The Map

You've seen the forces.
Here's the path through them.

Five steps, in order — because cost strategy actually is a sequence. Each one is a tool, not a pitch. Start at 1 or jump to where it hurts.

Prefer the story before the steps? The Journey and the Renewal-Season Read both end right back here.

1
Know your base
What does your plan cost per employee, really?
Every renewal percentage gets applied to a base number most owners have never calculated. Sixty seconds fixes that — and benchmarks you against national bands.
Know Your PEPY
Three fields → your true per-employee cost, benchmarked — and why the base beats the percentage.
Find my benchmark →
2
See the decade
What does staying put cost over ten years?
Your base plus your renewal history, compounded forward. Step 1 hands its numbers straight into this one — no re-typing.
What's Your Number?
10-year projection off your actual renewals: uncontrolled vs. managed, and the gap between them. Save it as a PDF.
Show me my number →
3
Find the levers
Healthcare can't be predicted. It can be managed.
The gap from Step 2 isn't fate — it's a set of contracts and decisions. Pull the levers yourself, then go deep where your plan leaks.
The Levers
Six levers on a live board — rebates, claims, navigation, DPC, funding, design.
Pull the levers →
Where Your Rx Dollars Go
The PBM machine, step by step — rebates, spread, formulary games.
Follow the Rx dollar →
High Claims on the Plan
What one bad year really does to renewal math — and how outliers should be handled.
Stress-test a bad year →
Stop-Loss Spec Increase
When the specific deductible moves, who absorbs the risk — run the math.
Run the spec math →
The GLP-1 Question
The most requested drugs in America — estimate the plan impact and weigh the three coverage postures.
Size the GLP-1 impact →
4
Pick the structure
Five ways to fund a plan. Which fits you?
Fully insured to captive — what each structure costs, hides, and hands back. This is where the levers from Step 3 get room to work.
The Five Ways to Buy Health Insurance
All five structures, fully interactive — a live good-year/bad-year stress test, a stop-loss simulator, and your own numbers carried in from Step 1. Ends with an optional 20-minute Teams walkthrough with Chad.
Walk the five ways →
5
Walk in ready
Score yourself before the meeting does.
Two scorecards: what you know going into renewal, and what a plaintiff's attorney would find in your plan. Both end in a prioritized 90-day list.
Renewal Readiness
16 questions against 2026 benchmarks — know what to ask when the percentage shows up.
Get my score →
The Complete Renewal Picture
Quoted vs. negotiated vs. all-in — see what a "good" renewal number was purchased with, option by option, and how it lands on your people.
Run the analysis →
Fiduciary Scorecard
14 questions on post-J&J exposure — risk band plus a 90-day action list.
Check my exposure →
Not the owner?
There's a whole wing for your people.
Picking a plan, prepping for surgery, fighting a denial, decoding a prescription bill — free tools for employees, in plain English. Forward it to your team.
Employee tools → The HR Desk →

Hit a term you don't know anywhere along the way? Every acronym in this industry has a plain-English answer waiting.

Open the Benefits Library — 30+ plain-English answers →

Want to talk any of it through? cpalm@dillinghambenefits.com — a real inbox, read by a real person. No list you're joining, no sequence that follows. Just a reply.