A health plan renewal should be a decision about the year ahead, not a race to sign the least expensive quote. Starting early gives your team time to understand the trade-offs and gives employees time to prepare for changes.

This 120-day timeline is a planning framework, not a legal notice calendar. Work backward from your actual effective date and confirm carrier, enrollment, payroll, and required disclosure deadlines with the people responsible for each.

120–90 days out: establish what needs to improve

Before requesting proposals, collect the current plan documents, employer contribution schedule, enrollment by coverage tier, and last renewal. Ask HR what caused the most confusion: finding a doctor, filling prescriptions, understanding bills, or reaching someone for help.

Confirm employee eligibility, work locations, and dependent enrollment using a secure process.
Set an employer budget and discuss how much change employees can reasonably absorb.
Request aggregate claims and utilization information where available and appropriate. Do not ask employees to disclose diagnoses to their managers.
Assign an owner and deadline to every decision, including payroll setup and employee communications.

90–60 days out: compare the whole arrangement

Ask for a side-by-side comparison using the same census and contribution assumptions. A lower premium may come with a narrower network, a different drug formulary, or higher employee cost-sharing. A different funding model may also change the employer's obligations.

Use each plan's Summary of Benefits and Coverage (SBC) as a starting point. Check deductibles, out-of-pocket limits, referrals, and coverage exclusions. Verify important providers and medications directly against the proposed plan; do not assume a familiar carrier name means an identical network.

Show employer cost and employee payroll deductions by coverage tier.
List administration fees and any services not included in the quote.
Identify what happens to employees receiving ongoing treatment.
For a funding change, document claim liability, stop-loss terms where applicable, and termination obligations.

60–30 days out: make the decision usable

Once the arrangement is selected, explain what is changing, what is staying the same, and what employees need to do. Use plain-language examples, but label them as illustrations—not promises about how an individual claim will be paid.

Prepare enrollment instructions, required documents, a contact for confidential questions, and a clear deadline. Give employees a way to check their providers and prescriptions. Have the broker and carrier confirm the transition process for ongoing care rather than promising automatic continuity.

Final 30 days and the first month: verify the handoff

Reconcile submitted elections with carrier confirmations; investigate rejected or missing records.
Check payroll deductions against approved elections before the first affected payroll.
Confirm how employees will access identification cards and get help if a provider cannot verify coverage.
Review the first invoice for eligibility and billing discrepancies.
Schedule a post-launch review and keep a log of unresolved issues with named owners.

The goal is not simply to renew on time. It is to know what you bought, make the change understandable, and catch errors before they become employees' problems.

Explore Nexus benefit planning, or bring your current renewal to a conversation with our team.