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Insurance

Ensure doctors are fully credentialed for workers’ comp duty

01/01/2008

If you self-insure your workers’ compensation liability or otherwise directly control how your employees go about getting treatment for work-related injuries, make sure the medical professionals involved in your employees’ care are properly licensed and meet all requirements of their licenses. Otherwise, you may face liability for the negligent mistakes of health care practitioners …

Health insurance surcharges mean you’ll pay for bad habits

01/01/2008

Starting in 2008, Tribune Co., owner of the Chicago Tribune, began applying a monthly surcharge of $100 to the family health insurance premiums of workers who use tobacco or whose insured dependents do. Employees who kick the habit through the company’s smoking cessation program lose the surcharge …

Unemployment insurance tax rates to decrease in 2008

01/01/2008

Many Texas employers will see lower unemployment insurance (UI) taxes this year, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. The minimum tax rate, which 62% of Texas employers pay, decreased to 0.22% from 0.29% for the 2008 calendar year …

Collective bargaining terms mean no unemployment comp for pregnant employees

12/01/2007

Employees who must stop working at a certain point in their pregnancies because a union agreement compels the leave are not entitled to unemployment compensation in Ohio. That’s true even if the pregnant employee could physically work and would have done so if it were an option …

AK Steel uses VEBA to settle retiree health care lawsuit

12/01/2007

AK Steel settled a lawsuit with a group of retirees from its Middletown Works by transferring their health care coverage to a voluntary employees’ beneficiary association (VEBA) trust. The 4,600 retirees sued in 2006 after the company moved to cut retiree health care costs to improve its competitiveness …

Ohio Supreme Court limits ‘Voluntary abandonment’ doctrine

12/01/2007

The Ohio Supreme Court has substantially limited the “voluntary abandonment” doctrine in claims for temporary total disability compensation under the Ohio Workers’ Compensation Act. That means employers may have to pay temporary total disability payments to employees even if they were injured while breaking safety rules …

Health insurance costs up less than usual in ’07

12/01/2007

Employees will pay $150 more for medical expenses next year, predicts a new Towers Perrin survey. And that means your employees probably are more worried about the increasing costs of their health insurance than they are about being able to pay their rent, losing their jobs or becoming victims of violent crime, notes a separate survey by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation …

Hot dog! Chipotle employees can bring their pets to work

12/01/2007

Ann Dowell’s two Yorkshire terriers are not just her pets; they are co-workers—sort of. Dowell, the executive HR director at Chipotle’s Denver headquarters, may bring her dogs to work as long as “they are well-behaved,” she says. The company has allowed dogs in the office since 1996 …

Despite rising health care costs, Oregon offers full benefits

12/01/2007

With health care costs on the rise, most state governments are cutting back on their share of employees’ health insurance premiums. Oregon is not one of them. State employees and their families still receive fully paid health insurance …

Better health plan is key to employee satisfaction

12/01/2007

The key to employee satisfaction at your organization could be a beefed-up health plan. Employees responding to a Kronos survey said exceptional health care coverage was the benefit they wanted most …