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Comparing Current vs Renewal Plans

When you compare plans on a medical renewal, MonarkHQ shows the group's current in-force plans side by side with the renewal, prices both against the same census, and lets you shop rival carriers into the same view. This turns the comparison from "here are the renewal options" into "here is what changes, and what else is available."

This guide covers the renewal comparison view. Comparisons for new-business (non-renewal) quotes keep the simpler per-plan layout described in Building Proposals.

Opening the Comparison

  1. Open the Proposal and go to the Quotes tab
  2. Open the Medical instant quote for the renewal
  3. Work Step 1 — Confirm current plans: click Fill current plans, set the plan each census line is on today, then click Save current plans — or click Skip current plans to run the comparison as renewal + alternatives only
  4. Work Step 2 — Renewal plans: map each line to its renewal plan, add any Options you want to shop alongside it, then click Compare & Price Plans

The two steps run in that order. Step 2 stays locked behind a one-line card — "Confirm your current plans above first." — until Step 1 is saved or skipped, at which point it reveals itself and scrolls into view. The locked card carries its own Skip current plans button, so you can skip without scrolling back up. The proposal sidebar tracks the same two steps, Current plans and Renewal plans, ticking each off as you finish it.

Where the "Current" Column Comes From

To show a real Current column, Monark needs to know two things: which catalog plans the group is on today, and what those plans cost.

Step 1 — Confirm current plans

Step 1 — Confirm current plans is the first card on the renewal quote page, above the renewal mapping. This is the step that builds the Current column — Monark neither guesses from the census plan name nor derives the baseline from what you map in the Renewal column.

You pick the current plans by hand. Each distinct plan name from the census Medical Plan Name column gets its own line, with the member count on it, and you set the plan those members are enrolled in today. It is the same picker the renewal step uses: Smart Suggest for a starting point, a Change button on every line, and the full plan browser with its filters, search, sort and plan detail sheet.

The picker browses the prior year's plans, not the renewal year's. A plan ID outlives its contents — this year's entry for the same ID can carry a different name, metal level and cost sharing than the coverage the group actually holds. So the list shows each plan as it was listed for the prior year, and a badge in the card header names that year. Premiums are not shown while you pick: the group's current premium comes from the retro quote Monark runs when you save, and this year's price answers a different question.

A line you leave unset is skipped, not blocked. You can save with lines unset — those lines simply show no Current rates, and the card tells you how many are in that state before you do.

The card opens with two buttons:

  • Fill current plans opens the picker and the two date fields below.
  • Skip current plans runs the comparison as renewal + alternatives only — no Current column, no vs-current deltas. It replaces the old Include current plans toggle, and it stays available as a link beside Save current plans if you change your mind part-way through.

Once you click Fill current plans, the card shows two dates:

| Control | What it does | | -------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Current effective date | The date the group's in-force plans are priced at. Defaults to the prior plan year; change it for a short plan year. Must be on or before the renewal date. | | Renewal effective date | The date the renewal is priced at. Set independently of the current date. |

Click Save current plans to build the Current column, or Skip current plans to go without one. Either way the card collapses to a one-line confirmation carrying a Change current plans button, and Step 2 unlocks and scrolls itself into view. Your picks are restored when you come back to the quote later — a step already decided stays collapsed rather than asking you to save the same answer twice.

What happens after you save

  1. A companion "current rates" quote is created. Monark quotes your confirmed plans at the current effective date, so the Current column carries the same per-member rate detail as the renewal options rather than a flat estimate.
  2. Your picks are the source of truth. The plan you set in Step 1 is what Monark prices as that line's current plan, and nothing about the renewal mapping changes it. This replaces both the old fuzzy match of the census plan name against the whole catalog and the derived baseline that silently took whatever you had mapped in the Renewal column. Where more than one pick lands on the same census line, the first one wins.

This companion quote is a snapshot — it is not refreshed when the renewal quote's rates are refreshed, because it represents what the group is paying today.

A line whose plan can't be priced is reported, not re-matched. If the plan you set wasn't offered by the carrier on the current effective date, Monark tells you which line and leaves it unpriced rather than quietly substituting a different catalog plan. The save toast names how many plans are affected, and each affected line is flagged in the card itself — "The carrier didn't offer this plan on [date]" — so you can either move the current effective date or set that line to a plan the carrier did offer. A Current baseline built on a plan you never chose is worse than a gap, so the gap is what you get.

If the Current Column Doesn't Appear

Building the companion quote takes tens of seconds. The comparison waits for the whole picture before it draws: it holds a loading state, with a Thinking pill to show it is still working, until the renewal plans, the Current columns and the first Smart Suggest have all landed. It used to render three times, rearranging as each wave arrived. You do not need to refresh the page or click anything — and if a wave never arrives, the page stops waiting and shows you what it has.

