Short answer: Texas requires a carrier to give at least 60 days’ notice before modifying a large group plan at renewal and at least 30 days’ notice before canceling or not renewing it. Employers and their brokers usually need to start well before that, early enough to get claims data, market the case and still hold the required 31-day annual open enrollment.
What Texas law sets for large employer plans:
- Plan changes may be made only at renewal, uniformly for all employers on that plan, with notice to the employer and the commissioner at least 60 days before they take effect (1501.108(d)).
- Cancellation or nonrenewal of one employer: notice at least 30 days before coverage ends, and the employer must notify enrollees (1501.110).
- Leaving the market entirely: 180 days’ notice; discontinuing one product: 90 days’ notice with an offer of other coverage (1501.109).
- Open enrollment: at least a 31-day annual open enrollment period (1501.606).
The 60-day premium-increase notice with a table of old and new rates in 1501.216 is written for small employer plans; for a large group, when the rate arrives is mostly set by the policy and the carrier’s practice.
Build the calendar backward from the renewal date: open enrollment and employee communications, then the employer’s decision, then competing quotes, then the claims data request. A renewal that arrives too late to market is a renewal with no leverage.