Important Changes To Citizens Property Insurance Policies!If you have a home in Florida that has an insured replacement value over $1M, it's important to know that your options for insurance in the Florida marketplace are now extremely limited. Consult with your advisor prior to making any changes to your current Florida policies. If you receive a notice that your policy is affected by this 01/01/13 change, contact your advisor as soon as possible.

The Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. By a 5-4 vote, the individual mandate requiring most Americans to maintain "minimum essential" health insurance coverage, 26 U.S.C. 5000A, is affirmed as an exercise of Congress's taxing power.

The period between Memorial Day and Labor Day has been dubbed by auto club AAA and Volvo as "The 100 Deadliest Days" for teen drivers.

In December of last year, the Michigan state legislature enacted major reform to the state’s workers’ compensation law. We’d covered a few highlights of the legislation in a recent post and would like to call out one provision in particular that may have a major effect on claims – the new rules for what constitutes a “degenerative” condition and a “disability”.

Treatment of ‘degenerative’ and ‘disability’ under the new Michigan workers compensation law

A difficulty exists for insurance companies to defend ANY pollution exclusion that exists on the general liability policy due to language ambiguity. It is fair to say that policyholders might incur legal costs to force an insurance carrier into submission. Right now, in our opinion, the courts will lean toward siding with the policyholder in the State of Indiana. It is a very interesting situation. We are also anticipating some changes to the ISO Pollution Exclusion Form as a reaction to this latest ruling.

Workers’ Compensation rates are on the rise and this time they will inspire a connection between safety and wellness programs.

Leading companies, either through innovation or out of necessity, are integrating a culture of health into their organizations, not only to affect health insurance rates but also to mitigate their workers’ compensation costs. It is the strategy organizations are deploying to control long term costs and support a healthy workforce. Managing these two programs as one strategic initiative instead of individual silos is critical. And a significant side effect is healthier, higher performing employees who pay lower medical costs, are more productive, have fewer absences due to health issues, and have fewer and less severe workers’ compensation claims.

The IRS announced the inflation-adjusted increases for thresholds applicable to HSAs and High-Deductible Health Plans (HDHPs) for 2013.

The U.S. Department of Treasury this week signaled how the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will implement rules designed to collect fees from health insurers and self-insured health plans imposed by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in order to fund the Patient-Centered Outcome Research Trust Fund. According to the ACA, the funding requirements are as follows: 

There has been a lot of information in the news about health care reform and how it affects small businesses. We find many business owners scratching their heads trying to understand what it all means. To simplify matters, here are three things small employers must know about employee health benefits—especially in a post-health care reform environment:

1. You do need to claim your tax credit. Your business is eligible for the Small Business Health Care Tax Credit if you have fewer than 25 full-time employees, cover at least 50% of the cost of their coverage, and your employees have average wages of less than $50,000 a year. To determine the amount of your credit, talk to your accountant and complete IRS form 8941.
2. You don’t have to report benefits on your W-2′s. PPACA requires employers to report the cost of coverage under an employer-sponsored group health plan on employees’ Form W-2s. However, this requirement was optional for all employers for the 2011 tax year. And the reporting requirement is still optional for businesses filing fewer than 250 W-2 forms for 2012. Reporting will remain optional for smaller employers until further guidance is issued.
3. You must provide proper notice. Under COBRA, employers with 20 or more employees that provide health benefits must continue to provide coverage to an employee when he or she leaves. You can require the employee to pay the full cost of the coverage and a 2% administrative charge. However, you must notify your plan administrator within 30 days of the employee leaving so your administrator can provide the proper employee notice.

Health care reform is confusing. Speak with your attorney, accountant, and insurance advisor to make sure you know what your business is required to do.