combsandco

Creative Benefits to Engage, Motivate and Retain

combsandco — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:33:58 +0000

We all know how hard it is in this economy to keep the good employees we have and attract the good ones we want. How much do the “bells and whistles” we offer as an employer weigh in on the choice employees make to stay with us or move on; or new employees to find a new home within our firm?

Kyle Lagunas, an HR Market Analyst at Software Advice, takes a look at just this, in his blog “Software Advice”. Sometimes it is just the “little things” that make the big difference.

Click here to read more.

Wage Theft Prevention Act Annual Notice Deadline

combsandco — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 19:33:32 +0000

The Wage Theft Prevention Act is a new Act that went into effect April of 2011. The Act gives greater protection to workers, and makes changes in the way they are notified of their pay rates and receive wage statements. Pursuant to the Act, beginning in 2012, all New York employers must provide an annual pay notice to all employees (exempt and non-exempt) who work in New York (they must also do so upon hire). The annual notice must be provided to employees between January 1st and February 1st of each year. The notice must include the following information:

• Dates of work covered;

• Employer’s address and phone number;

• The rate of pay and the manner in which it is paid (hourly, salary, commission, etc.)

• Gross wages; net wages;

• Deductions;

• Allowances against minimum wage; and

• For non-exempt employees, the regular rate, overtime rate, and the number of regular and overtime hours worked.

The notices may be provided to employees electronically, as long as employees can acknowledge receipt and print the notice. A copy of the notice must be maintained by employers for six years.

Under the law, employers can be assessed a penalty of $50 per week per employee if proper notice is not given (employees have a separate cause of action up to $2,500).

The New York State Department of Labor provides FAQs that contain further information and can be found at:

http://www.labor.ny.gov/workerprotection/laborstandards/PDFs/wage-theft-prevention-act-faq.pdf

NYSE Bell Ringing for WIFS

combsandco — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 17:07:53 +0000

In case you missed it! Here is the link to the video for ringing the NYSE Opening Bell this morning.

http://exchanges.nyx.com/en/new-york-stock-exchange/women-insurance-and-financial-services-wifs-ring-opening-bell

I can honestly say this was the highlight of my professional carrier, so far…. But how can you top this!?!?

Susan Combs to help Ring the NYSE Opening Bell December 27, 2011

combsandco — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 16:10:17 +0000

Tune in on December 27th 9:25 AM to watch the President of Combs & Company help ring the New York Stock Exchange Opening Bell!

You can tune in live online at 9:29am EST via the provided link below or watch it live on television through CNBC, or Fox Business Network.

http://www.nyse.com/attachment/liveflashbell.htm

The honor of ringing the opening bell comes in celebration of the Women in Insurance and Financial Services (WIFS) 75th Anniversary. Susan is currently on the National & Local Board of Directors of WIFS.

Best Advice I Ever Got

combsandco — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 14:31:35 +0000

My father always told me there are three major aspects to your life – you have the person you are with, the place where you live, and the thing you do for a living. If you’re happy with 3 out of 3 then you are living a golden life; but on any given day, if you can be happy in at least 2 of those aspects, you’re doing just fine. But if you’re happy with only one or none at all, the get off your butt and do something about it. Surround yourself with supportive people who “get” you; to whom you don’t have to explain yourself. Live in a place that excites you and that cultivates who you are and who you want to be. Choose to do something you love because invariably you’ll do it well.

My friend Ron Williams has a saying, “If you are not a wind in my sail, then you are an anchor on my tail.” I have a tremendous husband (my word not his), a great family, and fantastic friends. I have them all because I choose to have them in my life (and yes, that goes for my family). I live in a city that doesn’t bullshit me; it gives me just as good as it takes from me. And I get to decide on the clients I want to work with. My business theory is fairly simple – if I wouldn’t Friend someone on Facebook, then I don’t want them as a client. That’s how I lead my life.

No matter what your aspirations are in life be the kind of person that when your feet hit the floor in the morning, the devil says, “Oh crap, they’re up.”

So just what is going on with Blue Cross?

combsandco — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 22:41:07 +0000

As you may have heard Blue Cross will be making some drastic changes to its health insurance portfolio starting April 1, 2012. Currently Blue Cross offers more than 30 health plan options to small businesses (2-50 employees), but as of April 1^stthey are eliminating most of their portfolio and reducing your options to 4 meager plans.

This is a forced migration to one of the four plans, regardless of when your renewal date occurs. For example, if your renewal is January 1, 2012, you can renew on your current plan at 1^st quarter rates, but come April 1^st, you will have to choose one of the four plans Blue Cross is making available and do so at 2^nd quarter rates.

Blue Cross has provided us with a preview of the four plans that will be available for Small Businesses. If you would like to see the plan structures, please email us at info@combsandco.com and we will send you a copy.

This is a confusing time in health insurance, and we don’t anticipate it will clear up anytime soon.

Who’s Insured?

combsandco — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 21:08:12 +0000

Have you ever wondered when it comes to your insurance, who actually is covered in regards to your company structure? The wait is over, take a look at this user friendly gride we created for our clients!

