Know Your Benchmark

Your renewal is a percentage.
Your PEPY is the truth.

PEPY — per employee, per year — is what your plan actually costs for every person on it. Carriers negotiate off it. Benchmarks are built on it. And an 8% renewal means completely different things depending on it. Most owners have never calculated theirs. Two fields fixes that.

Three fields — that's the whole form

Nothing is sent anywhere — the math happens on your device.
Your PEPY
$0
per employee, per year — before a single claim is paid differently

Where you sit against the national benchmark

Lean · <$13KTypical · $13–18KHeavy · $18–22KCritical · $22K+

Benchmark bands are directional, built from national employer survey data (KFF Employer Health Benefits Survey, Mercer National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans). Industry, region, workforce age, and plan richness all shift where "typical" sits for you — which is exactly what a benchmark against your own peer set would show.

Why this relates to your renewal more than you know

Here are two companies. Same headcount as yours. Both just got handed the — renewal you did. The percentage is identical — watch what the base does to the dollars.

Company A — your PEPY
—
—
new dollars added next year
Company B — benchmark PEPY
—
—
new dollars added next year

You've been negotiating the percentage. The money is in the base.

And the base compounds

The next question
You know your base. Now see what ten more years of renewals do to it.
See My 10-Year Number →
Your numbers carry over — no re-typing.
Optional · a second set of eyes
Want Chad's read on your benchmark?
This part — unlike the calculator — does send something: your three numbers and the result go to Chad Palm's inbox, and you get a personal reply with where a number like yours usually comes from and what to check first. No list you're joining, no sequence that follows. Just the read.
Goes to cpalm@dillinghambenefits.com · typical reply within a business day
If the base is heavy
What's actually controllable?
Six levers that move the base — rebates, claims, navigation, DPC, funding, design. →
Where your premium goes
The five ways to buy insurance
Your numbers, carried into all five funding structures — with a live stress test. →
Before the meeting
Are you ready for renewal?
Score your readiness and know what to ask when the percentage shows up. →