Four documents. That’s the whole ask.
You don’t need a proposal-ready packet. Send us what you already have, and your dedicated team of five will tell you exactly where you stand.
Four documents — two more if your group is 50 or more. Nothing else; every extra one is a reason to postpone.
Here is exactly what each one is, where it lives, and what we do with it.
1. The renewal letter
Also called the renewal package or the rate action letter. Your carrier sends it to you or to your current broker, usually sixty to ninety days before the plan year starts. Send all of it rather than the cover page: we need the rate exhibit with the new rates by tier, any plan design changes, and the assumptions in the fine print. If your broker recapped it in a spreadsheet, send the carrier original as well. We read it for the rate action, for changes buried in the plan design, and for anything that looks like last year rubber-stamped.
2. Your current plan summary
The Summary of Benefits and Coverage for each plan you offer, or the benefit grid you would hand a new hire. What we are reading: deductible, coinsurance, out-of-pocket maximum, office and specialist copays, emergency and urgent care, and the prescription tiers. Include the HSA or HRA contribution if you fund one. Medical first. Dental, vision and life are useful, but never hold up the review waiting for them.
3. Contribution split by tier
What the employer pays and what the employee pays at each tier: employee only, employee plus spouse, employee plus children, family. Tell us whether those numbers are monthly or per paycheck and how many pay periods you run a year, because that is where the arithmetic goes wrong most often. If different groups get different contributions, salaried and hourly or by location, send each one rather than an average.
4. Enrolled counts by tier
How many contracts sit on each tier today, and how many eligible employees waived. The easiest source is your most recent carrier billing statement: it lists the tier counts and the total premium on one page and it is current by definition. Paired with the contribution split, this is what tells us what the plan actually costs you and what it costs your people.
Two more, and they are the ones that set your rate
Above the small-group cutoff a carrier underwrites you instead of looking you up, so these two decide the number that comes back. Sending them with everything else is what keeps the quote on schedule.
5. Your current census
Names, ages or dates of birth, tier, home zip code, and class or location for each enrolled employee, plus a line for anyone eligible who waived. Gender only if your carrier asks for it. Names we do need, because carriers quote and enroll on named individuals. Social Security numbers we do not, and we would rather you left them out. Excel or CSV straight out of payroll or your benefits administration system is perfect.
6. Claims experience and the last three renewals
Twelve to twenty-four months of paid claims by month, the large-claimant report your carrier produces (anyone over the threshold they set, with the condition category and whether treatment is ongoing), and pharmacy spend if it is reported separately. Then the last three renewal letters, which show the pattern of rate actions rather than a single year. If you are self-funded or level-funded, add your stop-loss policy or quote and your administration fees.
The one thing we never need is a Social Security number. Not for a quote, not on a census, at any size. Names we do need, because carriers quote and enroll on named people, and medical claims reports we do need above the small-group cutoff, because that is what underwriting actually reads. Both are handled as protected health information. PDF or Excel is fine, and if the files are large, send a link rather than an attachment.
Do not have all of it? Send it anyway.
Missing paperwork is the most common reason a renewal review never happens, and it is the easiest one to solve.
We can get it from the carrier for you. Sign a one-page authorization and we will request the missing pieces directly. This works for a group of any size. An authorization letter is not a broker of record letter: it changes nothing about who represents you or who gets paid, it only lets the carrier release your own information to us. What comes back that way is limited, a defined set rather than everything a broker of record would see, but it is usually enough for us to tell you where you stand. If it is not, we will say so rather than guess.
2 to 50 employees, about 7 days
Nobody underwrites you. Small-group rates come off a filed, community-rated table built from age, rating area, tier and plan design. The carrier is looking a number up rather than forming a judgment about your workforce, so the week is queue time.
51 to 250 employees, about 14 days
An underwriter is forming a judgment about you. Above the small-group cutoff you are rated on your own experience, so a person wants the last three renewals, the claims behind them, your industry classification and your eligible-versus-enrolled counts. Each unanswered question is a round trip, which is where most of the two weeks goes.
250 or more employees, up to 21 days
The same underwriting, claim by claim. At this size the carrier reads the largest claims individually: what drove them, whether treatment is ongoing, what it means for stop-loss. That crosses more than one desk and comes back with at least one question before rates are released.
Those windows assume a complete file. Seven days, fourteen, twenty-one — that is what you should expect back from us at your size, and our work starts the day your file is complete, not days later.
A specific answer, on a timeline your team sets, not a form letter.
Every group is different — a 30-person case usually turns around faster than a 400-person one with self-funded claims to model. Your dedicated team will give you an exact date once they’ve opened your renewal, not a generic promise.
Whether it’s competitive
A straight read against the market we work in every day, not a national average.
Where we see opportunity
Funding, plan design, or contribution changes worth a second look before you sign anything.
The five questions we’d ask your carrier
The exact pushback we’d put on your renewal on your behalf, whether or not you use us to send it.
No cost, no obligation, and nothing goes anywhere else.
Not a commitment to switch
You keep the review whether you move your business or not.
Not shared with your current broker or carrier
What you send us is reviewed by your assigned team of five and handled under our standard confidentiality practices. We don’t offer a separate NDA for this initial review.
Not a sales pitch in disguise
If your renewal looks competitive, we’ll tell you that.
Not an open-ended data request
Above the small-group cutoff the carrier will want your claims and your last three renewals too, and we say so up front rather than drip-feeding requests. Beyond that, if we need something we ask for it directly and tell you why.
The questions employers ask before they send their renewal.
Do you need our claims data too?
If your group is above your state’s small-group cutoff, fifty in Michigan, then yes, and so are your last three renewals. Carriers ask for both every time at that size. Below the cutoff your rates come off a filed community-rated table and claims are not part of the calculation at all.
What if we’re happy with our current broker?
Then you’ll have an independent second read to confirm it. Most employers keep it in a drawer as leverage; some don’t.
Is there any cost or obligation?
No. This is the same review we’d do before proposing anything, with no obligation to act on it.
Email it, or call and we’ll walk you through it.
Send the four documents to info@cfhic.com, or call 248.370.8853 and your team will take it from there.
Dedicated teams of five on every account. Yours includes an account executive, an account manager, a plan analyst, customer service, and IT.
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