Group health insurance comparison spreadsheet
One workbook to compare up to four group health plans side by side, with rates by tier and the employee cost per paycheck computed from your contribution strategy. Free from Planlined, no email, opens in Excel or Google Sheets.
Download the spreadsheet (.xlsx)What the spreadsheet compares
The Plans tab holds the 22 fields that decide most group health decisions: network type, deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums for individual and family, office and urgent care copays, emergency room and inpatient cost sharing, four prescription tiers, out-of-network coverage, referral rules, and a Source row so every number points back to a page in the carrier document. The Rates tab takes monthly premiums by tier, and the Contribution tab turns an employer percentage or fixed dollar amount into the employee cost per pay period for 24 and 26 pay schedules.
How to fill it from an SBC and a rate sheet
Every plan's Summary of Benefits and Coverage follows the same federal layout, so the Plans fields map to the same rows on every SBC: deductible and out-of-pocket limit on page 1, office visits, emergency and hospital services on pages 2 and 3, and the drug tiers in the prescription section. Copy the in-network value and note the page number. Rates come from the carrier's rate sheet or quote; enter the four-tier monthly premium and the Contribution tab does the arithmetic. If you would rather not read SBCs by hand, the SBC comparison tool extracts these fields from the PDF.
Three mistakes comparison sheets make
First, mixing in-network and out-of-network values in the same row, which makes a PPO look worse than an HMO on every line. Second, comparing deductibles without out-of-pocket maximums, which hides the plan that actually caps a bad year. Third, showing employer cost without the employee's per-paycheck figure, which is the number employees ask about at enrollment. The workbook keeps those apart by design.
When the spreadsheet stops scaling
Four plans by hand is an afternoon. A renewal with three carriers and two plan designs each is a week. Planlined reads the carrier quotes, SBCs and rate sheets into the same comparison automatically, flags any field it is unsure of so you can confirm it against the source page, and produces the proposal book and employee guide from the approved case. See the side-by-side benefit quote comparison feature, or start from the broader benefit comparison template if you also compare dental, vision, life and disability.