Health Insurance Renewals

Updated

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This article is about Justworks PEO. What product am I using?

What are health insurance renewals?

Renewals are the time period when your insurance carrier assesses your policy and decides new pricing for the following plan year. The insurance carrier will assess your policy based on your group’s claim history and predicted plan usage, in addition to health insurance inflation, to determine your new price. Health insurance plans generally renew annually, regardless of where you have your policy.

  • Master Policy plan customers: All medical, dental, and vision plans under Justworks’ Large Group Master Policies will renew on November 1st every year regardless of when your company signed up for health insurance.
  • Open Market plan customers: Open Market plans through Justworks will have their renewal based on when their Open Market plan became effective.

Step-by-Step Video Guide

Watch our Step-by-Step Guide to Renewals video series to set yourself up for a successful renewals season this year. (Tip: Skip to different videos in the series via the dropdown in the top left playlist)

Or you can follow the step by step instructions below

Visit our Video Library for more tutorials

Step-by-Step Walkthrough

  1.  Login to your Justworks Account and navigate to Benefits > Renewals. Here you'll be able to navigate through the renewals process, compare your current plan against this year's plan offerings and more.

    Justworks Benefits page showing the Renewals tab selected, with an 'It's time to renew!' banner displaying important dates for company plan selection (Aug 11–Sep 1, 2026), employee open enrollment (Sep 17–28, 2026), and upcoming plan year (Nov 1, 2026–Oct 31, 2027), and a 'Start plan selection' button in the bottom right.
    Navigate to Benefits Renewals in your Justworks account to see your renewal timeline and important dates. Click 'Start plan selection' to begin the renewal process.

  2. From here select Start plan selection and you'll be taken to a current snapshot and comparison page where you can review your company's current health insurance enrollments and costs.

    Medical insurance 'Current snapshot' page showing current cost ($382.62/month total premium, $363.51/month company pays), current enrollments (3 employees, 0 others), and current plans (Master Policy, Aetna, 1 plan), with a 'New Open Market options' section below.
    After clicking 'Start plan selection,' you'll see a current snapshot summarizing your company's existing health insurance costs, enrollments, and plan details. Use this to compare against renewal options.
    Medical insurance 'Compare total cost' page showing bar charts comparing total premiums and company contributions per month across Master Policy Current ($382.62), Master Policy Renew ($382.62), and Open Market New option ($2,251.64, showing a 488% increase), based on completed enrollments as of August 1, 2026.
    The cost comparison section lets you see how Master Policy renewal options and Open Market options differ from your current plan costs. Note that Open Market plans may show significantly different total premiums.
  3. On this comparison page you can also download a full list of available Master Policy and Open Market plans as a CSV.

  4. At the bottom of the page you can choose either Master Policy or Open Market plan types before proceeding to the next page.

    Justworks 'Choose a plan type' page with two unselected radio button options: 'Master Policy plans' and 'Open Market plans,' a note that renewal options most similar to current plans will be auto-selected, and a blue 'Continue' button. A banner at the top offers downloadable full plan lists for both plan types.
    At the bottom of the comparison page, choose between Master Policy or Open Market plan types before proceeding. Justworks will pre-select renewal options most similar to your current plans, but you can adjust in the next step.
    • Justworks will automatically select renewal options that are most similar to your current plans, but you can change your selections and explore more options in the next step.
    • If you're looking to select the same plan as last year, you can do so during this process if it's available to you, but you will still need to go through the renewals process.

  5. On the next page you'll be able to select the medical plans you'd like to offer.

    Justworks 'Select your medical plans' page showing a list of Aetna medical plans with monthly premium details, deductible, coinsurance, and out-of-pocket max. A sidebar on the right shows 4 currently selected plans (Aetna W4, V5, T2, T3) each with a 'Remove' option and a blue 'Save selections' button.
    On the medical plan selection page, you can browse available plans and view detailed cost and coverage information. Plans already selected appear in the sidebar on the right, where you can also remove them.
    • Note: In order to make dental or vision plans selections you will first need to complete medical plan selection.

