We decide what your renewal should be before anyone is asked to quote.
Most renewals are judged against whatever the proposals happen to say. That makes the market the referee of its own game. We work the other way round: the renewal is taken apart first, a defensible number is built from its pieces, and every carrier response — including your incumbent’s — is then measured against that number rather than against each other.
Three questions come before any quote.
An increase arrives as one percentage. Underneath it are parts that move for different reasons, and only some of them were ever anyone’s to negotiate.
How Much Is Trend
The share that reflects what care costs everywhere this year. It is measured against published filed rates where they exist and against broad employer trend where they do not.
For a fully insured group under fifty, the state’s filed rate for your product type is the benchmark. Above fifty it is context, not the answer.
How Much Is Your Own Claims
How much weight your own experience carries depends on credibility, and credibility is driven by enrolled contracts, not headcount. Full credibility commonly takes around a thousand enrolled contracts; below that, the carrier’s book rate carries the balance.
The factor actually applied is printed on your rate exhibit. If you have never been shown it, that is the first question to ask.
How Much Is Who Joined and Left
Age, location and family mix shift every year. A renewal can rise with no change in the cost of covering anyone, simply because the census changed.
Separating that movement is what stops it being argued about as if it were trend.
The quiet inputs that move a renewal.
Most of the arguable money in a renewal sits in assumptions nobody on the employer side was asked to check.
The Census It Was Built On
Carriers price on the eligible and enrolled counts you supplied. If those counts change on submission, rates can change with them, so a wrong census is a wrong price, quietly. Census accuracy is the first renewal check, because every rate on the renewal is built on it.
A Claim That Is Not Coming Back
A large claim below the pooling point stays in your experience in full. If the person has recovered, left the plan or the treatment has ended, applying trend to it prices a cost that will not recur. Reviewing large claims keeps nonrecurring costs out of the renewal.
The Pooling Point Itself
Where the carrier caps a single claim’s effect decides how much of one bad year you carry. When pooling points rise, more of every large claim stays in your number. Pooling point changes can move a renewal. Check the pooling level each year.
Every proposal is then held to that number.
Once the number exists, the conversation changes. The question is no longer which quote is lowest, but which responses beat what the renewal should have been.
The Incumbent Sees It First
A renewal that exceeds the built number is challenged line by line with the carrier’s own figures before anyone else is invited in. Challenging the incumbent first keeps the renewal honest, and it gives the carrier a fair chance to correct its own numbers.
The Market Is Measured Against It
A proposal that undercuts the incumbent but misses the built number is not a saving. It is the same number with a new logo on it. The built renewal number is the benchmark every proposal must beat, whoever the carrier is.
And You See the Whole Workings
Which parts moved, which parts were never movable, and which part was a pricing decision rather than a claims outcome. Nothing is summarized away. Transparent renewal analysis shows what drove the number, so the decision you make is based on the real causes.
When the renewal comes back in double digits →
Quick Answers.
Short answers to what employers ask most. This is general information, not legal or tax advice.
What does it mean to decide the renewal number first?
We work out what your renewal should be from your own experience and the market trend before any carrier is asked to quote, so proposals are measured against a standard.
Why not just compare the proposals?
Without a benchmark, the proposals referee themselves. A low quote can still be a high price for your group.
What do you need from us to do this?
Your renewal, current rates, plan documents and claims or experience reports where available. We handle the analysis.
What happens if the renewal is already reasonable?
We tell you so. A fair renewal is a reason to negotiate and stay, not to disrupt your employees.
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. →