it is a candidate before anything that already trails the market. Plan scoring shows where changes cost the least. Lead where you can afford it.
Protecting Where You Trail
Raising a deductible that is already above the market deepens a weakness employees feel every time they use the plan. The score makes that visible before the decision is made, not after the complaints arrive. Plan scoring shows where a cut would widen a gap you already have.
Testing the Carrier’s Offer
Carriers propose alternative plans with the renewal. We score each alternative the same way, so you see what an option gives up relative to the market, not just what it saves. Scoring carrier alternatives shows the real trade-offs. See what each gives up.
The right comparison is the employer across the street, not a national average.
Benefit norms vary sharply by industry and region, so a score built on everyone tells you little about the market you actually hire in.
Size
A small employer and a large one face different pricing and different options, so each is compared only with groups that face the same choices. Size-matched peers make the plan score meaningful for small and mid-size employers. Same choices, same peers.
Industry
A professional services firm and a manufacturer compete for different people with different expectations, which is why industry sits at the center of the match. Industry-matched peers reflect your real competition for talent in the labor market you actually hire from.
Region
Provider prices and local norms differ from one market to the next, so we compare you with employers in your region before we compare you with anyone else. Regional peers make plan scoring locally relevant. Provider prices vary by market.
What employers ask about the plan score.
Where does the peer data come from?
From our benchmarking survey, which covers nearly a thousand employers. We draw your peer group from it by size, industry and region, so the comparison reflects your market. A matched peer group makes the plan score reliable for renewal decisions.
Is a high score the goal?
Not always. The goal is a score that matches your strategy. A plan built to win on recruiting should lead; a plan built for cost discipline can trail on purpose, as long as it is a choice. The right plan score reflects your benefits strategy.
How often is the plan scored?
Ahead of every renewal, so the meeting starts from the current market and each year’s changes can be read against the last. Pre-renewal scoring keeps plan decisions market-based and lets each year’s changes be measured against the last. Each year builds on the last.
Send us your renewal.
We’ll tell you whether it looks competitive, where we see opportunity, and the five questions we’d put to your carrier. No cost, and no obligation to move anything.
The renewal letter
Your current plan summary
Contribution split by tier
Enrolled counts by tier
Four documents — two more if your group is 50 or more. Nothing else; every extra one is a reason to postpone.
An independent employee benefits consulting firm. We look at the entire benefits program — cost, plan performance, risk and administration.
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