Spotlight of the Month on Difference Card Broker Partner, Niko Washington
Congratulations to Niko Washington, of Johnson & Dugan Insurance Services Corporation, for being named the Difference Card Broker Partner of the Month for June 2024! Niko Washington is the Vice President of the Employee Benefits Practice for Johnson & Dugan in Redwood City, California.
Niko recently worked with Senior Consultant Scott Bezanson from The Difference Card’s West Coast Team to help a Chemical Engineering Company to reduce their health insurance spend by -17%, worth over $160,000 in net annual savings. This organization employees over 100 engineers and supports critical components of the technology industry. They were spending close to $1 million dollars on their healthcare plan with Kaiser. When faced with a 20% renewal, Niko knew that she had to get creative to navigate this difficult increase. Niko worked with Scott to navigate the Kaiser plan options and purchase a plan for their client that reduced their fixed costs by over -29%. The net fixed cost reduction was worth $280,000 annually. After accounting for reimbursements, this customer was guaranteed to save $160,000 through the Difference Guarantee insurance program. This employer chose to purchase the Monthly Budget solution version of the Difference Guarantee, which put a cap on their monthly reimbursement exposure and simplified the banking experience for their accounting team. In addition to the financial savings, the employer was able to improve the benefits coverage for their staff. This extra benefit is a part of their employee retention strategy in the highly competitive engineering industry.
Niko Washington has been in the employee benefits and insurance industry for over twenty-five years. After starting his career on the carrier side of the industry, working for United Healthcare and Cigna, Niko joined the Johnson & Dugan team. Johnson & Dugan Insurance Services Corporation is uniquely positioned in the health insurance market to provide the highest level of expert assistance to their clients. Niko has held several leadership positions with the insurance industry such as the President of the Northern California Employee Benefits Council.
For more information about Johnson & Dugan, connect with Niko on LinkedIn
The Difference Card is a multi-year strategy that helps employers in all industries to save an average of 18% off their health insurance costs, while often improving benefits for employees.
