The Renewal Squeeze Elevates Brokers as ICHRA Strategy Leaders

The 2026 renewal season was defined by steep cost increases, delayed rate announcements, and severely condensed timelines. In an environment of rapidly changing industry economics, these pressures are prompting many employers to rethink their benefits strategies and consider more innovative plan designs. The result has been an accelerated interest in alternative funding models like ICHRA, a solution that has been discussed for years but is suddenly at the forefront of the conversation.

Helping organizations navigate the new terrain is Michelle Jukoski. As the Executive Vice President of Technology Strategy at insurance brokerage HUB International, she draws on more than 30 years of experience in employee benefits, benefit administration, and HRIS platforms to drive business transformation. Jukoski says the success of early adopters has transformed niche funding models into proven, mainstream alternatives.

"The employers who took a chance on new models like ICHRA five years ago are seeing the payoff now. They have saved a significant amount of money and would never go back on the strategy." The shift represents a move away from the traditional, reactive renewal chase toward a model where financial stability is built into the plan's foundation.

• The expert mandate: In Jukoski's view, the current environment is positioning brokers as their clients' subject matter experts, especially as new tech vendors begin marketing directly to employers. "You hate to be the broker who learns a vendor has gone direct to your client with a solution you haven't even mentioned." To overcome this challenge, she says, effective brokers are stepping beyond a purely intermediary function. "Our role is to be that trusted adviser with a finger on the pulse of everything that's happening in the industry."

• Beyond the rate sheet: According to Jukoski, stepping into the strategist role is an operational change that often involves building multi-layered relationships within a client's organization. "The key principal producer might own the CFO relationship, the account manager might have the HR relationship, and the support people might have relationships with the benefits folks," she explains. It can also mean forging new vendor and tech player relationships to deliver value far beyond a simple rate comparison.

A key part of brokers' strategist role involves a move toward continuous optimization. For larger groups with a high volume of available data, the approach can help transform benefits management into an ongoing, data-informed process. "By analyzing claims data, you can identify key spend trends like the rising cost of GLP-1s. That data helps you determine if a strategic change is needed," Jukoski explains. "For example, you can see the precise financial impact in a specific area and determine if a specialty pharmacy carve-out is the right move." By leveraging claims data throughout the year, Jukoski says, brokers can help organizations identify cost drivers and develop a strategy long before the next renewal season begins. A data-led process can lead to different financial outcomes, such as moving a client to a self-funded model or exploring a captive arrangement, in addition to targeted plan design changes.

• Don't ask the bot: The growth of benefits tech and the integration of AI are key enablers of this new strategic function, though their application requires a nuanced approach. Jukoski notes that using general-purpose AI for specific plan design advice can be a potential pitfall. "It's a critical misstep when clients turn to a generic tool like ChatGPT and ask it what plan design they should buy. Those tools are fantastic, but it's incumbent upon us to be the educators."

• Choose your own adventure: Technology's greatest value is arguably in augmenting human expertise. The broker’s role, therefore, is to curate these tools to hyper-personalize the employee journey. "These new AI platforms provide the starting point for what is essentially a 'choose your own adventure' experience, allowing employees to create a personalized journey through the healthcare life cycle. AI will play a significant part not just in how we select our benefits, but in how we actually manage the entire healthcare system."

When implementing a solution like ICHRA, Jukoski reminds employers that it's more than a simple technology transition. "When you make the leap to ICHRA, you're not swapping out a tech platform. You're redesigning the entire benefits experience. That means aligning the C-suite, HR, and employees around a fundamentally different model, building a supplemental benefit strategy to support it, and making sure people actually understand what they're buying. The tech is the enabler, not the strategy." This, she says, is exactly why the broker matters more now than ever. "If anyone thinks AI is going to replace us, they're missing the point. HR professionals need to get curious, stay educated, and be willing to bet on new strategies. The ones who do are the ones their clients will never leave."