Who Is An Insured

Designation In Declarations	Who Are Insureds	Restrictions
Individual	Named Insured Named Insured’s Spouse	Only in connection with sole proprietorships.
Partnership or Joint Venture	Named Insured Named Insured’s members and their spouses Named Insured’s partners and their spouses	Members, partners and their spouses are insureds only in connection with conducting the business.
LLC	Named Insured Members Managers	Members are insureds only in connection with conducting the business. Managers are insureds only in connection with their duties as managers.
Organizations other than partnership, joint venture or LLC	Named Insured Executive Officers and Directors Stockholders	Executive officers and directors are insureds only in connection with conducting the business. Stockholders are insureds only in connection with liability as stockholders.
Trust	Named Insured Trustees	Trustees are insureds only in connection with their duties as trustees.

Essential Benefits: What are they?

combsandco — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 12:45:25 +0000

The essential benefits package will become the standard for health coverage and will be used as the basis for establishing the different benefit levels of plans that will be offered in the health insurance exchange. In addition, all new health plans that are sold to individuals will have to cover, at a minimum, all of the health care services in the essential benefits package. In 2014, all Small Group (1 to 100 Employees) will include these essential benefits as well. This will help ensure that every health plan provides the quality of coverage and financial protections necessary to safeguard families from the devastating financial effects of illness.

Right now, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has come out with an estimation of what these benefits will be. They are as follows:

Ambulatory Patient Care
Emergency Room Services
Hospitalization
Maternity & Newborn Coverage
Mental Health & Substance Abuse
Prescription Benefit
Rehab
Prevention & Wellness
Pediatrics Including Oral & Vision

There may be some more tweaks to this, but this is a solid estimation that you can pretty much take to the bank!

Something you should know about the National Healthcare Bill that is due to take effect in 2014 – even if you do everything right, you can still get hit with a fine!

combsandco — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 15:54:33 +0000

To explain this is layman’s terms we need to start off with a couple of definitions:

Exchange: is a set of state regulated and standardized health care plans, from which individuals may purchase health insurance.

Full Time Employee: 30 or more hours worked during the week

Full Time Equivalent (FTE): a calculation where you add up all the employees who work 30 hours or more per week, and then give partial credit to those employees who work less than 30 hours per week.

For example, let’s look at a company that has 70 actual people working for it:

35 Employees work 30 hours or more per week = 35 Employees

20 Employees work 20 hours per week = 13.33 Employees ((20 x 20) / 30)

10 Employees work 15 hours per week = 5 Employees ((10 x15) / 30)

5 Employees work 10 hours per week = 1.66 Employees ((5×10) / 30)

FTE count is 55 Employees

Household Income: Total taxable Income recorded per household (not per individual)

What you should know:

Point 1:

In 2014, if you have 50 or more employees you are obligated to offer them Group Health Coverage or potentially face a fine. If you decide not to, and 1 employee enters the Exchange to get health coverage, you not only get hit with a $2,000 fine for that employee, you are hit with a fine for ALL your calculated FTE employees. However, the legislation exempts the first 30 employees from the fine calculation (i.e., if the employer has 55 FTE employees as in the example above, the employer pays the fine for 25 employees).

In our example above, for that one employee going to the Exchange, the employer would be hit with a fine of $50,000 (Total Employees 55 – 30 exempt = 25 x $2,000) for that year alone. This is a steep penalty, but if you weigh it against the potential cost of health insurance, it may be worth paying the fine.

Point 2:

In 2014, if an employer offers Group Health Coverage, it must be deemed Affordable. If an employee’s contribution to an employer-sponsored health plan is greater than 9.5% of that employee’s HOUSEHOLD income, it is deemed Unaffordable. If this employee applies to and is accepted by the Exchange, the employer will be fined $3,000 for that employee, and any other employee that enters the Exchange under similar circumstances.

There are numerous issues with this setup, but two of the most obvious are:

As an employer, you are not allowed to ask an employee what their household income is.
By 2014, non-discriminiation laws will be in effect, so you must treat ALL employees the same in regards to contributions. This is either done as a percentage of the premium or flat dollar amount; you are unable to do it as a percentage of income. For example, the employer contributes $300 per month towards the premium or the employer contributes 75% of the cost of the premium on a monthly basis.

What this means for you as an employer?

Some employers may decide to take the penalty for not offering coverage since in our example a $50,000 fine is still far less than health insurance premiums for 55 FTEs annually. This will result in even more uninsured just due to cost.

Even if you do your homework, know that there are elements to this law that may put you out of compliance.

What brokers are trying to do?

We are working with our lobbying group, National Association of Health Underwriters (NAHU,www.nahu.org) to have this changed so that employers are allowed to create a Safe Harbor, if you have looked at the lowest wage employee’s contribution when you set up your contributions. Also, we are advocating for a “Last Look” by employers so they can correct this immediately to go into compliance.

What you can do?

Call your Congressman. Let them know you have some concerns and that some of these fines would be detrimental to your company.