North Bay Business Journal

Health insurance brokers, employers and individuals are all eagerly awaiting full-scale implementation of the California Health Benefits Exchange, a centerpiece of the Affordable Care Act, but it’s still anyone’s guess as to what it will look.

While details of what the exchange, also known as Covered California, will look like have emerged recently, a key piece of just how effective it will has not yet been determined: the monthly premiums for plans that will be offered to individuals and employers.

The political and legal challenges to federal health reform may finally be settled with the reelection of President Obama and the Supreme Court’s upholding of the Affordable Care Act, but, even with that seeming sense of finality, a host of challenges lay ahead for all levels of the industry.

Banking and Finance Bank of America Merrill Lynch announced the following staff additions: Mark Mokelke joined the office in Santa Rosa as a senior client manager and senior vice president.  A graduate of the University of San Francisco, Mr. Mokelke has been with Bank of America Merrill Lynch for the past 13 years, working in [...]

Workers’ compensation insurance rates are continuing to climb upward, as the cost of health care and increasing medical utilization drives up premiums for employers throughout the state, according to brokers in the North Bay.

NORTH BAY — With the federal health overhaul hanging in the balance of what will most certainly be a politically charged U.S. Supreme Court decision, insurance brokers in the North Bay offered a familiar refrain to employers on what changes, if any, they should make to their health plans: wait and see and stay the course.

NORTH BAY — Nearly two years after its passage, health care reform and much of its measures hang in the balance of what promises to be a politically charged U.S. Supreme Court decision on the constitutionality of the individual mandate requiring individuals to purchase health insurance. But while politicos and pundits await the decision and its implications, health insurance experts in the North Bay said most of the reforms are here to stay, even in the event that the mandate is struck down.

NORTH BAY — Health insurance premiums for employer-sponsored  coverage increased by 9 percent this year, with the average annual cost of family coverage rising to more than $15,000, according to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Health Research Education and Trust. The increase is steep and comes after several years of “relatively modest” [...]

PETALUMA — Edgewood Partners Insurance Center has brought on long-time Santa Rosa employee benefits consultant Victor McKnight as a principal in the Petaluma office. Mr. McKnight’s landing at EPIC comes barely two weeks after EPIC relocated to a bigger location in Petaluma and just over a year after its arrival in the North Bay.

PETALUMA — After barely a year in the North Bay, Edgewood Partners Insurance Center will relocate from the Petaluma Marina Business Center to a larger space to accommodate its growth over the past year while establishing a permanent location at 5350 Old Redwood Highway.

PETALUMA — A group of North Bay insurance veterans are starting the region’s first Edgewood Partners Insurance Center, a retail, property-casualty and employee benefits brokerage. They all left Wells Fargo Insurance Services for EPIC’s newest California operation, just opened in the Petaluma Marina Business Center.