April 1, 2024 • 32 mins
After finding his way back to his hometown in Camarillo, California, Don Jones is trailblazing an evolutionary path in the insurance industry.
Out of college with a major is business accounting and a natural conversationalist, Don Jones kicked off his career as a “stockbroker”. Just few years later, he started his own investment advisory company and has been forging his own path ever since. Now an insurance expert, Don Jones breaks down everything there is to know about health insurance and explains the vital role technology plays in it. Besides his love for insurance, his greatest passion is spending time on his boat, fishing and cooking what he catches.
How often does he take out his boat and fish? How did growing up in Camarillo influence his life? How can DMJ Insurance Services save clients time and money?
CLICK HERE for more information about Donald Jones.
CLICK HERE for more information about DMJ Insurance Services, Inc.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brian Hemsworth (00:00):
From Los Angeles, this is the Echelon
Radio Network.
Hi, everybody, and welcome backto the Echelon podcast. And
today we've got Don Jones of DMJInsurance Services. Don, thanks
(00:20):
for coming by today.
Don Jones (00:21):
Thanks so much for having me.
Brian Hemsworth (00:22):
So Don, you know, you and I have talked on
many occasions, and I have apretty good idea of what you do.
And I want to get into that in afew minutes. But what I realized
is, I don't have a lot ofbackground on you. Where are you
from? Where'd you grow up?
Don Jones (00:37):
Boy, I didn't go that far. So I was born in Oxnard.
Okay, I lived in Camarillo,which is 11 miles away. But in
the 67 years, I've gone to, I'velived in Hawaii, I lived in
Northern California, I graduatedfrom Loma Linda University, in
Riverside area, but kind of cameback to where I started, was
(00:58):
born, interesting place to growup, I guess, an interesting
place now to live in.
Brian Hemsworth (01:04):
And I assume, for those that are from that
area, it is, it's got to be verydifferent now than it was
Don Jones (01:12):
you know, when I grew up in that area, Oxnard is
really an agricultural town. Andthen during the World War II, it
became somewhat of a militarytown with a Navy base, a CB
base, the missile test range andPoint Mugu. And then after World
War II, they had the Oxnard AirForce Base, which is now
(01:33):
Camarillo airport, used to be an
Brian Hemsworth (01:34):
I didn't know that
Don Jones (01:35):
Air Force Base.
Brian Hemsworth (01:36):
Oh, my goodness.
Don Jones (01:37):
So growing up there, it was like The Wonder Years on
TV where every house had two tofive kids, a lot of parents
worked or were connected to themilitary in some fashion or
agriculture. So it was a ratherconservative place. We came in
second, I think, in the WorldSeries, one year, we got that
(02:02):
far at number two back inIndiana, I think in 1972. It's
the interesting town to grow upa lot of fun. So a lot different
than it is today.
Brian Hemsworth (02:12):
Gotcha. I gotta ask, most people that grow up
inland, whether it's 20 milesinland, or 1000 miles inland,
tried to get out to the coast togo to college. You grew up with
a coast and you went inland.
Don Jones (02:26):
I went inland we went inland, yeah, well, there was no
college. So there was there wasno Cal State Channel Islands
wasn't there. There was a juniorcollege, there was Ventura. And
then there later opened Oxnard.
So you either went to juniorcollege, which I did go to
junior college in Ventura, butthen you had a graduate
somewhere else, which created anissue for people that grew up in
that Oxnard, Ventura Camarilloarea was you had to go away to
(02:48):
go to school. And then usuallywhen you graduate, you get a job
close by where you went toschool, 'cause that's where the
recruiters were. So peopledidn't come back. So my parents
had several businesses, so Icame back to help them retire.
And I moved back to the area in1983. And it was interesting, it
(03:09):
was interesting dynamics,because people that I went to
school with had went to SantaBarbara or San Diego or Chico.
And they never came back.
Brian Hemsworth (03:22):
Yeah.
Don Jones (03:22):
Interesting
Brian Hemsworth (03:23):
One way ticket out. So when you mentioned
college and came back in 83, soyou were probably in college
late 70s? Is that,
Don Jones (03:32):
Late 70s. Yeah.
Brian Hemsworth (03:33):
And what just study and what was called,
Unknown (03:34):
I'm a business accounting major. My first job
out of college, they called themstockbrokers then. You were a
stockbroker. I was forPaineWebber Jackson and Curtis
1980. I think the Dow Jones was920. Interest rates were about
14 to 15%. If you have 14% in amoney market account, it was it
(03:57):
was not a good 15 16 years inthe market. So they were they
were hiring anybody. And solooking for a job, that's where
I started.
Brian Hemsworth (04:07):
Gotcha. So, so take us a little bit on the
journey of how you eventuallygot to DMJ Insurance Services.
Unknown (04:16):
So I, like I said started as a stockbroket,
started at Paine Webber migratedto Merrill Lynch. Transferred up
here to Oxnard area. In '83, myparents wanted to retire, so
when someone to kind of helpout, you know, kind of ease them
out. They had a couple ofbusinesses. Left Merrill Lynch
(04:37):
and started my own investmentadvisory company.
Brian Hemsworth (04:40):
Oh, really?
Don Jones (04:42):
And that worked out okay. The NASD is not kind to
small brokers. It makes it, it'svery difficult, make it very
difficult and but I was alsoselling retirement plans and
then I got involved with sellinggroup health insurance along
with a retirement plans. And itjust got to be a point where you
(05:02):
have to go one way or the other.
And I had a couple of partners,they took over the investment
side and I left and I went onthe health side. So that was, it
was probably 1988
Brian Hemsworth (05:14):
And this still was Oxnard, Camarillo,
Unknown (05:16):
Camarillo, Ventura area. And so I just said, you
know, this, this seems peoplewant to buy health insurance,
they want to they want to talkto you, they wanted a broker,
their business owner feltcomfortable, I felt comfortable
talking to them. They feltcomfortable talking to me. So
the group the group space seemedlike this, it seemed like a very
easy space
Brian Hemsworth (05:37):
and it would seem like you know, your local
so it's comfortable, you know,the people you know, the area,
and I'm guessing during thoseyears, was when a lot of new
small to mid sized business wascoming into the area. The AG is
still there, but it's, we'veseen other stuff come in and
Conejo Valley has grown andnorth of there has grown and
(05:57):
east of there has grown,So that's an
important point. I want to just
Unknown (05:59):
What changed, what changed more than than the
businesses was the industry. Soyou know, this is prior to HMOs.
This is prior to PPO and this isthis is when you went you got an
insurance contract, and you wentand you saw any doctor you
wanted to. It may, it didn'tcover preventative services.
Some of them didn't cover RX,some of them didn't cover
(06:20):
maternity. It was it was aninteresting dynamic. And as as
it grew, as the industry startedto change to slow down the
growth and premiums, theystarted with these networks, the
stop you there for a minute.
I've heard people say thatPPO network, well, what's that?
What's the preferred provider,organization network, and then
some doctors would sign up, somehospitals would sign up. And so
you go the PPO network, you geta better reimbursement than that
(06:44):
out of network, that out of thatcame the HMOs, which are
basically founded by Kaiser herein California. And they've kind
of grown with that. So the HMOscame, and then as managed care
grew, things just started tochange, migrate, and California
was on the forefront oflegislation for years.
