Every proposal is restated on the same census before it is compared.
Collecting quotes is the easy part. Comparing them is where employers get misled, because every carrier prices on its own reading of your payroll, your lives and your plan. A proposal can beat your current plan on every per-unit rate and still cost more. That only becomes visible once the volumes are normalized.
Same people, same benefits, same basis.
Before any two numbers sit side by side, each proposal is rebuilt on one enrolled census and one set of benefit volumes.
One Enrolled Count
Every proposal is repriced on the same enrolled contracts by tier. A carrier that assumed fewer family contracts looks cheaper until it is held to the real mix. Normalizing enrollment is the first step in comparing proposals. Same people, same tiers.
One Set of Volumes
Life and disability are priced per unit of covered payroll or benefit. If one carrier used a lower salary file, its rate looks better and its bill will not be. Consistent volumes make life and disability quotes comparable. Match the salary file.
One Plan Design
A lower premium on a plan with a higher deductible or a narrower network is a different product, not a better price. Plan differences are stated before prices are. Normalizing plan design separates price from benefit. State plan differences first.
The proposals that look better than they are.
These are the patterns that only show up once the comparison is built properly.
The Cheaper Rate That Costs More
Lower per-unit rates on a volume estimate that was never going to hold. Normalized, the annual cost is higher than the renewal it claimed to beat. Normalization exposes proposals built on unrealistic volumes, so the cheaper rate is tested before it is chosen.
The Tier Shift Dressed as Trend
Three tiers rise sharply while one barely moves. That is a pricing decision about relativities, and it hits some employee groups much harder than the headline suggests. Tier-level review shows who a renewal really affects. Some employee groups are hit much harder.
The First-Year Number
A rate guarantee that ends after one year, a rate held with a large action scheduled behind it, or a quote conditional on terms nobody has read yet. Reading the terms exposes first-year-only pricing. Check what happens in year two and beyond.
A comparison you could defend to your CFO.
The finished comparison shows the assumptions, not just the answer.
Annual Cost on One Basis
Every option priced for the same people and the same benefits, in total dollars as well as rates. Total annual cost on one basis makes proposals truly comparable, so the lowest number is the lowest cost. Totals, not just rates.
The Differences That Are Not Price
Network, plan design, rate guarantees and administration, listed plainly next to the dollars they trade against. Listing non-price differences completes the proposal comparison, so nothing that matters to employees is hidden behind a rate. Network and guarantees matter alongside the dollars.
The Refusals Too
Carriers that declined to quote, and why. A market test that hides its refusals overstates how competitive the market was. Reporting carrier declinations shows the real state of the market, and it keeps the comparison honest about what was available.
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.
Switch to CFH. Unhappy with your broker? Your employees won’t notice. You will. →
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