A quote comparison shows the price of a renewal. It does not show why the price moved.
Plan shopping answers one question: which carrier is cheaper this year. Employers now face costs, claims and complexity that need more than that.
What a quote comparison leaves out.
Three things a price list cannot tell you.
No Reason for the Increase
A renewal letter states a percentage. It rarely separates trend, your group’s own claims and the carrier’s margin, so you cannot tell what is negotiable.
No Like-for-Like Comparison
Quotes built on different census data, plan designs or contribution assumptions look comparable and are not.
No Memory
A shopped quote is a one-year answer. Without a held baseline, next year starts from zero again.
Why the old approach is under strain.
Employee Benefit News describes the pressures that pushed brokers past shopping.
Rising Costs
Health costs keep climbing, so a small difference in how a renewal is read can mean a large difference in dollars.
Larger and More Frequent Claims
A few large claims can move a group’s experience. A broker needs to see them early, not at the next renewal.
More Complexity
Funding options, vendors and compliance duties multiply. Someone has to keep them connected.
What we do instead.
The same five stages every year.
Set a Datum First
We hold the census still and reprice, so the renewal is compared with what your plan actually costs.
Test the Market
We take the carrier’s written ask to the market and price alternatives rather than accept it.
Carry the Year
Claims, billing and compliance stay with us after the new plan starts, so the result is checked.
Questions Employers Ask About This
Is shopping ever the right answer?
Yes. Sometimes a different carrier is the best result. It should be one option measured against a baseline, not the whole strategy.
What should we ask a broker to show?
The datum, the carrier’s ask in writing, what each alternative costs, and which savings came from a move and which from negotiation.
Does this take longer?
The same five stages run on every account. Timing depends on the group, and earlier is better.
Related guides.
From Renewals to Results: The Broker Playbook
The full playbook.
What Employers Want From a Benefits Broker: Proof
What sponsors ask for.
The Datum: A Fixed Baseline for Your Renewal
The fixed baseline.
Want this applied to your renewal?
Send us the renewal and we will run it through DATUM and show you where the number comes from.
Your renewal letter
Your census
Your current plan documents
Your renewal date
Rough answers are fine. We build the numbers from there.
Laws and rules referenced
Employee Benefit News: Renewals to Results — Opinion piece on brokers moving from plan shopping to data-driven advisory work.
An independent employee benefits consulting firm. We look at the entire benefits program — cost, plan performance, risk and administration.
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