(07:10):
California is sort of groundzero for the the health care
system as we know it now. Isthat correct?
Don Jones (07:17):
Thatis correct. I, well, I'm gonna say it's
correct, and I think I can standon a lot of things that happened
in California got pushed back toWashington, DC. So a lot of
things that we do here are verymuch different than any other
state. So and we'll go right tothe HMO equation, because that's
kind of where people fall. Itkind of started here grew here.
(07:41):
It's a little different and thatHMOs really aren't insurance
contracts. They're they'recontracts with a provider. And
so, every state some statesdon't have HMOs. You know, some,
most states have a PPO, which isa preferred provider, but they
don't have an HMO. And the waythey're paid the capitated
system of how doctors arereimbursed, is different in
(08:01):
California, but it keeps thepremiums lower. In some areas,
you have a big penetration ofproviders on an HMO and some
areas you do not. So Californiawas one of the I think the only
state that started with the HMOPPO we get have one or the
other. And as things grew, youhad point of service plans. EPO,
(08:26):
which is an exclusive PreferredProvider Organization, they all
kind of grew. But Californiagrew legislation in California,
which changed the dynamic of thegrowth of the cost of care was
then pushed across from the leftcoast to the right coast to the
Left Coast, even though we arethe Left Coast politically.
Brian Hemsworth (08:45):
Yeah. Gotcha.
So so how, have you been veryinvolved in that legislation and
all that stuff that's, that didtranspire over the last 20 30
years?
Don Jones (08:56):
Very involved, in the late 80s, I became involved with
what's called the Healthunderwriter group. We had a
local chapter, call it VenturaHealth Underwriters Association,
I was, became president and Ithink 90 or 91, was on the board
there for several years, becamethe State President sometime
(09:17):
later, and did that and veryactive and legislation regarding
guarantee issue preexistingconditions, getting maternity
covered, making sure that planshas RX covered. A lot of these
things that were done inCalifornia later swept across
(09:38):
the country, and became part ofpolicies that we see today.
Brian Hemsworth (09:43):
So if we go back when when did DMJ insurance
services begin as an insuranceservice business?
Don Jones (09:51):
So this agency, I've had three, I've sold a couple of
them, this agency, which is justhealth insurance, I've been
involved with some property andcasualty insurances over my
career, started in 2016. We hadanother agency that was a
partner of that wanted to sellto a publicly traded company. I
(10:15):
started off at Paine Webber, Iwent to Merrill Lynch, I knew
how publicly traded companieswork. And it just didn't seem
like something I wanted to godown to, in my career with
basically. So we split thesheets, or ripped the sheets,
whatever you call it, pulled thesheets. And I went my way and
they went theirs.
Brian Hemsworth (10:32):
So tell us now about the company about your
clientele. You said the healthbenefits, that's your specialty,
you're, you're not diversifiedin a lot of different you really
focus on that. Tell us about thecompany now, tell us about your
clientele, and who it is thatyou're catering to.
Don Jones (10:52):
So we have a very diverse clientele, because we
specialize in primarily health,dental, vision, benefits, for
small to medium size, employers,we've have groups higher than
larger than 1000 employees,groups with less than five
(11:12):
employees. So it really dependson on what the client looking
for many of our clients aremulti state, so it'd be of
employees in California, Nevada,New York, Tennessee, Texas,
we're very good with workingwith those kinds of programs
where we can have differentprograms or slightly different
benefits in each state. Thatmakes a little more sense for
(11:35):
the employees in that state.
Brian Hemsworth (11:36):
Okay, so you sort of tailor them to...
Don Jones (11:39):
We try to tailor the benefits to what what the
employees need in that area. Thetrend now is with employer
groups, is everyone seems to bepushing towards what they call a
single point of entry. Where ifI put the information in my
payroll system can it migrate tomy benefit system, to my
(12:01):
employees, and then when myemployee makes an election, will
that automatically go back to mypayroll system, so we don't have
to key all this in. And thereare several programs out there
that do that, where you couldmake it easier for the employer
to administrate the plan, andeasier for the employee to
(12:21):
understand and get informationabout their plans.
Brian Hemsworth (12:23):
And you've told me and I want to make sure I
understand this correctly, andyou've invested a lot in
technology in your business,which was something I wasn't
really aware there was a lot oftechnology because I kind of
thought you sign up for youknow, as a business owner, you
sign up, excuse me, you get somepaperwork, you some onboarding
(12:45):
process happens. But it soundsto me like a little bit of what
you're just saying is that someof that technology is working on
in the background. So when youdo have a client who's got
employees in different states,and they want that more seamless
approach to the data coming outof their payroll going out and
(13:05):
coming back in, is thattechnology driven now?
Don Jones (13:08):
That is, and so let's just start with the kind of the
box that we're in now. So inmost situations, a broker would
get 5% commission on a policy onhealth policy. So as a broker,
you say, Okay, I got X amount ofdollars to work with, and I want
to provide this certain level ofservice. How do I do that, from
(13:31):
a business standpoint, in a waythat makes sense for me, but
it's very attractive to theemployer and the employees. So
they want to use me as ourbroker versus somebody else. So
we're all getting the samebucket of money, the prices,
from Anthem from an Aetna from aKaiser from one broker to the
next, you're going to be thesame. So it's you're selling
(13:54):
roughly the same product at thesame price to the same customer.
Brian Hemsworth (13:59):
So I want to make sure that everybody
listening has a good handle onthat. I want to make sure I do
too. So if I understand thiscorrectly, if I go to you and I
say I'm interested in an Anthemplan for my company, and I call
you and you give me somepricing, and I call somebody
(14:20):
else, and I say, I want to lookat Anthem. I think a lot of us
think there's money to besqueezed out here in there and
can I grind them a bit, but whatyou're saying is Anthem's
Anthem, right? So the anthemitself, I'm looking at the exact
same policy from two people,it's the same price.
Don Jones (14:37):
Yeah, and let me break that down a little more.
So in California small group isone to 100 employees. So So
those policies are filed inadvance. The benefits are filed
in advance the rates are filedin advance. You can pull a rate
sheet, and everyone uses thesame rate sheet.
Brian Hemsworth (14:54):
Gotcha.
Don Jones (14:54):
It's illegal for you to charge more and you cannot
discount it.
Brian Hemsworth (15:00):
So it's locked.
Don Jones (15:01):
So it's locked. So from a business standpoint,
you're trying to figure okay,how do I, how do I tweak this?
And what can I do to offer abetter benefit at the same price
because it's coming out of mypocket?
Brian Hemsworth (15:12):
So tell me about, okay. So for if we're
basically paying the same thing,why does it matter what broker I
choose?
Unknown (15:21):
So the difference becomes, number one, you there
are certain things that theemployer has to do when he
offers a health plan that heprobably doesn't know he has to
do, because no one tells you,the Department of Labor can give
you this book saying, oh, by theway, you're an employer now, and
you offer to help plan, and youhave to know about HIPAA and
(15:44):
Cobra privacy rights, and oh, bythe way, all these other notices
that you have to give out everyyear, Medicare Part D, etc.
