Plan analyst: reads the claims through the year, not at renewal.
This is the seat most employers have never had. The plan analyst watches the plan as it develops — claims, pharmacy, utilization, high-cost outliers — so that a problem is found while it is still something you can plan around. A large claimant that surfaces in month four is a decision. The same claimant found at renewal is a number you absorb. The plan analyst also builds the quarterly review in our health and cost strategy.
A renewal is arithmetic. Somebody has to do the arithmetic.
Carrier reporting answers the question the carrier wants answered. The analyst’s job is to reconstruct the number independently, so your side of the conversation is not built on the other side’s summary.
Claims as They Develop
Monthly rather than annually, with large claims tracked and the pattern behind them identified — chronic condition management, a facility being used unnecessarily, a drug category moving fast. Seeing a pattern in its first months leaves time for a care management referral, a site-of-care change or a pharmacy review to affect the current plan year. The analyst reports what it sees to your account executive in plain terms, with the next step attached.
The Held-Census Reprice
Premium change measured on a constant census, so headcount movement does not masquerade as savings or as a spike. One employer, one year, three correct answers: +21 percent total premium, +9.55 percent blended PEPM, +6.80 percent held census. Only the third describes what happened to the cost of covering the same person.
Trend, in Three Lines
The national line, the local filed line, and your own. They disagree, and the disagreement is the insight a single industry figure hides. The national line shows what is happening everywhere, the filed line what Michigan carriers told the regulator, and your own line what your claims did. When a renewal cites trend, we check which of the three it is actually using and whether your experience supports it.
Analysis, not a spreadsheet handed back to you.
The Funding Comparison
Fully insured, level funded and self funded priced against your own experience, with the assumptions written where you can argue with them. The comparison includes stop-loss premiums, administration fees and the cash-flow difference between paying a premium and paying claims as they come in, not only expected claims. For a smaller group it also shows how a bad year would land under each option.
The Outlier Flag
High-cost claims and emerging categories raised during the year, in time to affect stop-loss terms and plan decisions rather than to explain them afterwards. A stop-loss carrier can laser a known large claimant at renewal, setting a higher deductible for that one person, so knowing early affects which carrier and which terms you choose. On a fully insured plan, the same flag explains the renewal before it arrives.
The Benchmark Cut
Your plan against employers matched on size, region and industry, with the cohort described so you can judge whether the comparison is fair. A benchmark matched only on size can make a rich plan look expensive or a lean plan look generous. We show plan design and contribution comparisons separately from cost, so you can see which difference is driving the gap.
Nobody does this work in the week a renewal is due.
It Is Year-Round or It Is Nothing
Reading claims in month eleven tells you what happened. Reading them monthly tells you what to do. The difference is a dedicated seat. In practice the renewal file is mostly built before the carrier’s letter arrives, so the weeks after it go to negotiation rather than analysis. A large claim that surfaced mid-year has already been checked against the stop-loss terms by the time the carrier raises it.
It Is How the Argument Gets Built
Challenging a renewal requires numbers, not an opinion. This seat is where the numbers come from. A carrier will move on a documented error in its assumptions, such as a large claim that has resolved or a census change it did not account for. It rarely moves on a general sense that the increase feels high.
Every Client Gets It
Benchmarking, trend analysis and year-round reading are not reserved for the largest accounts. They are how we run an account. A small group’s own claims carry less weight in its rate, so for those accounts the analyst concentrates on plan design, contributions and the filed market rates, with the same discipline about what the numbers can support.
We are hiring benefits analysts.
If you read this page and recognized the job rather than the service, that is worth a conversation. See what working at CFH is like. Remote and work-from-home are an option, and pay is based on experience.
There’s no ladder, just work that gets harder.
Growth on a service team follows what you’re good at and what the account in front of you needs — not a fixed track with named stops.
No Formal Mentor
Nobody is assigned to you. You’re seated near people who’ve carried accounts like these for years, and asking them things is normal, not a program.
No Fixed Track
What you take on next isn’t a checklist of titles to clear — it moves with what you’re already good at and where the team actually needs you.
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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