If Current columns never appear, work through these in order:

| What you see | What it means | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | No Current column, no banner | Either Step 1 was skipped with Skip current plans (the comparison is deliberately renewal-only), or Step 1 hasn't been saved yet. Reopen the renewal quote, use Change current plans, then save Step 1. | | A greyed Current — Rates unavailable column, with a banner above the table | The rating source has no historical rates for that plan year. See below. | | Current column present, but one plan line is blank | Either that line was left unset in Step 1 — unset lines are skipped — or the plan you set wasn't offered on the current effective date. Use Change current plans to reopen Step 1 and set the line, or adjust the current effective date. |

Other causes worth checking: no plan names in the census Medical Plan Name column, so there is nothing to confirm; or the group's current plan is no longer listed in the prior-year catalog (a delisted or discontinued plan), in which case it will not appear in the Step 1 picker at all.

Without current rates, the comparison still works — you simply won't see vs-current deltas or the absorb-increase contribution scenarios.

When the Plan Year Has No Historical Rates

Some plan years have no rates published at all from the rating source. You are told before you do the work: an amber note appears above the picker on the Step 1 card, explaining that the rating source publishes nothing for that plan year and that confirming the plans still records what the group has today. Saving completes the step — there is nothing for you to fix — and the comparison then says so too:

  • A banner appears above the table explaining that current-year rates aren't available yet for this plan year, and that the renewal and alternatives are unaffected.
  • A greyed placeholder Current column holds the baseline's place in the table, labeled Rates unavailable. Its premium, total, and employer/employee split cells show “—” rather than $0, deltas against it are suppressed, and it is left out of the summary cards — so nothing in the comparison reads as “the group currently pays nothing.”

Everything else on the comparison behaves normally. The placeholder is replaced by a real Current column if and when those rates become available.

Step 2 — Renewal Plans and Options

Step 2 is a single card holding a column grid. Each row is one current plan line, labeled by the plan you confirmed in Step 1 rather than the raw census plan name (when you skip Step 1, the census name is used).

| Column | What it holds | | ----------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Current | Read-only: each line with its member count. | | Renewal | The plan each line renews to. Every line must be mapped before Compare & Price Plans appears — the card counts down "k of M plans remaining" until it does. Smart Suggest and the full plan browser work here as they always have. | | Option 1, Option 2… | One column per alternative you want to shop. Click Add option to add one; remove it with the × in its header. |

Options

An Option is a named set of alternative plans: one plan per current line, compared side by side as its own column against Current and Renewal. Options replace the old approach of grouping shopped alternatives by carrier.

  • Options don't have to be complete. Map as many lines as you like. An unmapped line shows — in that option, and the option's total counts only the lines it maps.
  • Every change saves as you make it. Mapping, changing or removing a plan in an option column saves immediately — there is no separate save step.
  • A plan can sit in only one column. A plan already used as a line's renewal, or already in another option, can't be added again to the same renewal quote.
  • Options survive a re-quote. If a mapped plan is no longer in the quote, its cell says so — "No longer in this quote — pick another" — rather than being dropped quietly.

The Not Enrolled Line

Census members who waived medical coverage normally appear in no column at all. To place some of them on a plan in the comparison — an employee expected to join at renewal, say — use the Not enrolled line:

  1. Click Add Plan at the bottom of the Current column
  2. In the Not enrolled members dialog, tick the waived employees to include. Their dependents come with them.
  3. Click Save

A Not enrolled (k members) line then appears in every column. The Renewal column must map a plan for it like any other line; options may leave it unmapped. Click the line to reopen the dialog.

The line belongs to this renewal quote only — the census itself is not changed. If the census later gives one of those members a medical plan, they drop off the line and a warning appears on it.

Reading the Comparison

Summary Cards

Two cards sit above the table:

| Card | What it totals | | ----------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Current | The in-force plans — total premium, split between what the Employer pays and what employees pay. | | Renewal as-is | The mapped renewal options only, with a percentage badge showing the change against Current. Plans you add for shopping are not counted here. |

Both cards react to the contribution scenario you have selected, so switching scenarios updates the employer/employee split immediately.

The Option-Grouped Table

On renewals the table is organized by option, not by individual plan:

  • Each column is one option — Current, Renewal, and each Option you built in Step 2 or shopped in on the comparison. When Step 1 was skipped, the table groups Renewal and the Options without a Current column.
  • Each premium row is one plan line — if the group offers three medical plans today, there are three rows, and each column shows that option's price for that line.
  • The Plan design section has line tabs. Because a column can cover several lines, you pick which line's benefits to display below. Values that differ from the current plan are highlighted so changes stand out.
  • Column headers can show every mapped plan name. By default a header clamps its plan list to two lines. When any option covers more than one plan, a Show all plans toggle appears at the left of the header row — it expands every column header together so the headers stay aligned, which matters when you're screenshotting the table. Click Collapse plans to go back.

Rows below the premiums include:

  • Employer pays and Employees pay, each with a vs-current delta
  • Network providers
  • Plan documents — labeled links to the SBC and drug formulary where the carrier provides them
  • Member breakdown — expandable per-member detail

Estimated Premiums on the Not Enrolled Line

Waived members have no carrier member rates, because they were never quoted. So Monark estimates their premium in each column from that column's real member rates, using the ACA age curve at the renewal effective date; at most three children under 21 are counted per family.

