A scorecard can run fourteen pages. These are the five figures that should change what you do at renewal.
A population health scorecard produces a lot of output: census breakdowns, geography maps, risk tiers, condition lists, pharmacy signals. It is easy to read all of it and act on none of it. These five numbers are the ones that should actually move a decision.
1. The match rate
Before anything else, check how much of your census the model could actually match. A 96% match rate supports a usable group-level view. A 60% match rate means you are looking at a partial picture and should weight the conclusions accordingly.
This number governs every other number on the report. Read it first, not last.
2. Cost concentration above $10,000
This is the single most actionable figure on most scorecards. In a representative 90-member group, 80 claimants sat below $10,000 and accounted for about 62% of expected cost — while the 10 claimants above that threshold drove the remaining 38%.
| Expected cost band | Claimants | Expected cost | % of total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under $10k | 80 | $363,614 | 61.9% |
| $10k–25k | 8 | $127,700 | 21.8% |
| $25k–50k | 1 | $34,800 | 5.9% |
| $50k–100k | 1 | $61,000 | 10.4% |
Why it matters: it tells you whether your problem is broad or narrow. Broad, diffuse cost is a plan-design and contribution-strategy problem. Concentrated cost is a care-management and stop-loss problem. Those are different conversations with different solutions, and confusing them wastes a renewal cycle.
3. The risk tier distribution
A distribution of roughly 60% low risk, 38% moderate and 2% high reads as contained rather than broadly elevated. That is useful leverage in a renewal conversation — if your carrier is pricing a double-digit increase into a population that models as favorable, you have a specific question to ask rather than a general complaint.
4. Top conditions, ranked by impact rather than count
Claimant counts and cost impact do not line up. A condition affecting 11–15 people can be flagged catastrophic while one affecting a similar number is moderate. Sort by impact, then look for conditions that travel together — lipid disorders, Type 2 diabetes and coronary disease frequently move as a group, which means a coordinated metabolic and cardiovascular program will usually beat three separate point solutions.
5. Pharmacy signals with an assistance path
Not every expensive drug has a lever. The useful column on a pharmacy page is not the cost — it is whether manufacturer assistance, a therapeutic alternative, or a site-of-care change is realistically available. A branded GLP-1 often has a savings-card and formulary path. An infused therapy administered in a hospital outpatient setting is usually a site-of-care conversation instead.
One caution on all five. A scorecard is a directional planning view built from aggregate, de-identified data. It supports renewal strategy and population health decisions. It is not a forecast, not a guarantee, and never a basis for inferring anything about an individual employee.
The question to ask at the end
After reading the report, you should be able to answer one question: what would I do differently next plan year? If the answer is nothing, either the population is genuinely well positioned — which is worth confirming — or the analysis did not go deep enough.
This article is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax or benefits advice. Requirements vary by plan design, funding arrangement and jurisdiction. Contact BeneSkill to discuss how this applies to your plan.