There's no like handbook thatgoes out. This says you have to
do this. Someone's got to talkto you about Cobra, if your
groups over 20 employees. Ifyour group's over 50 employees,
someone has to talk to you aboutthe ACA filings, that you have
(16:07):
to do every year. So yes, theplans are the same in California
one to 100, over 100, 101 andover, the plans can be tweaked
and changed. But for the mostpart, every broker has access to
the same plan. So if you're a200 life group, and you want
this specific Anthem plan that'sfor sale on the California
marketplace, you go to sixbrokers, and you ask for the
(16:30):
same co pays deductibles and RX,you're gonna get the same quote.
Brian Hemsworth (16:34):
Gotcha.
Don Jones (16:34):
Now sometimes in those larger quotes, they can
discount say, well, I'll take a4% commission versus a 5%. But
everyone, everyone's transparenton what it is, you have to lay
it all out in front, there's nothere's no large, huge change in
numbers between the Anthem fromthis guy is going to be 100, and
the anthem, this other brokersto be 90.
Brian Hemsworth (16:55):
So it's not, it's not a car dealer, where you
go to one and they tell you thisis how much for this new car,
but you go to the other end,it's at the end of the month,
and some guy really needs tomeet his quota, and he's willing
to darn near give, it's not likethat at all
Don Jones (17:07):
It's a different, it's for medical insurance,
Brian Hemsworth (17:11):
So so I know you've done this technology and
that's kind of how it's set.
done a lot of infrastructure,and you're providing these, I'll
just call them additionalservices for your clientele.
Tell us about some of thosethings you do.
Don Jones (17:25):
So some of the things that you have to do as an
employer that we use, use allthe newest latest technology,
you know, Salesforce like it'severyone's familiar with that
you can get Salesforce forspecific industries now, whether
there are companies that tweakit say hey, I want Salesforce
for car dealers, or Salesforcefor health insurance agents
where they've kind of tweakedthe profile so it works for your
(17:48):
business. There's companies thatwill provide you with all the
documentation, I need a HIPAAnotice of privacy notice a cobra
notice my Medicare Part Dnotices all my notices. Oh, and
by the way, you're supposed toprovide all your employees with
the summary plan description.
And on all your benefits andplans, which is separate from
those given to your employeesfrom the insurance companies.
(18:08):
Most people don't know that. So
Brian Hemsworth (18:11):
So as you administrate these health plans,
if you buy the technology, it'scheaper to just give it to
everybody in your book, ratherthan saying I need to do one off
for it gets really expensive tohim that way. So we just decided
if I'm understanding correctly,you're taking a lot of things
to invest in the technology todo that. And then for our
clients, those areautomatically, they
automatically happen. In fact,we've had people that say, Hey,
(18:31):
someone says I need this, I needthis form. It says you've had it
off their shoulders, and havingworked at a lot of companies
for three years. It's on yourportal. And I guess it's my
fault for not telling you thatyou've had it. Or you just
didn't understand what you had.
So there's issues abouthaving owned a couple of
companies, HR departments areenrollments. Now most people now
want to do enrollments online.
Younger employees gravitate tous, they say like, you know, why
(18:52):
don't you have that? The olderfolks are said, Do I have to do
usually not, you know, reallyfat, there's not a ton of extra
it? Because they don't, theywant to use paper, much easier
to track and digitize documentsthan something that's scanned
and handwritten. That's, that's,that's a big issue. And if all
that stuff is online, with withthrough our system, it's easier
people, there's a handful ofpeople that are doing a million
for us to say giveaways. Oh, bythe way, you know, we can do
(19:12):
your ACA filings for you, if wehave all this information. Now,
what does that cost? Well, ifyou went out and did that on
different things. And they gottatry to be an expert in those
your own, this year, you have tofile digitally you have to file
electronically, you cannot sendin paper this year, it's gotta
be electronic. We're seeinganywhere from 2000 to 5000 in
extra cost for the employer todo that. So that's something you
things. And it's almostimpossible. They're hiring,
(19:33):
wouldn't have to pay extra for.
Cobra services are doneelectronically. You don't have
to pay for that extra. All yourdocumentations, you don't have
to pay extra for, yourthey're firing, they're working
with people on hiring, they'reenrollments are all done online.
So that makes it a lot easier.
Another thing that happenedwhich is really important, staff
is trained. You're an employerand you get a wage garnishment
doing record keeping, they'reaccessing things, they're
(19:54):
notice from the county on one ofyour employees and it goes to
your payroll department, and shemay get two a year, and she
didn't know what to do with it,what I do with this form, it
asks about payroll and it asksabout benefit costs. I don't
concerned about somebody askingsomebody's age, or gender
know what these costs are. So wedo that for them too, so they
send it to our office, we go,okay, here's the cost, here's
(20:14):
what you have to do fill thisout. And when we send it to you
questions that are gonna get thecompany. So they're focused on a
send it back to the county, thenusually the second one is, the
county then sends you anotherform that says, now you have to
put these people on this plan,because it's affordable. So
there's all these extra thingswe can do with no extra cost to
lot of different things. They'renot experts, A in technology, B,
the employer, because we've kindof streamline this whole, this
(20:35):
whole process of enrollment andadministering the health plan.
they're not experts, and thething that scares me as a
business owner, things likecompliance, right, missing that
(21:04):
deadline. So this automation,and the service that you do that
not everybody does not everybodyhas the same automation, not
(21:28):
everybody provides the services,this is actually going to save
them personnel time.
Don Jones (21:45):
And that's that's a big issue, because the the owner
probably doesn't know how thisworks in his payroll/HR
department. He knows that itgets done. But he doesn't know
who started it, who's doing it,and how long did it take to get
it done. That's just an expense.
And unfortunately, mostcompanies look at HR as an
(22:06):
expense, that's an expensedepartment doesn't bring us any
revenue, it's just something Ihave to do to stay in
compliance. And oh, by the way,be in California, every year
that gets more yeah, there'smore lovely stuff that they give
the employer to do. And thatusually gets pushed off to the
HR Payroll department. So ifsomeone comes into the HR
department, because they have aproblem with a claim, like
(22:28):
getting a referral, on an IDcard, that employee instead of
working, is now talking to thatpayroll person, the HR person,
so now you have two people whoare not making you any money
that you're paying by the hour,usually for, and you're going to
spend an hour or two hours, andyou got to zero, in fact, you
cost you money, it cost youmoney. So we had the system set
(22:50):
up, so those we have trained,tried training employees, call
us directly send it to us, theHR person sends it to us, so we
can assist in those. So there'sa lot of,
Brian Hemsworth (23:03):
Excuse me, they send them directly to you?
Don Jones (23:05):
Yeah, we have some that just send it directly
beacuse we've enrolled thesepeople in an online portal, some
of them just get it right away,and say there's, here's an email
address, I'm gonna send it tothese guys, or I'm just gonna
give these people a call, andthey can handle it. And we've
kind of bypassed the HR systemon that on that point, but the
employer is not paying twopeople to do something that
(23:27):
doesn't bring him any money. Soin the HR department it's just
overwhelmed with new things todo. You know, this year, for
example, sick days went up tofive days. So there's there's a
new report, they have to figureout for that, there's always
something new every year thatcomes out that says this is
something we now have to offer.
And they push it off to HR andwe're trying to make that plate
not as full, regarding thebenefit administration, so they
(23:51):
can kick it over to us.
