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. We compare your rate action with what carriers filed for your market this year and what comparable Michigan groups are being quoted, then show how much of the increase comes from your own claims rather than the pool. If the number is fair, the read says so.
Where We See Opportunity
Funding, plan design, or contribution changes worth a second look before you sign anything. Each option comes with its cost to the company and to employees at each tier, so you can see who pays for a change before you make it. Contribution changes can often still be made close to the renewal date, while a funding change needs more lead time.
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.
For the other side of it, see the five questions to ask your broker. They cover how much of the increase is trend versus your own experience, where the pooling point sits, and whether a plan design change is buried in the rate.
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. If you stay with your current broker and carrier, the written read is still yours to use in that conversation. Nothing in it assumes a move, and we do not ask for a broker of record letter to do the review.
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. We do not contact your carrier about your group unless you ask us to. If you want us to request missing pieces, that happens through the one-page authorization, which does not change who represents you.
Not a Sales Pitch in Disguise
If your renewal looks competitive, we’ll tell you that. That answer is worth having before you sign: it shows leadership the renewal was checked against the market rather than accepted by default, and it gives you a record to compare next year’s renewal against.
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. The read gives you specific questions to put to your broker, and a good broker will welcome them. Either way, you learn whether the renewal was the best available or just the first one offered. To see what a good relationship looks like at your size, read what to expect from your benefits broker.
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. You do not sign a broker of record letter to get it, and the authorization for missing documents only lets the carrier release your own information to us. If you later want us to go to market for you, that is a separate decision.
A second opinion, in the words people actually use
Ten questions we are asked before anyone sends us anything.
What is a second opinion on a health insurance renewal?
It is an independent read of the renewal you were given, done by a benefits firm that is not your current broker. You send the renewal letter and a few supporting documents, we tell you what is driving the increase, what the alternatives would cost, and whether the number is in line with what comparable Michigan employers are being quoted. You are not buying anything and you are not changing brokers to do it. Our renewal second opinion page walks through exactly what gets checked.
Is my renewal increase normal, or is it high?
There is no single normal. Michigan carriers filed 2027 small-group increases ranging from about 7 percent to about 15 percent with the state regulator, so two employers can both be quoted a market number and be eight points apart. What matters is where your increase sits in that spread, and whether your own claims experience or plan design explains the gap.
How can I tell whether the renewal I was given is fair?
Three things settle it. What the carrier filed for your market this year, how much of your rate is based on your own claims rather than the pool, and what the same benefits cost elsewhere. The first is public, the second is printed on your rate exhibit next to the pooling point, and the third takes a market check. If you have never been shown the second one, that is the first question to ask. If pharmacy spend drives the increase, see our GLP-1 coverage guide.
Do I have to change brokers to get one?
No. Most of the reviews we do end with the employer taking our read back to the broker they already have. If the renewal is fair we say so, and that is a useful answer too. The only point where a broker of record letter comes up is if you decide you want us to take the renewal to market ourselves, and that decision stays with you.
What is a broker of record letter, and will I have to sign one?
A broker of record letter is a one-page instruction to the carrier naming who represents you. It is how a broker change is made, and it takes effect quickly once signed. A second opinion does not require one. We only ask about it if you decide you want us to go to market on your behalf.
My renewal is in three weeks. Is it too late?
Usually not, but the options narrow. With three weeks there is normally still room to change plan design, contributions or carrier if the numbers justify it. With three days there generally is not. A January 1 renewal is really decided in November, because rates land about 60 days out.
When in the year should I ask for one?
Sixty to ninety days before your plan year ends. That is late enough to have real rates in hand and early enough to act on them. If your renewal has already arrived and the window is shorter, send it anyway. Contributions and plan design can often still change late, while a carrier change needs the most lead time.
Is anything different if we have more than fifty employees?
Yes. Under fifty, rates come off a filed community-rated schedule and the levers are plan design, contributions and carrier. At fifty and above your own claims start driving the number, which opens up level-funded and self-funded arrangements with stop-loss, and group health captives. That is also where the detail on your rate exhibit starts to matter most.
Who sees our information?
The team working on your review, and nobody else. We do not share it with carriers without your say-so, and if you decide to do nothing, the file goes no further. Claims data is handled the same way as everything else we hold for clients.
What do we get at the end?
A written read you can hand to your CFO or your board: where your increase sits against the market, what each lever would do in dollars, what we would recommend, and the questions to put to your carrier. If the recommendation is to stay where you are, it says that.
Ready? Upload your renewal, or talk it through with someone first. No cost, no obligation.
General information about renewal reviews, not legal or tax advice. Plan-specific questions belong with ERISA counsel, and we will bring them in.
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. The account executive leads the review, the plan analyst reads the numbers, and the account manager holds the timeline, so your renewal is not waiting on one person’s calendar.
Upload your renewal.
Attach the renewal, quote or census and we will come back to you. If you would rather email it, send it to info@cfhic.com instead.
If you would rather see the list before you send anything, it is on the page below, with nothing to download.
An independent employee benefits consulting firm. We look at the entire benefits program — cost, plan performance, risk and administration.
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