Renewals are not deadlines. They are windows that close.

Almost every contract system alerts on the expiration date. By then it is too late to do anything — an automatic renewal has already fired.

What actually matters is the notice deadline: the last day you can deliver written notice to stop the renewal. And before that, the date a human has to reach a decision and get the letter out.

Open the renewal radar and look at the first card. Meridian Health Plan — the window closed, so that contract renewed for another full year at $4.2M a year. Nobody made that decision. It made itself.