Brian Hemsworth (23:53):
So when a company, an employer, comes to
you, and signs on for theirbenefit plan, and they begin to
get these administrativeservices that you're providing,
they're not saving the money byshopping the Anthem, because you
can't save money that way, butthey're saving money in terms of
(24:16):
their employees, their outputcan be devoted to the other
things and not to theseadministrative services. And
that has to be a fair amount ofhours over the course of a year.
Don Jones (24:28):
That's quite a few hours you know, your your HR
department, you know, peoplethink of it as an expense. But
if your HR department has thetime to hire the right people at
the right time, and then firethe people that need to be
fired. That's how an HRdepartment really makes makes
you money. So taking thosethings off their plate that
really are administrative tasks.
They're not tasks that anyone atthat, at that employment and
(24:50):
really has any expertise doing.
You're just outsourcing it to usto get it done.
Brian Hemsworth (24:56):
So there, so there's, they are saving time,
they are, because they're savingtime, they're saving money. And
then, as a business owner, Iwould say one of the things that
really hits me is that idea of Iwouldn't even know what to file
with cobra or ACA. But you'reable to do those filings on
(25:18):
behalf of the employer, andyou're doing those
electronically. So that there'sa peace of mind there, that
really matters to me. And Iwould assume a lot of people in
that C suite, they want theproblems to go away, they don't
want to have to deal with them.
And that gives them the abilityto get that done. Without
putting that on the shoulders oftheir HR.
Don Jones (25:36):
Right, and the best thing about filing,
electronically is, you have atrack, you have a record. Here's
my record. Here's mydocumentation. This was done. It
was timely, it's time stamped.
So we know everything'scompliant, and we're good to go.
So it is it is a savings. Nowyes, we do do shop the plans.
You say this year you haveAnthem next year, you want
(25:57):
Cigna, year after that you wantHealth Net, or UnitedHealthcare,
or whomever that's part of theprocess, you're changing. Most
of the systems you see now thatwe use that other brokers are
also using their setup is reallya hub, and you can change
vendors. And the the new focusthat employers and brokers are
trying to go to is you want toyou want a platform where you
(26:20):
may have 15 different payrollcompanies that you could use,
all your known medical plan,dental plans, vision plans,
Cobra administrations and, so ifI was to key in a new hire in
my, my payroll company, I wantthat information to go right
over to the benefit portal andthe broker to make sure my new
employee logs in and sees hisbenefit offerings which are all
(26:44):
now online, his SBCs are onlinethat he has to have his COBRA
Notice, all those notices areonline, he can make his
elections, those elections godirectly to the carrier. And
those amounts from the paycheckgo right back into payroll. That
means someone in his officedidn't have to key in those
things five times.
Brian Hemsworth (27:07):
And this is happening fast. It's it's very
quick, very efficient. Andagain, saving that time saving
that money and ultimately betterfor the employee better
Don Jones (27:17):
Better for employees better tracking system, they
felt like okay, I got a copy, Isee it on online. Most of you
can log in from your phone, yoursmartphone, and you can see all
your benefit offerings, you canmake changes online, whether
it's your phone, and it'stracked, and there's a record,
and I'm older, so I was always alittle skeptical because you
(27:41):
know, you're not really trustingnot having paper. I've just
grown up in the paper system.
But for you know, a lot ofemployees, they feel more
comfortable, because they have arecord on their phone or record
on their iPad or somewhere. Ican see my stuff.
Brian Hemsworth (27:55):
So I'm assuming as as employees age, and you've
got these new waves of youngeremployees, they've got it like
this, it's online, it's easy toaccess, easy to see.
Don Jones (28:03):
So let's say for example, you're an employer you
got, I'm gonna pick a company.
Say you got Anthem, you know,alongside Kaiser, and you have
Humana for dental, you have VSPvision, and you have Guardian
for disability, right. So youget five plans. So if you're
using the paper system, you theemployee, you have to fill out
five apps,
Brian Hemsworth (28:21):
My head hurts already.
Don Jones (28:23):
Name, address, social security number, all that kind
of stuff. You do an onlinesystem, you put it in once and
you just check a box. And youare you have the ability to
offer your employees, a varietyof plans from a variety of
carriers. Okay, that really maymeet their needs more than just
saying I have to use this onecarrier because it uses one
(28:43):
form. They go online, they clickthe box sign once on their iPad
or phone, and that signaturegets transported to all those
applications. And then off yougo.
Brian Hemsworth (28:55):
So I have to believe that when you have a
company, switch over to you thata year later, you get a lot of
HR people that are gonna say,Don, thank you. Thank you made
my job easier.
Don Jones (29:08):
They usually say that in the enrollment because they
don't have to do it.
Brian Hemsworth (29:12):
So it hits them right away.
Don Jones (29:13):
Right away. They see okay, this, I don't have to do
that anymore. No, this is done.
This is done. And this is done.
So it is a change. They don'twant to do it. It's not fun for
anybody.
Brian Hemsworth (29:26):
Yeah
Don Jones (29:27):
Yeah, doing the administrative work is not fun
thing to do for HR people.
They'd rather hire people. Youknow, the HR department is the
cheerleading section of acompany, right? This is our
great company. This is our greatbenefit plan. This is how great
it is work here. They're likethe up-people that are always
trying to be up always wantingto get to the team up, team
players, they want to get themost benefit for their
(29:48):
employees. So they kind of likethis idea. And the platforms are
set up and there's severalcompeting platforms where you
can, you have a variety ofoptions. So you're not saying,
to do this you're stuck withthis benefit.
You might even be opening thedoor.
You're opening the doors,because usually if they didn't
do it before, they were limitedon what they could offer because
(30:11):
no one wanted to fill out sixforms.
Brian Hemsworth (30:13):
Okay, so I'm going to switch gears but I'm
going to use a word that youjust spoke a moment ago, fun.
What do you do when you're notdoing this? I mean, I'm sure
this takes a lot and you're veryfocused on it. And a lot of time
investment into all thattechnology. What do you do when
Don Jones (30:28):
You know, so honestly, I haven't been doing a
you're not doing this?
lot lately but I do have a boatso, well my wife wants to know
why that boat is still in theyard. I love the ocean growing
up obviously in the Oxnard area.
Love boating, when I wasyounger, I worked on several
boats, fishing boats.
Brian Hemsworth (30:50):
Commercial or fishing boats?
Don Jones (30:51):
Well, you know, for offshore fishing and diving as a
cook. So I got to go on thoseand cook and fish and that was
always always a lot of fun. Lovethe ocean. So that's a big
passion. Haven't done as much ofit as I want to lately, but
that's probably my number onething is to get more on the
water and living living inOxnard, Ventura, Camarillo. It's
(31:14):
a beautiful coast. In thecoastline, between that area and
the Channel Islands is justlovely. People have not been out
to the Channel Islands and we'vegone out behind Anacapa or Santa
Cruz and see how lovely it isback there. It's just gorgeous.
So that's that's kind of mynumber one passion. I tried
playing golf. I'm honest to saysome people should play golf,
(31:39):
some people should watch peopleplay golf. I think it takes a
certain, you have to be able torelax to play golf. And right
now we're very busy. It's veryhard to relax. So, it's
something that I would wish Icould I could do better. And
then of course, you know, wehave got a couple grandkids and
(31:59):
we got stuff to do.
Brian Hemsworth (32:00):
Are they local?
