If Your Renewal Left You Frustrated, Let's Fix It Now

A lot of Michigan employers just accepted a renewal they're not happy with. Higher premiums. Worse benefits. And now you're stuck with it for another year.

Most people won't look at their plan again until next fall. But that means spending 11 months knowing something's wrong and doing nothing about it.

There's a better option: fix it now while you still have time to make 2026 different.

What Just Happened

You probably went through the same process you always do. Your broker shopped carriers. They came back with options. None of them were great. You picked the least-bad one and moved on.

Now you're heading into the new year with:

• Costs that went up more than you wanted

• Benefits that got thinner

• Employees who are frustrated or confused

• No real confidence that next year will be any better

  
  

And here's the thing, if you wait until fall to address it you're just going to repeat the cycle.

Why Waiting Doesn't Help

Most employers treat their benefits plan like something they deal with once a year at renewal. But the problems that drove your costs up this year? They're happening right now. Every day employees are making healthcare decisions that affect your claims. Every month those claims are adding up.

Waiting until October to think about your plan means you're spending almost a year watching the same issues pile up again.

What You Can Do Right Now

Instead of waiting, you can take 30 minutes to understand what actually drove your renewal and what you can do differently for 2026.

Here's what that looks like:

Look at your renewal. What actually happened? Where did the increases come from? What changed in your benefits?

Check your claims data. What's driving your costs? Are employees going to high-cost facilities? Are there patterns you can address?

See what direct contracting could do. Instead of relying on carrier networks, what would it look like to contract directly with local providers at set rates?

Understand how employee support changes claims. When people have help navigating their options, they make better decisions. Better decisions mean lower claims.

Map out a different approach for 2026. What would a plan look like that's designed around your actual claims instead of whatever the carrier offers?

Thirty minutes. That's it. And you walk away knowing if there's a better way forward.

What This Changes

If you figure out now what went wrong and what you can do about it, you're not scrambling next fall. You're planning ahead.

You spend the year making small adjustments that add up. You give employees support so they're not making expensive decisions out of confusion. You build relationships with providers so your costs are predictable.

And when renewal time comes around, you're not hoping for a miracle. You're looking at a plan that's already working better than the one you had.

Getting Started

This doesn't require a huge commitment or tearing everything apart. It's just looking at what happened, understanding why, and deciding if you want to do something different.

If your renewal left you frustrated, don't spend another year living with it. Take 30 minutes to see what's possible for 2026.

Because next fall is going to come whether you plan for it or not.

You might as well show up ready.