A PEO changes who your employees work for on paper.
A professional employer organization can solve real problems for a growing employer: payroll, HR administration, and sometimes access to benefits a small group could not buy alone. It can also lock you into a bundle that is expensive to leave and opaque to compare. We evaluate it the way we evaluate any other funding decision — on your actual numbers, with the exit terms read.
Co-employment is a benefits decision usually evaluated as a payroll decision.
The payroll and HR case for a PEO is easy to see on an invoice. The benefits consequences sit underneath it and are rarely part of the comparison.
Who sponsors the plan
In most arrangements the PEO becomes the sponsor of the health plan your employees are in. You are no longer choosing the plan, the carrier or the network — you are choosing a provider who chooses them.
What you can see
Bundled pricing often means you cannot separate the benefits cost from the administration cost, and claims experience may not be visible to you at all. That matters on the way in, and it matters much more on the way out, when a new carrier asks for experience you do not have.
What the employee sees
Plan design, network and contribution structure are set at the PEO level. If your workforce is concentrated somewhere the PEO’s plan is weak, that is not something you can adjust.
Like for like, including the costs nobody quotes.
A PEO proposal and a direct program are rarely quoted on the same basis. We normalize them before either is judged.
All-in cost per employee
Administrative fee, benefits cost, workers’ compensation handling and anything billed separately, expressed per employee per month against the direct alternative — the same way we compare funding models.
What your team stops doing
There is genuine value in work that comes off your desk. It belongs in the comparison as a number, not as a feeling, and it is the strongest part of most PEO cases.
The exit
Notice periods, mid-year timing, and what happens to deductibles already met when employees move to a new plan. A move made at the wrong point in the year resets everyone’s accumulators.
A second opinion does not require leaving.
A review of what you have
What the bundled plan actually covers, how the contribution structure compares to the open market, and whether the administrative fee is reasonable for the service being delivered.
Negotiating where you are
Sometimes the right outcome is a better arrangement with the incumbent. Knowing what the open market would charge is what makes that conversation possible.
Transition planning
Moving into or out of a PEO has timing, reporting and continuation implications. It is a project with a critical path, and we run it as one.
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.
Bloomfield Hills, MI 48304
248.370.8853
719.425.2649
281.404.5670
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