Don Jones (32:01):
Yes.
Brian Hemsworth (32:02):
Oh, so you get to see them.
Don Jones (32:04):
It's great.
Brian Hemsworth (32:05):
Hey, Don, thanks so much for coming in.
Really appreciate you sharingsome about your business with
us. And I hope you come in againsoon.
Don Jones (32:11):
Thank you.
Announcer (32:19):
Presented by Echelon business development, more than
just networking. Way more
From Los Angeles, this is the Echelon
Radio Network.
Hi, everybody, and welcome backto the Echelon podcast. And
today we've got Don Jones of DMJInsurance Services. Don, thanks
(00:20):
for coming by today.
Don Jones (00:21):
Thanks so much for having me.
Brian Hemsworth (00:22):
So Don, you know, you and I have talked on
many occasions, and I have apretty good idea of what you do.
And I want to get into that in afew minutes. But what I realized
is, I don't have a lot ofbackground on you. Where are you
from? Where'd you grow up?
Don Jones (00:37):
Boy, I didn't go that far. So I was born in Oxnard.
Okay, I lived in Camarillo,which is 11 miles away. But in
the 67 years, I've gone to, I'velived in Hawaii, I lived in
Northern California, I graduatedfrom Loma Linda University, in
Riverside area, but kind of cameback to where I started, was
(00:58):
born, interesting place to growup, I guess, an interesting
place now to live in.
Brian Hemsworth (01:04):
And I assume, for those that are from that
area, it is, it's got to be verydifferent now than it was
Don Jones (01:12):
you know, when I grew up in that area, Oxnard is
really an agricultural town. Andthen during the World War II, it
became somewhat of a militarytown with a Navy base, a CB
base, the missile test range andPoint Mugu. And then after World
War II, they had the Oxnard AirForce Base, which is now
(01:33):
Camarillo airport, used to be an
Brian Hemsworth (01:34):
I didn't know that
Don Jones (01:35):
Air Force Base.
Brian Hemsworth (01:36):
Oh, my goodness.
Don Jones (01:37):
So growing up there, it was like The Wonder Years on
TV where every house had two tofive kids, a lot of parents
worked or were connected to themilitary in some fashion or
agriculture. So it was a ratherconservative place. We came in
second, I think, in the WorldSeries, one year, we got that
(02:02):
far at number two back inIndiana, I think in 1972. It's
the interesting town to grow upa lot of fun. So a lot different
than it is today.
Brian Hemsworth (02:12):
Gotcha. I gotta ask, most people that grow up
inland, whether it's 20 milesinland, or 1000 miles inland,
tried to get out to the coast togo to college. You grew up with
a coast and you went inland.
Don Jones (02:26):
I went inland we went inland, yeah, well, there was no
college. So there was there wasno Cal State Channel Islands
wasn't there. There was a juniorcollege, there was Ventura. And
then there later opened Oxnard.
So you either went to juniorcollege, which I did go to
junior college in Ventura, butthen you had a graduate
somewhere else, which created anissue for people that grew up in
that Oxnard, Ventura Camarilloarea was you had to go away to
(02:48):
go to school. And then usuallywhen you graduate, you get a job
close by where you went toschool, 'cause that's where the
recruiters were. So peopledidn't come back. So my parents
had several businesses, so Icame back to help them retire.
And I moved back to the area in1983. And it was interesting, it
(03:09):
was interesting dynamics,because people that I went to
school with had went to SantaBarbara or San Diego or Chico.
And they never came back.
Brian Hemsworth (03:22):
Yeah.
Don Jones (03:22):
Interesting
Brian Hemsworth (03:23):
One way ticket out. So when you mentioned
college and came back in 83, soyou were probably in college
late 70s? Is that,
Don Jones (03:32):
Late 70s. Yeah.
Brian Hemsworth (03:33):
And what just study and what was called,
Unknown (03:34):
I'm a business accounting major. My first job
out of college, they called themstockbrokers then. You were a
stockbroker. I was forPaineWebber Jackson and Curtis
1980. I think the Dow Jones was920. Interest rates were about
14 to 15%. If you have 14% in amoney market account, it was it
(03:57):
was not a good 15 16 years inthe market. So they were they
were hiring anybody. And solooking for a job, that's where
I started.
Brian Hemsworth (04:07):
Gotcha. So, so take us a little bit on the
journey of how you eventuallygot to DMJ Insurance Services.
Unknown (04:16):
So I, like I said started as a stockbroket,
started at Paine Webber migratedto Merrill Lynch. Transferred up
here to Oxnard area. In '83, myparents wanted to retire, so
when someone to kind of helpout, you know, kind of ease them
out. They had a couple ofbusinesses. Left Merrill Lynch
(04:37):
and started my own investmentadvisory company.
Brian Hemsworth (04:40):
Oh, really?
Don Jones (04:42):
And that worked out okay. The NASD is not kind to
small brokers. It makes it, it'svery difficult, make it very
difficult and but I was alsoselling retirement plans and
then I got involved with sellinggroup health insurance along
with a retirement plans. And itjust got to be a point where you
(05:02):
have to go one way or the other.
And I had a couple of partners,they took over the investment
side and I left and I went onthe health side. So that was, it
was probably 1988
Brian Hemsworth (05:14):
And this still was Oxnard, Camarillo,
Unknown (05:16):
Camarillo, Ventura area. And so I just said, you
know, this, this seems peoplewant to buy health insurance,
they want to they want to talkto you, they wanted a broker,
their business owner feltcomfortable, I felt comfortable
talking to them. They feltcomfortable talking to me. So
the group the group space seemedlike this, it seemed like a very
easy space
Brian Hemsworth (05:37):
and it would seem like you know, your local
so it's comfortable, you know,the people you know, the area,
and I'm guessing during thoseyears, was when a lot of new
small to mid sized business wascoming into the area. The AG is
still there, but it's, we'veseen other stuff come in and
Conejo Valley has grown andnorth of there has grown and
(05:57):
east of there has grown,So that's an
important point. I want to just
Unknown (05:59):
What changed, what changed more than than the
businesses was the industry. Soyou know, this is prior to HMOs.
This is prior to PPO and this isthis is when you went you got an
insurance contract, and you wentand you saw any doctor you
wanted to. It may, it didn'tcover preventative services.
Some of them didn't cover RX,some of them didn't cover
(06:20):
maternity. It was it was aninteresting dynamic. And as as
it grew, as the industry startedto change to slow down the
growth and premiums, theystarted with these networks, the
stop you there for a minute.
I've heard people say thatPPO network, well, what's that?
What's the preferred provider,organization network, and then
some doctors would sign up, somehospitals would sign up. And so
you go the PPO network, you geta better reimbursement than that
(06:44):
out of network, that out of thatcame the HMOs, which are
basically founded by Kaiser herein California. And they've kind
of grown with that. So the HMOscame, and then as managed care
grew, things just started tochange, migrate, and California
was on the forefront oflegislation for years.
(07:10):
California is sort of groundzero for the the health care
system as we know it now. Isthat correct?
Don Jones (07:17):
Thatis correct. I, well, I'm gonna say it's
correct, and I think I can standon a lot of things that happened
in California got pushed back toWashington, DC. So a lot of
things that we do here are verymuch different than any other
state. So and we'll go right tothe HMO equation, because that's
kind of where people fall. Itkind of started here grew here.
