North Bay Business Journal

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.

Pisenti & Brinker LLP hired Jodi Shubin as director of client services and community relations. …

Julia Pauksta joined the Petaluma staff of Pisenti & Brinker LLP as a senior associate. …

Sonoma- and San Francisco-based Duskie Estes was the official winner of Food Network Road to Redemption Web Battle and is competing on the television network’s The Next Iron Chef: Redemption series. …

Eileen Massa joined Wells Fargo Insurance Services in Petaluma as an account executive. …

Tracy Sesky joined Wells Fargo Insurance Services in Petaluma as a senior claims consultant and in a business-development role. …

Recognized at the American Institute of Architects Redwood Empire chapter design awards on Oct. 27 were Jaime Stich and Nate Bisbee, AIA, both of TLCD Architecture in Santa Rosa. …

Ernest Berghof of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage has earned his California real estate broker’s license and has been named broker associate in the Santa Rosa office. …

NORTH BAY — The Business Journal has selected 17 companies for our second annual Healthiest Companies Recognition Awards to be honored at the North Bay Business Journal’s 2012 Health Care Conference.

Dozens of Wells Fargo Insurance employees in San Francisco and San Carlos have defected to join a newly formed ABD Insurance and Financial Professionals, reclaiming the name and perhaps the culture of an influential brokerage that was acquired by Wells Fargo Insurance Services back in 2007.

North Bay insurers reflect on the Supreme Court’s ruling that maintained key aspects of the Affordable Care Act.

NORTH BAY — Employers will likely face an increase in their workers compensation premiums in the coming year, as the cost of medical utilization and permanent disability continues to rise, according to brokers.

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.

News about north San Francisco Bay area professionals

Rob Davenport recently joined Wells Fargo Insurance Services as a wellness consultant to its employee benefits offices throughout California. He previously worked on implementing large-scale wellness approaches for employers like the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Olympic Training Center, Pacific Coast Companies, Inc., among many others. Most recently, he was the wellness program manager for NASA at the Johnson Space Center. All told, he’s been working in the wellness field for the past 25 years.

Mr. Davenport recently shared his thoughts with the Business Journal, particularly on how wellness can have an impact on employers health insurance rates.

Questions for Mark Stokes, Regional Managing Director, and John Fradelizio, Managing Director, Wells Fargo Insurance Services: What do you see as the trends in business insurance for 2012? What trends do you see in employee benefits for 2012, in cost and in design? What issues are clients asking about most often and what are you telling them?

NORTH BAY — The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau, the body that oversees and makes recommendations for the workers comp sector, has officially recommended a 1.8 percent decrease in pure premium rates beginning in 2012.

A much-debated poll recently predicted a majority of companies likely would drop employee health insurance as a result of the impending federal health care overhaul. Despite the controversy, North Bay insurance experts say businesses must grapple with coverage questions at the heart of the poll results now rather than waiting until the rules take effect.

High-deductible health plans lead to significantly lower spending on health care, but consumers also cut back on preventative services, according to a new study.

CALIFORNIA — Federal cuts to crop insurance premium subsidies totaling about $6.2 billion took effect July 1, and agencies and brokers that provide services to grape growers and other farmers in the state anticipate taking a sharp hit as a result.

NORTH BAY — Throughout the health care reform debate, employers and employees alike were told they’d be able to keep their current health plans, if so desired. With the unveiling of details on the so-called “grandfathering” clause by the Department of Health and Human Services, however, brokers said such a prospect seems slim, and employers will face a series of tough choices regarding what type of plan they choose to offer employees as they attempt to grapple with still-rising costs.

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.

Wells Fargo Insurance Services is the largest provider of insurance services to the wine industry in the North Bay, based on insurers that submitted 2009 numbers.

NORTH BAY – In the four years since it expanded to the region, San Francisco-based Woodruff-Sawyer & Company has grown from one of the smallest brokerages in the North Bay to among the top 20, attracting the region’s foremost experts in the industry and launching a wine purchasing pool.

Heffernan Insurance Brokers recently unveiled a new wellness offering to Bay Area clients. The program was piloted in the group’s Walnut Creek office and is now available to North Bay customers as a package or as an a la carte option.