  6. On the next page you'll be able to select dental and vision plans as well as setup benefits classes (optional), company contributions to medical, dental and vision plans and then review and finalize your selections

    Justworks 'Set up your insurance plans' page showing a checklist with four sections: Plan Selection (1/3 Completed), Benefits Classes (Optional, expanded with a 'Start' button), Contributions (0/3 Completed), and Review (0/1 Completed, with a grayed-out 'Review & Confirm' Submit button).
    After selecting medical plans, this setup checklist guides you through the remaining steps: configuring optional benefits classes, setting company contributions, and reviewing and submitting your final selections.

If you run into any issues during your renewals process, please reach out to support@justworks.com for assistance!

Supplemental Resources

Why do renewals happen each year?

Renewals occur annually to allow you to change your plan based on your current needs. You’ll have the opportunity to switch plans, add a dependent, or opt out if needed. As an employer, renewals are an opportunity to change your plan portfolio and company contribution.

For insurance carriers, renewals happen annually to make sure plans are up-to-date with rules and regulations, to adjust pricing to take into account inflation in the health insurance industry and to reassess risk.

Why does my plan renew on November 1st?

This is because you are part of Justworks’ Master Policy plans with either Aetna, Kaiser Permanente, UnitedHealthcare, or MetLife.

The Justworks Master Policy plan makes it possible for your company to get the variety of plans and the pricing you received when you signed up with Justworks. From the carrier’s perspective, your company joined a larger group policy that was already in place and which is set to renew on November 1 every year.

Open Market plan customers: unlike the health plans under Justworks’ Large Group Master Policy plan, Open Market plans through Justworks will have their renewal based on when their Open Market plan became effective.

What can I expect during renewals?

An Increase to your Monthly Premium

You can expect to see some level of increase in the overall cost of plans. Premium increases are based on factors that are specific to your company, including the types of plans offered, enrollment, and predicted plan usage. In addition to the factors specific to your company, monthly premiums also increase as a result of factors specific to the health insurance industry including overall industry performance, geographic performance, government-mandated benefits, prescription drugs and especially treatment costs, and overall inflation. As a PEO, we negotiate with our carriers to get small companies access to a much wider variety of high-quality health insurance plans normally reserved for large companies, as well as the overall rate increases our customers receive, but we do not negotiate specific companies' rates since we have a Master Policy plan that covers all of our customers.

An Opportunity to Change Plans and Contribute to Meet your Company's Needs

This is the one time a year when your company can pick new plan options and reset your contributions. If the plans you picked last year no longer make sense for the company you are today, now is the time to make the changes you need.

A Fully Online and Easy to Manage Process

With Justworks, this plan selection process will all happen online. Once your rates are ready, you will be able to log into Justworks and pick your plans for the upcoming year. We’ll let you know when your plans are ready. If you need to talk to a human, our wonderful support team will be available to help 24/7.

Open Enrollment for Employees

Renewals are also an opportunity for your U.S.-based employees to pick their plans from scratch. Your employees will be offered all the new plans you select and they too will have a chance to re-evaluate their choices.

This is also a great opportunity for employees who have declined coverage in the past to join your company program.

Once you have selected your plans and finalized your contributions for your company, your employees will go through an open enrollment period where they can choose their individual plans and coverage tier. This process will also happen online through Justworks.

How to prepare for renewals

Over the next few weeks, there are a few actions you can take to prepare for renewals.

Understand your Employee Needs Around Existing Plans

Talk to your employees about what they would like to see in their health insurance plans to help you make an educated decision. Employees might have specific needs, such as lower premiums or lower deductibles. Surveying your employees early guarantees they will have the best experience possible with their health insurance.

Mach your Needs to the Available Plan Options

After you’ve identified your priorities in a plan, you can evaluate the portfolio of existing plans to assess which ones best meet your needs. During this time, our team will be available 24/7 over the phone, on chat, via email, and on Slack to discuss any questions you might have.

Prepare a Budget

A significant part of health insurance renewals is deciding how much your company would like to spend on health insurance. Creating a budget prior to seeing your rates will help you decide which plans make sense and how much you’d like to cover for each employee.

 

Disclaimer

This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, legal or tax advice. If you have any legal or tax questions regarding this content or related issues, then you should consult with your professional legal or tax advisor.

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