(07:41):
It's a little different and thatHMOs really aren't insurance
contracts. They're they'recontracts with a provider. And
so, every state some statesdon't have HMOs. You know, some,
most states have a PPO, which isa preferred provider, but they
don't have an HMO. And the waythey're paid the capitated
system of how doctors arereimbursed, is different in
(08:01):
California, but it keeps thepremiums lower. In some areas,
you have a big penetration ofproviders on an HMO and some
areas you do not. So Californiawas one of the I think the only
state that started with the HMOPPO we get have one or the
other. And as things grew, youhad point of service plans. EPO,
(08:26):
which is an exclusive PreferredProvider Organization, they all
kind of grew. But Californiagrew legislation in California,
which changed the dynamic of thegrowth of the cost of care was
then pushed across from the leftcoast to the right coast to the
Left Coast, even though we arethe Left Coast politically.
Brian Hemsworth (08:45):
Yeah. Gotcha.
So so how, have you been veryinvolved in that legislation and
all that stuff that's, that didtranspire over the last 20 30
years?
Don Jones (08:56):
Very involved, in the late 80s, I became involved with
what's called the Healthunderwriter group. We had a
local chapter, call it VenturaHealth Underwriters Association,
I was, became president and Ithink 90 or 91, was on the board
there for several years, becamethe State President sometime
(09:17):
later, and did that and veryactive and legislation regarding
guarantee issue preexistingconditions, getting maternity
covered, making sure that planshas RX covered. A lot of these
things that were done inCalifornia later swept across
(09:38):
the country, and became part ofpolicies that we see today.
Brian Hemsworth (09:43):
So if we go back when when did DMJ insurance
services begin as an insuranceservice business?
Don Jones (09:51):
So this agency, I've had three, I've sold a couple of
them, this agency, which is justhealth insurance, I've been
involved with some property andcasualty insurances over my
career, started in 2016. We hadanother agency that was a
partner of that wanted to sellto a publicly traded company. I
(10:15):
started off at Paine Webber, Iwent to Merrill Lynch, I knew
how publicly traded companieswork. And it just didn't seem
like something I wanted to godown to, in my career with
basically. So we split thesheets, or ripped the sheets,
whatever you call it, pulled thesheets. And I went my way and
they went theirs.
Brian Hemsworth (10:32):
So tell us now about the company about your
clientele. You said the healthbenefits, that's your specialty,
you're, you're not diversifiedin a lot of different you really
focus on that. Tell us about thecompany now, tell us about your
clientele, and who it is thatyou're catering to.
Don Jones (10:52):
So we have a very diverse clientele, because we
specialize in primarily health,dental, vision, benefits, for
small to medium size, employers,we've have groups higher than
larger than 1000 employees,groups with less than five
(11:12):
employees. So it really dependson on what the client looking
for many of our clients aremulti state, so it'd be of
employees in California, Nevada,New York, Tennessee, Texas,
we're very good with workingwith those kinds of programs
where we can have differentprograms or slightly different
benefits in each state. Thatmakes a little more sense for
(11:35):
the employees in that state.
Brian Hemsworth (11:36):
Okay, so you sort of tailor them to...
Don Jones (11:39):
We try to tailor the benefits to what what the
employees need in that area. Thetrend now is with employer
groups, is everyone seems to bepushing towards what they call a
single point of entry. Where ifI put the information in my
payroll system can it migrate tomy benefit system, to my
(12:01):
employees, and then when myemployee makes an election, will
that automatically go back to mypayroll system, so we don't have
to key all this in. And thereare several programs out there
that do that, where you couldmake it easier for the employer
to administrate the plan, andeasier for the employee to
(12:21):
understand and get informationabout their plans.
Brian Hemsworth (12:23):
And you've told me and I want to make sure I
understand this correctly, andyou've invested a lot in
technology in your business,which was something I wasn't
really aware there was a lot oftechnology because I kind of
thought you sign up for youknow, as a business owner, you
sign up, excuse me, you get somepaperwork, you some onboarding
(12:45):
process happens. But it soundsto me like a little bit of what
you're just saying is that someof that technology is working on
in the background. So when youdo have a client who's got
employees in different states,and they want that more seamless
approach to the data coming outof their payroll going out and
(13:05):
coming back in, is thattechnology driven now?
Don Jones (13:08):
That is, and so let's just start with the kind of the
box that we're in now. So inmost situations, a broker would
get 5% commission on a policy onhealth policy. So as a broker,
you say, Okay, I got X amount ofdollars to work with, and I want
to provide this certain level ofservice. How do I do that, from
(13:31):
a business standpoint, in a waythat makes sense for me, but
it's very attractive to theemployer and the employees. So
they want to use me as ourbroker versus somebody else. So
we're all getting the samebucket of money, the prices,
from Anthem from an Aetna from aKaiser from one broker to the
next, you're going to be thesame. So it's you're selling
(13:54):
roughly the same product at thesame price to the same customer.
Brian Hemsworth (13:59):
So I want to make sure that everybody
listening has a good handle onthat. I want to make sure I do
too. So if I understand thiscorrectly, if I go to you and I
say I'm interested in an Anthemplan for my company, and I call
you and you give me somepricing, and I call somebody
(14:20):
else, and I say, I want to lookat Anthem. I think a lot of us
think there's money to besqueezed out here in there and
can I grind them a bit, but whatyou're saying is Anthem's
Anthem, right? So the anthemitself, I'm looking at the exact
same policy from two people,it's the same price.
Don Jones (14:37):
Yeah, and let me break that down a little more.
So in California small group isone to 100 employees. So So
those policies are filed inadvance. The benefits are filed
in advance the rates are filedin advance. You can pull a rate
sheet, and everyone uses thesame rate sheet.
Brian Hemsworth (14:54):
Gotcha.
Don Jones (14:54):
It's illegal for you to charge more and you cannot
discount it.
Brian Hemsworth (15:00):
So it's locked.
Don Jones (15:01):
So it's locked. So from a business standpoint,
you're trying to figure okay,how do I, how do I tweak this?
And what can I do to offer abetter benefit at the same price
because it's coming out of mypocket?
Brian Hemsworth (15:12):
So tell me about, okay. So for if we're
basically paying the same thing,why does it matter what broker I
choose?
Unknown (15:21):
So the difference becomes, number one, you there
are certain things that theemployer has to do when he
offers a health plan that heprobably doesn't know he has to
do, because no one tells you,the Department of Labor can give
you this book saying, oh, by theway, you're an employer now, and
you offer to help plan, and youhave to know about HIPAA and
(15:44):
Cobra privacy rights, and oh, bythe way, all these other notices
that you have to give out everyyear, Medicare Part D, etc.
There's no like handbook thatgoes out. This says you have to
do this. Someone's got to talkto you about Cobra, if your
groups over 20 employees. Ifyour group's over 50 employees,
someone has to talk to you aboutthe ACA filings, that you have
(16:07):
to do every year. So yes, theplans are the same in California
one to 100, over 100, 101 andover, the plans can be tweaked
and changed. But for the mostpart, every broker has access to
the same plan. So if you're a200 life group, and you want
this specific Anthem plan that'sfor sale on the California
marketplace, you go to sixbrokers, and you ask for the
(16:30):
same co pays deductibles and RX,you're gonna get the same quote.
