Bruce Bell

Bruce Bell, brings over 25 years of experience within the group health and pension market. Recognised as a market innovator, Bruce founded HealthSource in the early 90’s as the first Canadian Third Party Administrator focused on the SME market.

A strong proponent of establishing a corporate vision which puts the customer at the center, and bringing together and motivating people to bring enthusiasm and the passion required to achieve the broader corporate goals, Bruce has seen how a shared vision can disrupt and drive a small start up to a leader within a market.

Unlike traditional plan administrators, Bruce believed that the traditional model of plan administrators, which were largely focused on transactional tasks, could do more to deliver value to the market by designing and bundling unique products and services within one seamless environment, creating greater value to employers.

Bruce is credited for developing the self-funded model within the CDN SME market, and using reinsurance markets to introduce Stop Loss programs, which at that time, was largely unknown and considered a unique approach to applying risk management techniques to drive significant client savings.

Bruce has always believed that any product or service should start with the client at the center.  Healthcare and Health Insurance is a complex environment, and by educating clients and being transparent has been a core value that has translated into a successful career.

Always an innovator, Bruce introduced Wellness in the mid 90’s as a core offering as part of the HealthSource value proposition. Once again ignoring a more traditional view to charge for these services, the Wellness program was embedded and offered to all clients with no additional fee. This proved to be a highly successful marketing and client acquisition strategy, as clients viewed HealthSource as a true partner in providing access to tools to help their employees manage lifestyle health related costs.

HealthSource grew to be the largest TPA focused on the SME market and was sold in 2010, and continues to be a leader in the Canadian health benefit space.

Throughout his career Bruce has been an innovator. Bruce has authored many articles, provided professional development training to Brokers and is a past Director of the Independent Financial Brokers Association of Canada.

Bruce considers his greatest asset to be his curiosity. Never satisfied with the status quo, Bruce continues to stay close to the industry and is now on a new journey to identify the best practises and approach to connect with individuals and motivate healthy lifestyle change.

BenefitsEQ is his latest venture, which is focused on identifying best in class solutions to help employers tackle the complex issues around lifestyle related health issues.