What an insurer needs in a group medical RFQ
The ten things a group medical RFQ must carry for quotes to come back comparable — claims split, lives at two dates, family definition, the expiring construct and the waivers.
By Tarslink · Published 2026-09-05 · Last updated 2026-09-05
A group medical RFQ is comparable when every insurer prices the same scheme. What separates a clean set of quotes from an incomparable one is not the covering letter but whether the pack carried the facts below. Each one an insurer has to assume is a difference you will find in the grid later.
The checklist
- Three years of claims, paid and outstanding split, with each report’s policy-year start and cut-off. Incurred is paid plus outstanding; a paid-only file understates the year.
- Lives at inception and as-on-date, and the prospective count if the client is growing. Three bases, not one — the movement between them is part of the price.
- The family definition, exactly: employee only; employee, spouse and children; with parents; with parents-in-law; siblings. Whether parents are on the floater or a separate sum insured.
- Sum insured construct: floater or per member, the ladder by grade, any corporate buffer and how it is shared.
- Room-rent basis and ICU — a percentage of sum insured per day, a flat cap, or no cap — and the proportionate-deduction position.
- Co-pay: on which relations, at what percentage, and whether it applies to specific procedures only.
- Waiting-period waivers: 30-day, first-year and pre-existing-disease waivers for existing lives and for new joiners.
- Maternity and newborn: limits by delivery type, the newborn covered from day one or not, pre- and post-natal.
- The expiring terms: insurer, TPA, premium, and the schedule itself. The RFQ is a diff against last year, not a blank form.
- The cover-wanted list on a common vocabulary — so the answer sheet is benefit by benefit and every insurer fills the same rows.
What Bridge does with it
Bridge’s group medical questionnaire asks these 42 questions in the order a broker would, fills what it can from the expiring schedule and the claims MIS, and composes the RFQ pack with a benefit-level answer sheet. Replies are read back by benefit code, so the comparison grid is a grid, not a retyping exercise.
Questions
Why do quotes come back incomparable?
Because the RFQ let each insurer assume something different — a family definition, a room-rent basis, whether waiting periods are waived. Fix the ask and the answers line up.
How many years of claims?
Three, with paid and outstanding split, each with its own policy-year start and cut-off date.
See this line on your own renewal file.