Form 5500 scorecard · method
How the scorecard is calculated.
A screening from public filings, not an audit. Every figure on a scorecard traces to a line on this page.
1. The data
2024 plan year Form 5500, Schedule A and Schedule A Part 1; DOL EFAST2 files dated 25 Sep 2026. The universe is every employer whose health plan filing shows 100 to 499 participants: 37,489 employers. Nothing private goes in. The scorecard never sees payroll, wages or any employee’s name.
2. The grade
Each employer is compared with its cohort: the same industry and participant band, 100 to 249 or 250 to 499. When an industry cohort has fewer than 100 employers, the band alone is the cohort. Four measures are read from the filing and each is ranked as a percentile within the cohort, ties at the midpoint.
| Measure | Weight | What it reads |
|---|---|---|
| Employees not on the medical plan | 40 | Share of participants not covered on the medical contract. More waivers, more pressure. |
| Broker pay per participant | 30 | Schedule A commissions and other pay divided by participants. Higher than peers, more pressure. |
| Premium vs. the national average | 15 | Premium per covered person against the KFF 2025 average. Above it, more pressure. |
| Headcount swing | 15 | Size of the year-over-year change in participants. Bigger swings, more pressure. |
The score is 100 minus the weighted mean of those percentiles. A measure the filing does not report is left out and the rest are re-weighted. 829 employers report none of the four and get no grade; their dollar figures still apply.
A starts at a score of 80, B at 60, C at 40, D at 20, and F is below that. The rank is the employer’s position in its cohort by score; “ahead of” is the share of the cohort below it.
| Grade | Employers | Share of graded |
|---|---|---|
| A | 4,114 | 11% |
| B | 8,480 | 23% |
| C | 11,540 | 31% |
| D | 8,725 | 24% |
| F | 3,801 | 10% |
3. The dollars
The dollar figures are the Quantum Health Benefits Plan 1500 illustration at a $50,000 salary: a $1,500 monthly supplemental health premium runs through payroll before tax, so there is less payroll to tax from the day the plan starts. Per enrolled employee, the company keeps $957 a year, going forward, and the employee takes home $85.48 more a month on the same gross pay.
Enrollment is the one assumption. No public filing says who will enroll, and owners and more-than-2% S-corporation shareholders cannot. The figure shown assumes 60% of plan participants enroll; the ceiling assumes every participant. The employer’s own payroll analysis replaces both.
4. The clock
The renewal month comes from the Schedule A of the filing’s largest medical contract, projected forward to the next policy-year end. Where that contract is a voluntary carrier, or the month comes from the plan year itself, the clock names the plan year instead.
5. The signal line
One line under the clock reports the filing’s strongest signal, in this order: a carrier change, a broker-of-record change, covered headcount down 10% or more or up 15% or more, a quarter or more of eligible employees not on the medical plan, and a first Form 5500.
6. What it is not
Not an audit, not a quote and not tax advice. The grade reads pressure on the benefits dollar from four public measures; it says nothing about the quality of a plan or a broker. Illustrative example. Confirm with your CPA.
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