Two weeks ago when the temperatures in the Central Valley soared past 90 degrees, Cal OSHA set a new precedent performing surprise inspections on Saturday and Sunday. They passed out more than 100 violations for heat illness violations and confined space violations to local employers.
Are you prepared for a surprise inspection?
Important article written by Dave Weil of Flight Department Solutions here in the Bay Area, as these changes will affect many Corporate Flight Departments, Airplane Charter Companies, Pilots, Aircraft Owners, and Aircraft Management Companies. We at Andreini & Company and our own Aviation Department felt it important to share as it contains very detailed information regarding this new Federal Excise tax on Managed Aircraft. Andreini & Company works with many Managed Aircraft Flight Departments, and we wanted to make sure you were aware of this new change and how to find out more information about it.
Download the article: Aircraft Owner Update: IRS Imposing Federal Excise Tax on Managed Aircraft
If someone will suffer financially when you die, chances are you need life insurance. Life insurance provides cash to your family after your death. This cash (known as the death benefit) replaces your income and can help your family meet many important financial needs like funeral costs, daily living expenses and college funding. What’s more, there is no federal income tax on life insurance benefits. Most Americans need life insurance. To figure out if you need life insurance, you need to think through the worst-case scenario. If you died tomorrow, how would your loved ones fare financially? Would they have the money to pay for your final expenses (e.g., funeral costs, medical bills, taxes, debts, lawyers’ fees, etc.)? Would they be able to meet ongoing living expenses like the rent or mortgage, food, clothing, transportation costs, healthcare, etc? What about long-range financial goals?
Download the Safety Training and Communication documents to build a Heat Illness Prevention Safety & Training Program:
The State Fund and Cal/OSHA are teaming up to provide free Heat Safety Prevention Seminars.
Learn how Cal/OSHA interprets and enforces the Heat Illness Prevention Standard as it applies to:
CE Credits: Cal/OSHA and the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE) will provide two hours of continuing education credit to attendees, which may be applied towards the Farm Labor Contractor license training requirements.
4/26/2012
Oxnard, CA
5/2/2012
Bakersfield, CA
5/3/2012
Fresno, CA
5/9/2012
Santa Maria, CA
Reprinted courtesy of Alfred (Mike) B. Fowler, ERISA and employment attorney for Kutack Rock LLP. www.abferisa.com. Contact Mike at mike@abferisa.com.
As one of the major pieces of Health Care Reform legislation (HCR), the Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) provisions are intended to assure that health care coverage will be reasonably affordable. However, by requiring health care policy issuers to limit their administrative expenses to no more than 15% (large group) or 20% (small group) of premium, HCR opened Pandora’s Box. We are about to see the results. Please note that the MLR rules apply to both group and individual policies; however, we will limit our discussion in this Memorandum to group policies.
The California Supreme Court issued a long awaited ruling on a case filed nine years ago against Dallas based Brinker International, the parent company of Chili’s and other restaurants. Restaurant workers complained that missed breaks were in violation of California labor law.
Difference in Conditions (DIC) policies, usually purchased to obtain Earthquake and Flood coverage, are almost always non-standard policy forms and no two forms the same. The non-standard nature means there are potential coverage problems that you need to watch for.
1. Most DIC policy do not contain coinsurance clauses, but some do contain a requirement that the insured disclose the total insurable values (TIV) of all properties. This is because the premium is determined on TIV. If you have not disclosed the total values of all properties, you could find yourself with an unexpected problem when you have a claim.
Beginning with the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Family Medical Leave Act in the early 1990s, employers have been confronted in recent years with a slew of state and federal laws regulating leaves of absence in the workplace. Today, employers face a labyrinth of leave laws that address when and under what circumstances employees may take a protected leave. The complexity of the law, and the often confusing interplay between the alphabet soup of statutes, often lead to missteps in both interpretation and application of employer duties and rights that arise before, during and after employee leaves of absences.
The webinar identifies prominent traps; and guide employers on how they can implement their leave of absence policies lawfully and effectively.
Click to view the recording
For businesses, the risk of a fire is a considerable one that can have serious ramifications. Many businesses that suffer a major fire either do not reopen or fail within three years of the fire. Download the following documents to use as a base to build your OSHA Compliant Portable Fire Extinguisher Safety program.
Download the Word document: Portable Fire Extinguisher Safety & Training Program Template
Download the PowerPoint presentation: Portable Fire Extinguisher Program Presentation.
And download the bonus document: Vehicle Fire Prevention.
Request these documents in Spanish.
In Business Insurance, Matt Dunning writes that an early survey of compliance with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act shows increases in some employers’ health benefits costs up to 5%.
Here are a few highlight statistics, but read the rest of the article for the whole story:
These early results can’t predict the final effects of Health Care Reform. Even though the national health care debate centers around health insurance, it has shed a lot of light on the root cause of the problem: the cost of the health care itself and how we pay for it. This spotlight has given rise to a lot of new companies like Castlight Health and SeeChangeHealth that saw the importance of end user decision making and revealing the actual cost of health care and not just the size of health insurance premiums and copays. Companies like Apixio and entrepreneurs like Jay Parkinson who started HelloHealth and Future Well are taking advantage of the attention to get funding for companies that improve data analysis and efficiency in the behemoth that is our health care system.
Many industries that have become Institutions with a capital “I” end up doing things “the way they’ve always done them” because, well, that’s they way they’ve always been done. Whether or not the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ends up raising or lowering costs on its own, as the dust of the debate between fierce proponents and opponents settles, there are many more companies focused on making sensible health care choices and employing health care data more efficiently. And for that, we’ll all be better off.
At Andreini & Company, we have a range of insurance products from traditional guaranteed cost to fully self-insured that allow employers to take advantage of improved transparency and data efficiency as well as new wellness and employee decision making information to take control of their own health care costs. Want to see a variety of options? Contact us today.
Leave of Absence: Effectively Navigating the Legal Maze
2012 Health Care Reform and Other Matters – An Update
Information provided on the Andreini Blog is not intended to be exhaustive nor should any discussion or opinions be construed as legal advice. Readers should contact legal counsel or an insurance professional directly for appropriate advice.
All material copyright Andreini & Company 2011, and cannot reproduced in any form without written consent from Andreini & Company.