Brian Hemsworth (16:34):
Gotcha.
Don Jones (16:34):
Now sometimes in those larger quotes, they can
discount say, well, I'll take a4% commission versus a 5%. But
everyone, everyone's transparenton what it is, you have to lay
it all out in front, there's nothere's no large, huge change in
numbers between the Anthem fromthis guy is going to be 100, and
the anthem, this other brokersto be 90.
Brian Hemsworth (16:55):
So it's not, it's not a car dealer, where you
go to one and they tell you thisis how much for this new car,
but you go to the other end,it's at the end of the month,
and some guy really needs tomeet his quota, and he's willing
to darn near give, it's not likethat at all
Don Jones (17:07):
It's a different, it's for medical insurance,
Brian Hemsworth (17:11):
So so I know you've done this technology and
that's kind of how it's set.
done a lot of infrastructure,and you're providing these, I'll
just call them additionalservices for your clientele.
Tell us about some of thosethings you do.
Don Jones (17:25):
So some of the things that you have to do as an
employer that we use, use allthe newest latest technology,
you know, Salesforce like it'severyone's familiar with that
you can get Salesforce forspecific industries now, whether
there are companies that tweakit say hey, I want Salesforce
for car dealers, or Salesforcefor health insurance agents
where they've kind of tweakedthe profile so it works for your
(17:48):
business. There's companies thatwill provide you with all the
documentation, I need a HIPAAnotice of privacy notice a cobra
notice my Medicare Part Dnotices all my notices. Oh, and
by the way, you're supposed toprovide all your employees with
the summary plan description.
And on all your benefits andplans, which is separate from
those given to your employeesfrom the insurance companies.
(18:08):
Most people don't know that. So
Brian Hemsworth (18:11):
So as you administrate these health plans,
if you buy the technology, it'scheaper to just give it to
everybody in your book, ratherthan saying I need to do one off
for it gets really expensive tohim that way. So we just decided
if I'm understanding correctly,you're taking a lot of things
to invest in the technology todo that. And then for our
clients, those areautomatically, they
automatically happen. In fact,we've had people that say, Hey,
(18:31):
someone says I need this, I needthis form. It says you've had it
off their shoulders, and havingworked at a lot of companies
for three years. It's on yourportal. And I guess it's my
fault for not telling you thatyou've had it. Or you just
didn't understand what you had.
So there's issues abouthaving owned a couple of
companies, HR departments areenrollments. Now most people now
want to do enrollments online.
Younger employees gravitate tous, they say like, you know, why
(18:52):
don't you have that? The olderfolks are said, Do I have to do
usually not, you know, reallyfat, there's not a ton of extra
it? Because they don't, theywant to use paper, much easier
to track and digitize documentsthan something that's scanned
and handwritten. That's, that's,that's a big issue. And if all
that stuff is online, with withthrough our system, it's easier
people, there's a handful ofpeople that are doing a million
for us to say giveaways. Oh, bythe way, you know, we can do
(19:12):
your ACA filings for you, if wehave all this information. Now,
what does that cost? Well, ifyou went out and did that on
different things. And they gottatry to be an expert in those
your own, this year, you have tofile digitally you have to file
electronically, you cannot sendin paper this year, it's gotta
be electronic. We're seeinganywhere from 2000 to 5000 in
extra cost for the employer todo that. So that's something you
things. And it's almostimpossible. They're hiring,
(19:33):
wouldn't have to pay extra for.
Cobra services are doneelectronically. You don't have
to pay for that extra. All yourdocumentations, you don't have
to pay extra for, yourthey're firing, they're working
with people on hiring, they'reenrollments are all done online.
So that makes it a lot easier.
Another thing that happenedwhich is really important, staff
is trained. You're an employerand you get a wage garnishment
doing record keeping, they'reaccessing things, they're
(19:54):
notice from the county on one ofyour employees and it goes to
your payroll department, and shemay get two a year, and she
didn't know what to do with it,what I do with this form, it
asks about payroll and it asksabout benefit costs. I don't
concerned about somebody askingsomebody's age, or gender
know what these costs are. So wedo that for them too, so they
send it to our office, we go,okay, here's the cost, here's
(20:14):
what you have to do fill thisout. And when we send it to you
questions that are gonna get thecompany. So they're focused on a
send it back to the county, thenusually the second one is, the
county then sends you anotherform that says, now you have to
put these people on this plan,because it's affordable. So
there's all these extra thingswe can do with no extra cost to
lot of different things. They'renot experts, A in technology, B,
the employer, because we've kindof streamline this whole, this
(20:35):
whole process of enrollment andadministering the health plan.
they're not experts, and thething that scares me as a
business owner, things likecompliance, right, missing that
(21:04):
deadline. So this automation,and the service that you do that
not everybody does not everybodyhas the same automation, not
(21:28):
everybody provides the services,this is actually going to save
them personnel time.
Don Jones (21:45):
And that's that's a big issue, because the the owner
probably doesn't know how thisworks in his payroll/HR
department. He knows that itgets done. But he doesn't know
who started it, who's doing it,and how long did it take to get
it done. That's just an expense.
And unfortunately, mostcompanies look at HR as an
(22:06):
expense, that's an expensedepartment doesn't bring us any
revenue, it's just something Ihave to do to stay in
compliance. And oh, by the way,be in California, every year
that gets more yeah, there'smore lovely stuff that they give
the employer to do. And thatusually gets pushed off to the
HR Payroll department. So ifsomeone comes into the HR
department, because they have aproblem with a claim, like
(22:28):
getting a referral, on an IDcard, that employee instead of
working, is now talking to thatpayroll person, the HR person,
so now you have two people whoare not making you any money
that you're paying by the hour,usually for, and you're going to
spend an hour or two hours, andyou got to zero, in fact, you
cost you money, it cost youmoney. So we had the system set
(22:50):
up, so those we have trained,tried training employees, call
us directly send it to us, theHR person sends it to us, so we
can assist in those. So there'sa lot of,
Brian Hemsworth (23:03):
Excuse me, they send them directly to you?
Don Jones (23:05):
Yeah, we have some that just send it directly
beacuse we've enrolled thesepeople in an online portal, some
of them just get it right away,and say there's, here's an email
address, I'm gonna send it tothese guys, or I'm just gonna
give these people a call, andthey can handle it. And we've
kind of bypassed the HR systemon that on that point, but the
employer is not paying twopeople to do something that
(23:27):
doesn't bring him any money. Soin the HR department it's just
overwhelmed with new things todo. You know, this year, for
example, sick days went up tofive days. So there's there's a
new report, they have to figureout for that, there's always
something new every year thatcomes out that says this is
something we now have to offer.
And they push it off to HR andwe're trying to make that plate
not as full, regarding thebenefit administration, so they
(23:51):
can kick it over to us.
Brian Hemsworth (23:53):
So when a company, an employer, comes to
you, and signs on for theirbenefit plan, and they begin to
get these administrativeservices that you're providing,
they're not saving the money byshopping the Anthem, because you
can't save money that way, butthey're saving money in terms of
(24:16):
their employees, their outputcan be devoted to the other
things and not to theseadministrative services. And
that has to be a fair amount ofhours over the course of a year.
