Health insurance renewal season is stressful for everyone involved.  It is particularly stressful for employers.  They have to select carriers, plans and benefits, educate their employees, and collect an overwhelming amount of paperwork within a very short window of time.

 

Over the years, I’ve found that using a custom checklist with my clients helps them know what tasks that need to be completed, by whom, and by what date helps alleviate a lot of this stress.

 

My clients say this simple tool has helped them alleviate the stress of knowing if the carrier or I am waiting on them for anything.  This frees them up to do other year-end activities.

 

The timeline I’ve included is for a 1/1 effective date.  If you have another effective date, you can simply adjust the effective date to yours.

Sample Checklist with Timeline:

 

Steps for customizing your 2019 Health Insurance Renewal Checklist:

1) Begin Renewal Process

 

Carriers won’t accept applications more than 90 days old, so we start the shopping process for groups with less than 50 employees 90 days prior to your renewal.

 

Depending on the type of programs we are evaluating, we may be able to get quotes with just a census.  However, for a healthy group, we’ll likely need applications to see if there are better programs available.

 

2) Completed Shopping Information Returned to Broker

 

Whether we need a census or applications, I want these as soon as possible.  I typically give employers about 1-2 weeks to get this information back to me.

 

3) Receipt of Renewal

 

This is the event that can really hold things up.  For groups with less than 50 employees, carriers don’t have to release renewals until 45 days prior to the effective date and often times that is when they release them.

 

Since the ACA went into effect on 1/1/2014, carriers have been doing a much better job.  United Healthcare has been consistently getting renewals out nearly 90 days in advance.  Humana has been around 60 -75 days in advance.  Anthem was in the 60-75 day range, but last year, they came out right at 45 days out.

 

There’s nothing the broker or employer can do about this except have everything else ready to go so we can move forward as quickly as possible once the renewal is released.

 

4) Renewal Presentation Meeting

 

I set this target date for 1 week following the 45-day mandatory renewal delivery date.  But in reality, I have this meeting as soon as I receive the renewal and add it to the other quotes.

 

5) Decisions for 2019 benefits

 

If you have a simple, small increase and are staying with the same carrier, you may be able to make your final benefits decision on the day of the renewal presentation.

 

However, most employers will want a week or so to mull over the renewal and make a final decision.  So, I’ll set this target date for the Friday after at least 1 week of the Renewal Presentation Meeting to give employers time to make a final decision.

 

6) Employee Enrollment Meeting

 

After the company makes decisions on benefits it will take the broker a few days to put together everything needed for an open enrollment meeting.  I’ll set the target date for the Friday after about 1 week of the Final Decision Deadline.

 

7) Employee Selections Due / Final Paperwork and Apps submitted

 

You should not give your employees more than a week (I prefer over the weekend) to complete paperwork after an enrollment meeting.  In my experience, if you give them 3 days, they’ll take a week.  If you give them 1 week, they’ll take 2

 

However, for the purposes of our checklist, I set the target date for this the Friday after 1 week of the Enrollment Meeting.  This gives the group administrator some leeway to collect missing info and paperwork in from stragglers.

 

Another point to consider is that it takes carriers 2 full weeks to get ID cards out.  During Q4, with the onslaught of business, it can take even longer.

 

Since our ultimate goal is to have ID cards in the hands of employees by the effective date, I feel that this is the most iron-clad target date in the entire process.

 

8) Effective Date / New ID Cards Arrive

 

This is self-explanatory.

 

Final Thoughts:

If you’d like your own custom renewal timeline, please contact me.  I’m happy to put one together for you based on your renewal date.

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