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Small business insurance updates. Latest news and changes regarding California small business insurance and resources for small businesses

30 09, 2021

Vivity from Anthem Blue Cross Available to California Small Group Employers

By |September 30th, 2021 |Categories: Small Group Health Insurance, Small Business Articles, Trends|

By Bruce Jugan September 29, 2021 Last night I attended a broker dinner with executives from Anthem Blue Cross where they announced that Vivity health plans, a collaboration with major Southern California hospitals, doctor groups and the insurance company, will be available to small employers (1-100 employees) in Los [...]

25 06, 2021

An Inside Look: Fillable PDFs are the Best California Medical Insurance Companies can give Small Employers

By |June 25th, 2021 |Categories: Health Insurance Reform,, Small Business Articles|

Example Small Business Employee Insurance Enrollment Form By Bruce Jugan, June 24, 2021 API connections would eliminate data input errors and could save hundreds of millions of dollars and reduce the cost of medical insurance for small employers. Imagine you log into Expedia and [...]

4 05, 2021

ARPA COBRA

By |May 4th, 2021 |Categories: Small Business Articles|

COBRA Subsidies Under ARPA - COBRA Administrators and Insurance Companies Should Help On March 11th, 2021, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) into law.  ARPA is a $1.9 trillion economic relief bill that gives financial help during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.   The new law includes section [...]

26 07, 2019

Update: UnitedHealth Care Postpones Rollout of New Association Health Plans in California

By |July 26th, 2019 |Categories: ACA, Association Health Plans, Covered California, Small Business Articles, Small Group Health Insurance|

Less than two weeks ago, I wrote a blog post that predicted that fireworks would hit California’s small group health insurance market with UHC’s new Association Health Plans.   Well,  sparks flew.  Yesterday, UnitedHealth Care announced that because of “regulatory inquiries over the past couple of weeks” UHC has suspended [...]

12 04, 2019

Why Kaiser Permanente Small Group Benefits and Rates Continue to Lead the Field in California, 2019

By |April 12th, 2019 |Categories: Large Group Medical Insurance Articles, ACA, Health Care Costs, Health Insurance Reform,, Small Business Articles, Small Group Health Insurance|

On Wednesday, I was fortunate to be included in a round table discussion with the senior leadership of Kaiser Permanente's small group sales and account management team. To encourage discussion, Kaiser limited participation to a few key brokers. (2019 Kaiser Key Broker Engagement Luncheon, Pasadena, California. Third from [...]

25 03, 2019

Group Health Insurance Cost Trends and Benchmark Comparisons

By |March 25th, 2019 |Categories: Small Business Articles, Benchmarking, Health Care Costs, Large Group Medical Insurance Articles, Small Group Health Insurance, Trends|

Many employers want to know why medical insurance rates continue to rise and whether they're paying too much compared to other businesses. Two recently released reports address these questions: Medical Cost Trend: Behind the numbers 2019, is prepared by Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC)'s Health Research Institute and it projects [...]

5 10, 2016

California Small Business Medical Insurance 2016 4th Qtr. Renewals

By |October 5th, 2016 |Categories: Small Group Health Insurance, Changes in Medical Care, Health Insurance Reform,, Small Business Articles|

Experts estimate that 50 to 70 percent of the small businesses in California that offer employee medical insurance will renew their plans in December 2016.  Many California small business medical insurance companies have begun to release their renewal rates for December 2016 and for many employers the renewal rates look [...]

25 11, 2014

Group Health Insurance Rates Increase for 2015

By |November 25th, 2014 |Categories: ACA, Health Insurance Reform,, Large Group Medical Insurance Articles, Small Business Articles|

Last week the Los Angeles Times reported that large employers estimate that the cost of group health insurance will increase about 5% in 2015. I was quoted in the last two paragraphs of the article, talking about the 2015 rate increases for California small businesses. We've seen rates increase from a few percent to twenty percent depending on the characteristics of the employees. While there are winners and losers among California employers; we have been able to change our clients to different insurance companies and different plans so that in most cases they won't have any increase and many of our clients will pay less for group health insurance in 2015 than they did in 2014.

7 11, 2014

For the Third Time DOL & IRS say an Employer Can NOT reimburse employees for individual health insurance plans

By |November 7th, 2014 |Categories: (SHOP) Covered California Small Business Articles, ACA, Health Insurance Reform,, Individual health insurance vs group health insurance, Individual Medical Insurance Articles, Large Group Medical Insurance Articles, Small Business Articles|

Today the U.S. Department of Labor released yet another notice/guidance/ "FAQ" instructing employers that "an employer health care arrangement cannot be integrated with individual market policies to satisfy the market reforms."  Obstinate vendors continue to push their high cost TPA services and claim that an employer can cancel a [...]

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