  • Estimated cells carry an est. marker, and the member breakdown lists those members with (est.) after their name.
  • The Current column prices the Not enrolled line at $0, since those members pay nothing today.
  • An option's total row adds a footnote when it includes estimated premiums, or a "k members not priced" badge when the option leaves lines unmapped. The renewal summary notes estimates the same way.

Treat the Not enrolled figures as an estimate to size the decision, not a carrier quote.

Note:

A vs-current delta is shown only when every member counted in that column can be matched to a rate on their own current plan. If even one member can't be resolved, the delta is left blank rather than shown against an incomplete baseline. A missing delta means "can't be computed accurately," not "no change."

Pinned Columns and Scrolling

The Current and Renewal columns stay pinned to the left while you scroll through shopped alternatives, so the baseline is always visible.

On narrower screens, where the pinned columns would leave no room to scroll, pinning is dropped and the whole table scrolls normally. When you add a new column, the table scrolls it into view just past the pinned region.

Contribution Scenarios

The contribution panel on the comparison is tabbed — Current for what the Employer contributes today, Renewal for what you're modeling — with one-click scenario presets including Employer absorbs increase and Employee absorbs increase.

Every figure in the comparison reacts to the selected scenario. See Employer Contributions for the full detail on the tabs, the scenario pills, and what does and doesn't get saved.

Shopping Alternatives

Beyond the renewal, you can pull rival carriers into the same comparison. Everything you shop here is stored as an Option — the same Options you see in the Step 2 grid — so the two screens always agree.

Tier Tabs

A row of tabs scopes which alternatives are in play, relative to the group's current metal levels:

| Tab | Shows | | --------- | --------------------------------------------------------------- | | Same tier | Plans at the same metal level as the current plans | | Downgrade | Leaner metal levels — lower premium, higher member cost sharing | | Upgrade | Richer metal levels | | All tiers | No metal filter |

The filter is global — it applies relative to the group's current metals as a whole, not per individual plan line.

Smart Suggest

Smart Suggest fills the comparison for you. For each current plan line it picks the cheapest plan from a different carrier that satisfies the active tier tab, then stars the strongest overall result as the broker pick.

The suggestion is built to be one you can defend in front of an employer, so it holds to the shape of the line it is replacing:

  • Plan type is a hard condition. An HMO is never offered against a PPO.
  • Deductible and network breadth are kept near the current line, widening the bands rather than leaving a line with no alternative at all.
  • Candidates are drawn per plan type and metal level, so a gold line sees gold rivals of its own type rather than whatever happened to be cheapest overall.

Switching to a tier tab runs Smart Suggest for that tier, and the first suggest runs automatically when you arrive at a renewal comparison that has no alternatives on it yet — the comparison waits for it before it draws.

Add Carrier

To choose a specific plan rather than take the suggestion, click Add carrier. This opens the same full plan browser used when mapping renewal plans — with filters, a sortable table, and the plan detail sheet.

The browser opens scoped to the active tier and hides plans already on the comparison, but both are recoverable through the browser's own filters if you want to look wider.

Broker Pick and Persistence

  • Star any column to mark it as your broker pick. The pick belongs to the option as a whole, and only one option per renewal quote can hold it; removing that option clears the pick rather than moving it elsewhere.
  • Shopped alternatives and your broker pick are saved as Options on the renewal quote. They survive a reload, and they're there when you or a colleague reopen the saved comparison.
  • Remove an alternative with the × on its column header. Manual adds and removals are saved the same way suggestions are — Smart Suggest won't undo a column you deliberately added or removed.

Member Breakdown

Expand Member breakdown to see every census member as a row, with each option column showing that member's cost on their own plan line — total premium, Employer share, and payroll deduction under the active contribution scenario.

The breakdown reflects the scenario currently selected, which makes it a practical way to answer "what actually happens to this employee's paycheck?" before committing to a contribution strategy.

Best Practices

Confirm the Current Baseline First

Everything downstream — deltas, summary cards, absorb-increase scenarios — rests on the Current column being right, and Step 1 is where you make it right. The accuracy risk is the one it has always been, only now it is under your hand: where a carrier lists several entries under one plan name, they are often different rating variants at different prices, so taking the Smart Suggest pick without reading it produces a loose Current figure. Open the plan detail sheet on anything you are unsure of — deductible, out-of-pocket maximum and metal level are what distinguish two entries sharing a name — then check the Current total against the Employer's actual bill before you present anything.

If you don't need a current baseline at all — a new-carrier takeover, say — click Skip current plans rather than leaving an approximate Current column in the comparison.

Shop Before You Model Contributions

Add the alternatives you want to consider first, then work through contribution scenarios. The scenarios apply across all visible columns, so a complete column set means fewer passes.

Keep the Column Count Honest

A comparison with every rival carrier on it is harder to present than one with the renewal plus two or three genuine options. Use the broker pick star to signal your recommendation.

Next Steps