This is Part 2 of Binder HR's 3 part group benefits series. Part 1, Beginner: Your First Group Benefits Plan, looks at the first purchase for a small business. This article moves to a medium business with an established plan. Part 3, Advanced: Stop Treating Every Benefit as Insurance, looks at the financing and governance choices available to larger organizations. A medium sized employer is in an awkward but useful position. The benefits plan is no longer new, claims history is beginning to mean something, and the annual renewal can contain enough information to manage rather than simply accept. At the same time, the organization may not have the scale or risk tolerance to behave like a large national employer. That makes the intermediate stage less about buying more benefits and more about understanding what the existing plan is doing. Start with the renewal before starting with the market A renewal normally arrives with a proposed price. The useful analysis begins underneath that number.
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