Do you want to stretch your group insurance dollar?

Are you the Company Owner, CEO, CFO or HR Manager and is your firm smaller than 250 employees?

Want to keep up to date with benefit developments? Keep abreast of the newest money-saving ideas? Learn about new regulations, plan design ideas, review lesser-known benefits for ideas to help your employees? Maybe you'd just like to get a feel for BBI Benefits and what kind of people we are, how we think, how we service our clients. Here's how to do it -- we publish two newsletters. One is a snail mail newsletter (monthly) and you can get it by clicking here. The other is an every-so-often electronic e-zine (we only publish when something important comes up) and you can get that one by clicking here.

Then you're a lot like our typical client.

Our Goal: We want to build a site that's useful to everyone who buys group insurance... whether or not you're a current client.

We figure that if you like what you find here, you might just want to use us in a "more formal" way, i.e., let us be your group insurance and benefits broker.

So get to know us in your own way... 1)randomly explore, or 2)hit the navigation buttons to your left to go to a specific place, or 3) read on to get an overview of where stuff is. Let's go...

If you want to know more about the folks who make up BBI, click right here.

To learn about the latest developments in health insurance, this is a good starting place. We give overviews, talk about specific cost-saving ideas, and review particular carriers.

Dental is covered here. It's the second most popular benefit with employees, and there are some really different ideas about how to structure your plan. You might be surprised at what you learn!

Disability protection is a key benefit -- particularly if your folks are white-collar. Disability coverage breaks down into two flavors -- Short-Term Disability, covered here, and if you want to know about Long-Term Disability, go to this location.

"Hi. I'm Jim Edholm. I founded BBI in 1982 to serve you: company owners and managers employing up to 250 deal with group insurance issues. In those 25 years, I've built a crack staff who believe we only keep our clients by helping them spend benefits money wisely. "Serving over 225 businesses, most in Eastern Massachusetts, but at different times from as far away as Georgia and Indiana, we offer more answers and more help right here -- for free -- than most brokers provide when you pay them. "Check out our website... want us to try to solve your particular problem? Give us a call -- 978-474-4730 -- we'll create a custom-made solution to fit your needs."

One of the best cost-control approaches to health insurance is partial self-funding -- see this page. Self-funding isn't limited to only the largest firms... companies down to five people can engage in a modified version of self-funding and save some serious bucks.

You might not think that Identity Theft has anything to do with benefits -- but you'd be wrong. Identity theft is a real challenge to your employees, and you can offer a benefit -- at no cost to you -- to help your employees protect themselves. Check out this page for details.

If you want to go to our blog to see what we've been posting lately, here's the spot. It's not -- at least not yet -- a "traditional blog" in which I post my musings... but I'm thinking about that. Rather it's a blog where every change to our website is posted in chronological order, so you can see what we think is topical.

We don't have an HRIS site yet, so there's no link, but we offer an HR Information System that allows you to totally automate your HR processes. If you'd like to find out more about this, go here to contact us about this money-saving offering from BBI.

Clients Talk About BBI "The good news is that [BBI] staff don't limit themselves to simply providing outstanding service; they also look for ways to add value to their palette of offerings." Deryl Santo, Controller, Lowell, MA electronics mfg. "At the beginning of our relationship [we were] involved in an in-depth COBRA dispute involving an ex-employee. [BBI Staffer] went above and beyond her job responsiblities to help us manage this important issue." John Ferro, President, North Andover, MA food manufacturer. "Because of our great experiences with [BBI staffer], we have been quick to recommend him and his company to our clients." Mike Morris, Partner, Andover, MA law firm.

We also offer regular communication to those who want to continue hearing from us about the hottest items in HR and benefits (and their cost control). The two forms of communications are:

Our Newsletter: We publish a monthly newsletter, BBI Benefits Bits, that covers items of interest to businesses of all sizes. If you'd like to subscribe, click here.

We cover all items of interest to employers, and we cover it in more depth than in our electronic notifications (see below).

Our E-Zine: Throughout our site we give you the chance to subscribe to our free, no obligation Ezine, BBI Benefits Bytes. Click here to subscribe.

We publish every so often (enough to keep you current, not so much that you get sick of us) and send out the best new group insurance ideas we've run across. We include:

• Plan design ideas.
• New benefit products.
• Federal and State Law Alerts.
• Case studies of successful benefit designs.
• Explanation of complex design ideas.
• Tips on using carriers' contracts to your advantage

Thanks for visiting.

The BBI Team Jim Edholm, President

Table of Contents

About BBI - Contacts, Etc. All about BBI (Business Benefits Insurance. This team of top professionals serves the benefit and group insurance needs of companies up to 250 employees.

Contact BBI - Information about reaching BBI the benefits team Contact BBI via fax, telephone, email or letter. Here's how to reach the ben

BBI Testimonials BBI Testimonials from clients illustrate the care and creativity with which BBI works with its clients

Benefits Newsletter - Back issues of BBI Benefit Bits Benefits Newsletter - Back issues of

Articles Articles Published by Jim Edholm

Group Health Insurance in Massachusetts There are three major and a few minor group health insurance carriers in Mass. Plan design has the major impact on cost, but for smaller employers cost trends are important, too.

FSA, HRA and HSA In Massachusetts New Plan Developments: HSA in Massachusetts and how it can help the employer reduce health plan costs while increasing employee satisfaction

Self Funded Insurance Plans Help Employers Profit Employers profit from self funded insurance, occasionally even companies as small as 25 employees. Knowing how to design and do a comparison of self insured health plans is the key.

Affordable Dental Insurance -- What's Behind It? Cheap compared to medical, affordable dental insurance can be hard to find. Here are the best strategies to keep your cost under control.

Group Disability Income Insurance That's Affordable and That Pays a Benefit Group Disability Income insurance is the “trickiest” group coverage. You AND your doctor may think you're disabled, yet never collect a penny. Make sure your plan is right and will actually pay.

Short Term Disability Insurance Benefit Programs Short Term Disability Insurance plans can save your company money. Some workers compensation claims are really off-work disability claims. Learn how to design your plan correctly.

Identity Theft Threatens You and Your Company as Well As Your Employees Identity theft is a threat to your employees. Most employers know that, but not many realize it threatens the employer, too. What can you do about it?

Group Insurance Newsletters from BBI Benefits. Group insurance newsletters keep you up to date on benefit changes. BBI publishes two newsletters -- one snail mail and one electronic (irregular schedule... only what's newsworthy). Sign up here.

BBI's Group-Insurance-Guide Blog Place Updates, new group insurance products, legislative developments -- anything that affects HR Manager, CEO/Owner or CFO who wants to assure their HR/Benefits programs are competitive and cost effective.

Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare in Massachusetts Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare -- America's Number One carrier -- offer Massachusetts employers a wide selection of health plan designs. Order comparative chart