Bruce Jugan, President

About Bruce Jugan

Bruce is an expert in group medical insurance and employee benefits for small to mid-sized companies. He's been a licensed agent/broker since 1993. Bruce has written all of the content on BenefitsCafe.com. He and his team help employers select medical plans; communicate information to employees; stay in compliance with various rules and regulations; and solve benefits-related problems that may arise.
2020 Nov 19

Amazon Opens Neighborhood Health Center

By |November 19th, 2020 |Categories: ACA, Changes in Medical Care, Health Care Costs, Health Insurance Reform, Small Group Health Insurance, Trends|

Employee Medical Clinic As a sign of change in medical care delivery, Amazon has opened its first health care clinic for its employees in Dallas, Texas.  According to the Amazon announcement, “Amazon expects to establish 20 health centers in five cities across the U.S., improving access and care [...]

2020 Mar 25

Updates on the COVID-19 Crisis

By |March 25th, 2020 |Categories: COVID-19|

Benefits Cafe began a COVID-19 Crisis Update page last week where we have information from governments and insurance companies about their revised policies to accommodate these unusual times.  The update page also has breaking news that should be helpful to businesses that are forced to make difficult decisions.  Today, [...]

2019 Jul 26

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 the [...]

2019 Jul 08

Fireworks Will Hit California’s Small Group Health Insurance Market with UHC’s New Association Plans

By |July 8th, 2019 |Categories: ACA, Association Health Plans, Small Group Health Insurance, Trends|

  UnitedHealth Care (UHC) kicked-off Summer 2019 with a bang.  During a webinar to their top brokers on July 1st, they made the game-changing announcement that they will introduce 9 new Association Health Plans (AHP) into the California small group marketplace (1-100 employees.)By screening enrollees for pre-existing medical conditions and [...]

2019 Apr 12

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 [...]

2019 Mar 25

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 [...]

2016 Oct 07

Can an employer contribute different amounts towards employee medical insurance?

By |October 7th, 2016 |Categories: ACA, Large Group Medical Insurance Articles, Small Group Health Insurance|

NOTE: The answer to this question requires compliance with both the HIPAA Nondiscrimination Requirements and the IRS Section 125 Nondiscrimination Rules.  IRS Nondiscrimination Rules apply when employees make pre-tax paycheck contributions for employee benefits using a Section 125 Premium Only Plan (POP). If you are a client of Benefits [...]

2016 Oct 05

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 [...]

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