How to read a UnitedHealthcare small group renewal

This page covers what is specific to UnitedHealthcare. The checks that apply to any carrier, such as rating basis, tiers and what counts as a rate, are in how to read a carrier rate sheet. Every UnitedHealthcare detail below is cited to a public UnitedHealthcare document or a state rate filing, listed under Sources. Several are state-specific, and the page says which state.

What you'll see on a UnitedHealthcare renewal

• A renewal package in UHCeServices. The broker portal's Quick Links include Small Group Renewal Packages, with a Renewal Document link for each group, searchable by group ID. The Manage Renewal link opens SAMx One. SAMx One and SAMx Legacy handle quoting, enrollment and renewals for both fully insured and Level Funded business [1].
• Paper or online only. A Go Green setting in the portal decides it. When it is set to Yes, renewals are online only and paper renewals are no longer sent. Only a broker admin can change it [1]. If a client says they never got a renewal, check this setting first.
• Plan documents per group. The plan information screen links to View Medical Plan Rates, the Employer Handbook (group policy or administrative services agreement), the Member Handbook (certificate of coverage or summary plan description), the SBC, and View Benefits. Plan rates are not shown there for grandfathered or transitional relief groups [1].
• Timing. UnitedHealthcare's February 2024 employer guide said employers see groups eligible for renewal 60 days before the renewal date [2]. The September 2026 broker guide gives no day count, so check the portal rather than counting back from the renewal date.
• A new group number, in some markets. Where UnitedHealthcare has moved small groups to a new platform, the group gets a new group number at renewal. It appears on the ACA renewal package [3]. The first invoice after renewal will not match last year's group number.

Walking through the document

Plan names

UnitedHealthcare's portfolio uses network families as plan names: Options PPO, Choice and Choice Plus, Surest, Select and Select Plus, Core and Core Essential, Navigate, Charter, NexusACO and Doctors Plan [4]. The family tells you the network design before you open the SBC. Choice covers out-of-network care for emergencies only. Choice Plus adds out-of-network benefits at a lower benefit level [4].

In filed small group rate tables, a plan name adds a metal level and a number. Examples are "UHC Choice Plus Gold 2750", "UHC Choice HSA Bronze 7250" and "UHC Choice Plus HSA Silver 3500-1" [5]. The filing does not define the number. Check it against the deductible on the SBC instead of assuming that is what it means.

Plan codes

The code, not the name, is what ties a rate to a set of benefits. A UnitedHealthcare Colorado small business SBC is headed "Choice Plus CUM6 /K13Y", carries "SBCCO14CUM6" in its footer, and names its prescription drug list ("Advantage") on page one [6]. When two plans on a renewal share a family name, match each rate row to its SBC by the code. Read the drug list from the same page, because UnitedHealthcare offers more than one.

Rating basis

Most of a UnitedHealthcare small group renewal is priced by rules the group cannot change. UnitedHealthcare describes plans for groups of 50 or fewer as "pooled together for premium rating purposes", known as adjusted community rating [7]. Within that pool, each member is priced separately. UnitedHealthcare's 2026 Delaware filing builds each member's premium from the plan's index rate times an age factor, a geographic factor and a small group trend adjustment. It uses the HHS age curve, and no tobacco factor in Delaware [8].

The trend adjustment is why the renewal month matters. UnitedHealthcare's 2024 Delaware filing added a quarterly trend increase. Its average year-over-year renewal was 8.0%: 6.9% for first-quarter renewals and 9.3% for fourth-quarter renewals [9]. The 2026 Delaware base-rate exhibit is effective January 1, 2026 and carries a rate expiration date of March 31, 2026 [10]. Other states file differently, but the habit is the same: write down the quarter a UnitedHealthcare rate belongs to.

California's UnitedHealthcare small group guidelines say rates are guaranteed for 12 months and final rates are based on group enrollment. A member's billing age goes up on the first billing due date after the group's renewal [11]. Re-age the census before you compare.

Why the rate went up

UnitedHealthcare explains renewal increases in the terms its rate filings use. Its New York 2027 small group narrative summary splits a projected 11.2% trend into unit cost (3.4%), utilization (6.3%) and benefit leveraging (1.2%). It adds that the final premium also reflects any change to the group's plan design or census [12]. Its Idaho 2026 justification reports the average change "for both renewal and mapped plans" [13]. If a plan on the renewal has a different name from the group's current plan, ask whether the group was mapped to a replacement plan, and compare benefits, not just the name.

