Keep your wellness programs updated and your employees interested with this list of popular health observances for 2013. ...

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) established three risk-spreading programs to provide payments to health insurance issuers that cover higher-risk populations and to more evenly spread the financial risk carried by issuers. These programs, which will be effective in 2014, are a transitional reinsurance program, a temporary risk corridor program and a p ...

Election to Have Significant Impact on Agent IssuesWhat are the consequences for health care, taxes and insurance regulation?The 2012 elections have come and gone, and while there will be many new faces in the 113th Congress next year, there is no shift in the balance of power between the two parties in either the White House or Congress. ...

Planning Deadline Extended on Health Insurance Exchanges The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires each state to have a health insurance exchange (Exchange) to provide a competitive marketplace where individuals and small businesses will be able to purchase private health insurance coverage. The Exchanges are scheduled to be operational by Jan. 1, 201 ...

New temporary guidance has been released regarding the 90-day maximum waiting period mandated by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ACA stipulates that for plan years beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2014, group health plans and group health insurance issuers may not apply any waiting period that exceeds 90 days. ...

“About 72% of the 855 data breaches world-wide analyzed last year by Verizon Communications Inc.'s forensic analysis unit were at companies with 100 or fewer employees.”  Maybe the hackers will just cause system havoc, but maybe not.While the 100 employee business in this article got all but about $200K of its money back, it appears this compa ...

Saw dust, metal shavings, paint and other construction materials are the usual suspects for causing potentially harmful eye damage to construction workers. But for those who work outdoors, the sun is also the cause of irreversible damage to the eyes. ...

Poor communication between work crews and supervisors is one of the leading causes of accidents on construction sites. Hearing difficulties, due to the high level of sound emitted from construction equipment, is one contributing factor to miscommunication. Some equipment emits sounds higher than 125 decibels, which makes communicating with other wo ...

Construction contracts can contain terms that impact your company’s bottom line. Reviewing them carefully prior to signing is indispensable, and can save your company time and money. ...

  The key to calculating a workers’ compensation premium is the experience modification factor, also known as your mod. Understanding your company’s mod and the data used to obtain it helps you identify ways to minimize your workers’ compensation premium. ...

Stay up-to-date with the current OSHA Recording guidelines required for posting from 2/1/2013 to 4/30/2013 ...

Not all jobs on a construction worksite are the same; each job comes with its own set of unique safety risks. To ensure workers safely complete their jobs, customize their safety training for each job by doing the following: ...

Portable generators caused 172 carbon monoxide poisonings in the United States between 1999-2004, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. ...

Mishandling the generators used on your worksite can cause carbon monoxide, electrical and fire hazards. Make sure your workers use generators safely by following these quick tips: ...

Inexperienced or newly hired employees are a company’s biggest safety liability, accounting for a disproportionate number of accidents and injuries. Because of this, employers spend significant time and resources training new hires. Sometimes lost in the effort to train new workers is the importance of safety training for experienced workers. As a ...

Construction contracts can contain terms that impact your company’s bottom line. Reviewing them carefully prior to signing is indispensable, and can save your company time and money. This contract review guide is meant to be a starting point for reviewing contracts in general. It highlights some common contract terms and their potential impact. ...

Written exclusively for Chubbworks The former manager of a restaurant owned by a prominent Food Network chef and her brother has filed a lawsuit against the two owners, alleging an illegal hostile work environment. The white female manager claims that the chef's brother sexually harassed her after she started working at the restaurant in 2005. The ...

When it comes to renting vehicles for business use, it’s important to understand your coverage options to smooth out any surprise bumps in the road.  Since coverage varies from one rental agency to the next, it’s important to know the risks and how to protect against them. ...

On Jan. 15, hackers breached the internal network of Zappos.com and made off with private account information belonging to the online shoe retailer's 24 million customers. Less than 48 hours later, the first lawsuit was filed: a class action suit seeking compensation from Zappos (and its parent company, Amazon) for damages to the affected custome ...

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Rehab treatment National Therapeutic Services Inc. is a nationally recognized drug rehab center offering mental health and addiction services in Orange County California. Start living sober today. ...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that the obesity rate in U.S. adults and children remained steady in 2009-2010 compared with the 2007-2008 rate. The CDC also reports that approximately 37.5 percent of adults and 17 percent of kids up to age 19 were obese in 2009-2010. According to health experts, obesity increases the r ...

Do you have coverage if your or your employees rent a car on company business?   ...

We recently asked our readers, "Does Your Organization Permit Employees to BYOD?" According to the poll, only 17 percent of employers do not allow employees' mobile devices at work.Here are the specific responses: Yes, employees can have their own devices, but not use them for work. (24%) Yes, employees can bring their own devices and use them ...

In fiscal 2011, 1,548 soldiers filed complaints of violations of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), enacted in 1994. The law applies to all employers but the federal government was the largest single offender in 2011 accounting for 18 percent of the complaints. More than a quarter of federal employees are vetera ...

A recent study published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology shows a strong relationship between characteristics revealed on Facebook profiles and success on the job.Researchers asked two students and a university professor to spend 10 minutes going through the Facebook profiles of employed college students. They looked at comments, photogr ...

Researchers are finding that the recent wave of unemployment particularly affects older workers. Many employees who worked in the same types of jobs and positions for decades have been laid off and are now forced to look at changing their careers to reenter the workforce. Although the unemployment rate for workers over 55 is much lower than the rat ...

A national coffeehouse chain faces a lawsuit filed by a job applicant with a disability. The man alleges discrimination in the employer's hiring practices and claims that he was turned down for a barista job because he has only half of his left arm. The job applicant claims that the store manager told him that he could not perform the job because m ...