Don Jones (24:28):
That's quite a few hours you know, your your HR
department, you know, peoplethink of it as an expense. But
if your HR department has thetime to hire the right people at
the right time, and then firethe people that need to be
fired. That's how an HRdepartment really makes makes
you money. So taking thosethings off their plate that
really are administrative tasks.
They're not tasks that anyone atthat, at that employment and
(24:50):
really has any expertise doing.
You're just outsourcing it to usto get it done.
Brian Hemsworth (24:56):
So there, so there's, they are saving time,
they are, because they're savingtime, they're saving money. And
then, as a business owner, Iwould say one of the things that
really hits me is that idea of Iwouldn't even know what to file
with cobra or ACA. But you'reable to do those filings on
(25:18):
behalf of the employer, andyou're doing those
electronically. So that there'sa peace of mind there, that
really matters to me. And Iwould assume a lot of people in
that C suite, they want theproblems to go away, they don't
want to have to deal with them.
And that gives them the abilityto get that done. Without
putting that on the shoulders oftheir HR.
Don Jones (25:36):
Right, and the best thing about filing,
electronically is, you have atrack, you have a record. Here's
my record. Here's mydocumentation. This was done. It
was timely, it's time stamped.
So we know everything'scompliant, and we're good to go.
So it is it is a savings. Nowyes, we do do shop the plans.
You say this year you haveAnthem next year, you want
(25:57):
Cigna, year after that you wantHealth Net, or UnitedHealthcare,
or whomever that's part of theprocess, you're changing. Most
of the systems you see now thatwe use that other brokers are
also using their setup is reallya hub, and you can change
vendors. And the the new focusthat employers and brokers are
trying to go to is you want toyou want a platform where you
(26:20):
may have 15 different payrollcompanies that you could use,
all your known medical plan,dental plans, vision plans,
Cobra administrations and, so ifI was to key in a new hire in
my, my payroll company, I wantthat information to go right
over to the benefit portal andthe broker to make sure my new
employee logs in and sees hisbenefit offerings which are all
(26:44):
now online, his SBCs are onlinethat he has to have his COBRA
Notice, all those notices areonline, he can make his
elections, those elections godirectly to the carrier. And
those amounts from the paycheckgo right back into payroll. That
means someone in his officedidn't have to key in those
things five times.
Brian Hemsworth (27:07):
And this is happening fast. It's it's very
quick, very efficient. Andagain, saving that time saving
that money and ultimately betterfor the employee better
Don Jones (27:17):
Better for employees better tracking system, they
felt like okay, I got a copy, Isee it on online. Most of you
can log in from your phone, yoursmartphone, and you can see all
your benefit offerings, you canmake changes online, whether
it's your phone, and it'stracked, and there's a record,
and I'm older, so I was always alittle skeptical because you
(27:41):
know, you're not really trustingnot having paper. I've just
grown up in the paper system.
But for you know, a lot ofemployees, they feel more
comfortable, because they have arecord on their phone or record
on their iPad or somewhere. Ican see my stuff.
Brian Hemsworth (27:55):
So I'm assuming as as employees age, and you've
got these new waves of youngeremployees, they've got it like
this, it's online, it's easy toaccess, easy to see.
Don Jones (28:03):
So let's say for example, you're an employer you
got, I'm gonna pick a company.
Say you got Anthem, you know,alongside Kaiser, and you have
Humana for dental, you have VSPvision, and you have Guardian
for disability, right. So youget five plans. So if you're
using the paper system, you theemployee, you have to fill out
five apps,
Brian Hemsworth (28:21):
My head hurts already.
Don Jones (28:23):
Name, address, social security number, all that kind
of stuff. You do an onlinesystem, you put it in once and
you just check a box. And youare you have the ability to
offer your employees, a varietyof plans from a variety of
carriers. Okay, that really maymeet their needs more than just
saying I have to use this onecarrier because it uses one
(28:43):
form. They go online, they clickthe box sign once on their iPad
or phone, and that signaturegets transported to all those
applications. And then off yougo.
Brian Hemsworth (28:55):
So I have to believe that when you have a
company, switch over to you thata year later, you get a lot of
HR people that are gonna say,Don, thank you. Thank you made
my job easier.
Don Jones (29:08):
They usually say that in the enrollment because they
don't have to do it.
Brian Hemsworth (29:12):
So it hits them right away.
Don Jones (29:13):
Right away. They see okay, this, I don't have to do
that anymore. No, this is done.
This is done. And this is done.
So it is a change. They don'twant to do it. It's not fun for
anybody.
Brian Hemsworth (29:26):
Yeah
Don Jones (29:27):
Yeah, doing the administrative work is not fun
thing to do for HR people.
They'd rather hire people. Youknow, the HR department is the
cheerleading section of acompany, right? This is our
great company. This is our greatbenefit plan. This is how great
it is work here. They're likethe up-people that are always
trying to be up always wantingto get to the team up, team
players, they want to get themost benefit for their
(29:48):
employees. So they kind of likethis idea. And the platforms are
set up and there's severalcompeting platforms where you
can, you have a variety ofoptions. So you're not saying,
to do this you're stuck withthis benefit.
You might even be opening thedoor.
You're opening the doors,because usually if they didn't
do it before, they were limitedon what they could offer because
(30:11):
no one wanted to fill out sixforms.
Brian Hemsworth (30:13):
Okay, so I'm going to switch gears but I'm
going to use a word that youjust spoke a moment ago, fun.
What do you do when you're notdoing this? I mean, I'm sure
this takes a lot and you're veryfocused on it. And a lot of time
investment into all thattechnology. What do you do when
Don Jones (30:28):
You know, so honestly, I haven't been doing a
you're not doing this?
lot lately but I do have a boatso, well my wife wants to know
why that boat is still in theyard. I love the ocean growing
up obviously in the Oxnard area.
Love boating, when I wasyounger, I worked on several
boats, fishing boats.
Brian Hemsworth (30:50):
Commercial or fishing boats?
Don Jones (30:51):
Well, you know, for offshore fishing and diving as a
cook. So I got to go on thoseand cook and fish and that was
always always a lot of fun. Lovethe ocean. So that's a big
passion. Haven't done as much ofit as I want to lately, but
that's probably my number onething is to get more on the
water and living living inOxnard, Ventura, Camarillo. It's
(31:14):
a beautiful coast. In thecoastline, between that area and
the Channel Islands is justlovely. People have not been out
to the Channel Islands and we'vegone out behind Anacapa or Santa
Cruz and see how lovely it isback there. It's just gorgeous.
So that's that's kind of mynumber one passion. I tried
playing golf. I'm honest to saysome people should play golf,
(31:39):
some people should watch peopleplay golf. I think it takes a
certain, you have to be able torelax to play golf. And right
now we're very busy. It's veryhard to relax. So, it's
something that I would wish Icould I could do better. And
then of course, you know, wehave got a couple grandkids and
(31:59):
we got stuff to do.
Brian Hemsworth (32:00):
Are they local?
Don Jones (32:01):
Yes.
Brian Hemsworth (32:02):
Oh, so you get to see them.
Don Jones (32:04):
It's great.
Brian Hemsworth (32:05):
Hey, Don, thanks so much for coming in.
Really appreciate you sharingsome about your business with
us. And I hope you come in againsoon.
Don Jones (32:11):
Thank you.
Announcer (32:19):
Presented by Echelon business development, more than
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