Bundling credits

A UnitedHealthcare renewal can carry credits that sit outside the medical rate. Packaged Savings, for fully insured groups of 2 to 99, pays administrative credits per enrolled medical employee per month: $3 for dental, $2 for vision, $5 for both, and up to $7 for dental, vision, life and disability together. Dental and vision enrollment must be at least 75% of eligible medical employees. Credits are withdrawn when a medical or specialty coverage ends [14]. That flier is from 2023. UnitedHealthcare's 2026 Level Funded launch lists Packaged Savings for groups of 2 to 50 and uBundle for groups of 51 and over [15]. Treat any credit as a separate line, with its conditions written next to it.

UnitedHealthcare Level Funded renewals

UnitedHealthcare's Level Funded plans charge a fixed monthly payment for the plan year. Part of it buys stop-loss insurance, and there is a possible surplus refund if medical and pharmacy claims come in lower than expected. UnitedHealthcare notes these plans may be exempt from adjusted community rating [16]. Its comparison for groups up to 50 shows fully insured plans as adjusted community rated, and Level Funded plans as individually underwritten with detailed claims reporting [17].

• Two proposal formats. A proposal flier for Oxford Level Funded, published on uhc.com, describes two outputs: a Summary Proposal, meant for the customer, and a Detailed Proposal, meant for the broker. Each proposal uses one prescription drug list, Essential or Advantage, not both [18]. Ask for the detailed version before you compare.
• Conversion quotes. When a fully insured group is offered Level Funded at renewal, the Renewal Account Executive emails a first Level Funded quote based on the fully insured renewal. A later email includes UnitedHealthcare's Fully Insured vs Level Funded comparison guide [19].
• Terms that change at renewal. From January 1, 2026 renewals, Level Funded plans on the Standard Select pharmacy network move to the Broad network, and the over-the-counter hearing aid benefit ends [15]. From July 1, 2026, Level Funded terminations need at least 15 business days' notice. Existing groups are told in their renewal package and get an updated administrative services agreement (Section 9) at renewal [20].

The monthly figure is only part of a Level Funded quote. Stop-loss terms on a level-funded quote covers what to read next to it, and the level-funded renewal guide covers settlement and surplus.

Pitfalls when comparing it with another carrier's quote

1. Different quarters. A UnitedHealthcare rate filed for one quarter set beside another carrier's quote for a different effective date is not a like-for-like comparison. Put both on the same effective date.
2. A Level Funded payment beside a fully insured premium. One is individually underwritten and comes with stop-loss and a surplus refund. The other is pooled. Compare the worst case as well as the monthly figure: level-funded vs fully insured covers how.
3. Credits netted into the rate. If a Packaged Savings credit is subtracted from the UnitedHealthcare medical rate but the other carrier's rate is shown gross, UnitedHealthcare looks cheaper than it is, and the credit disappears if dental or vision moves.
4. Network family. A Choice plan has no non-emergency out-of-network benefit. Comparing it with another carrier's PPO on deductible alone hides that difference.
5. Drug list. Advantage and Essential are different lists. Read the list named on each SBC before comparing pharmacy copays.
6. A new group number. Where a group is re-numbered at renewal, reconcile the first invoice against the new number. The invoice reconciliation guide covers the rest.

Checklist

1. Pull the renewal from Small Group Renewal Packages in UHCeServices, and check whether the group is set to paper or online-only renewals.
2. Note the group ID, and whether the renewal carries a new group number.
3. Match every plan on the rate page to its SBC by the plan code, not by the marketing name.
4. Confirm the network (Choice, Choice Plus, Navigate and so on) and the prescription drug list on each SBC.
5. Record the renewal quarter: in at least some states the small-group rate is filed by quarter.
6. Recompute member-level premiums against the current census, not last year's ages.
7. List any Packaged Savings or uBundle credit separately from the medical rate, with the conditions that keep it.
8. For Level Funded, record the fixed monthly cost, the stop-loss terms and the surplus refund terms, not just the monthly figure.