1.) Keep the lines of communication open
2.) 30 minute meal period
3.) Run lean and don’t over staff
4.) Internet monitoring software
5.) Review company overtime policy
Need a user-friendly Time and Attendance system? Contact us today, or learn more about our HR Management System.
When people think of Microsoft and its founder, Bill Gates, often the first thing that comes to mind is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: a nonprofit organization they founded with the fortune. Its mission is simple: working to improve the lives of everyday people. The foundation is a significant part of the brand’s image, mission, and contributes to Microsoft’s reputation as a leader in social good.
Like the Gates Foundation, many companies are putting more resources into charitable causes, and for good reason. Along with the warm feelings associated with altruism, employees contributing to the social good recognize that philanthropy can provide good fuel for any company.
However, you do not have to be a Fortune 500 company to start a private foundation. Actually, any company any size can establish their own charity, dialed down directly to each employee.
This is due to a very new employee benefit program, called Give Back. Give Back allows companies to withhold charitable contributions via payroll deduction, and remit to the vendors of the employees choosing. (Think “United Way” payroll campaigns meet modern technology.)
An employer establishes an arrangement with GIVE BACK, much like a 401k would interface with their company. Employees agree to “give” each paycheck, to the charity of their choosing (most 501c3 organizations participate). Employer withholds any amount selected by the employee and remits to GIVE BACK. Employees log on and change their charitable selections anytime and so they can give to various charities all year long.
Imagine the opportunity for a parent to go home and share this giving program with their kids, allow their families to select the “family charity of the month”. What a powerful lesson and great way to engage employees and families in. Employers can match if they want – or contribute in similar fashion each month.
Talk about a low-cost and employee focused benefit!
Any company, any size, can have a GIVE BACK plan. CorpStrat helps companies establish Give Back plans as a way of helping them do socially good. Now, you can too with a comprehensive, state‐of‐the art payroll administration service from CorpStrat.
The Office of Administrative Law approved the recent amendment proposed by FEHA on National Origin rules effective July 1, 2018.
Although California already has strict rules that prohibit harassment and discrimination based on protected classes, including national origin, the new regulations expand those rules. The regulations protect both applicants and employees, including individuals who are undocumented.
The regulations also broadly define “national origin” to include an individual’s or ancestors’ actual or perceived:
In the regulations, these policies or practices may constitute national origin discrimination:
Taking effect July 1, 2018, San Francisco’s Consideration of Salary History Ordinance, also known as the Parity in Pay Ordinance, will ban employers from considering the current or past salary of an applicant in determining whether to hire the applicant or what salary to offer the applicant. The San Francisco ordinance is similar to the new California Salary History Ban law.
The ordinance applies to any employer required to register to do business in San Francisco, including job placement, referral and other employment agencies. A parallel ordinance applies to employers that are contractors or subcontractors with the City of San Francisco. The ordinance does not apply to any local, state or federal government except the City of San Francisco.
Applicants who apply for employment to be performed in the geographic boundaries of San Francisco and whose application, either in whole or part, will be solicited, received, processed or considered in San Francisco are covered Applicants applying for employment with their current employer are not covered under the ordinance.
Employers covered by the ordinance are prohibited from doing any of the following:
Under the ordinance, while an employer is allowed to consider salary history when an applicant discloses it voluntarily and without prompting, salary history alone cannot justify a pay disparity between employees of different sexes, races or ethnicities who perform substantially similar work. However, under state law, salary history cannot justify a pay differential. Therefore, employers may not consider prior salary, even if it was voluntarily disclosed by the applicant.
San Francisco employers will be required to post a notice informing employees of their rights under the ordinance. The notice must be posted in a conspicuous place at every workplace and jobsite in San Francisco in English, Spanish, Chinese and any other language spoken by at least five percent of the employees at the workplace, job site or other location where it is posted. Employers must also send a copy of the notice to any labor union representing its employees in San Francisco.
The San Francisco Office of Labor Standards Enforcement (OLSE), the agency to enforce the ordinance, will only issue a warning and notice to correct an employer’s first violation and for any violation that occurs from July 1, 2018, through June 30, 2019. Starting July 1, 2019, the OLSE may impose administrative penalties on employers for violations other than a first violation. The OLSE may also refer the action to the City Attorney, who may initiate a civil action for violations of the ordinance.
The OLSE is required to issue rules interpreting the ordinance before July 1. More information about the Consideration of Salary History Ordinance can be found on the OLSE’s website.
HIPP Form Verses HIPAA
Be careful not to confuse HIPP, California’s Health Insurance Premium Payment Program with HIPAA, Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act.
The California Labor Code Section 2807 imposes a notice requirement on every California employers who are subject to the federal COBRA health insurance continuation requirements. This notice requirement alerts terminated employees of the possibility that their health insurance premiums may be paid for through the California Health Insurance Premium Program (HIPP).
Health Insurance Premium Payment Program
The Health Insurance Premium Payment Program was established under Section 120835 of the Health and Safety Code and Section 14124.91 of the Welfare and Institutions Code. It is a program that will pay health insurance premiums for certain persons who are losing employment and who have a medical condition that requires treatment. The over-riding principal guiding the HIPP program is whether it would be cost-effective for the Department of Health Services to pay the premium for third-party coverage.
Paying for third partying health insurance is not deemed to be cost-effective if:
It is also important to note that the HIPP program cannot be ordered by the court. So, if a non-custodial parent is ordered by the court to provide medical coverage, then there is no eligibility for HIPP.
A standardized notice of the Health Insurance Premium Program is available from the California Health and Human Services Agency (DHS). The notice informs terminated employees of the existence of the program and the eligibility requirements. To be eligible for HIPP the applicant must:
The notice also provides information about how to apply for the benefit. An employee fills out an application form available from the California Department of Health Care Services. New applications are typically processed within 30 days of receiving all required documentation. Complete information about the process is available from the DHS.
Whenever an election of COBRA is required to be sent by an employer, California employers are also directed to provide notice of HIPP. California Labor Code Section 2807 does not provide the timing of the notice, but does say that the notice is required, “along with the notification required” by COBRA. The assumption is that the same notification time period applies.
Recommended Action
We suggest that each employer ensure that a copy of the HIPP notice is provided to each terminating employee at the time such employee is provided the COBRA health insurance continuation notice. Since such notices are often provided by a third-party plan administrator, it would be prudent for the employer to direct that the HIPP notice be sent as well.
IRS Encourages ‘Paycheck Checkup’ for More Employees
Employers should encourage more employees to use the IRS withholding calculator, www.irs.gov/w4App, to make sure their federal income tax withholding is in line with the changes made by Public Law 115-97, known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), the IRS said. Employees checking their withholding now can help protect against having too little or too much tax withheld.
The IRS is encouraging employers to inform seasonal and part-year employees, two-income families, people with multiple jobs, and employees who itemize their deductions that they might need to revise their Forms W-4.
The withholding calculator asks about the dates of an employee’s employment and accounts for a part-year employee’s shorter employment rather than assuming that the weekly tax withholding amount would be applied to a full year [IRS, Seasonal, Part-year Workers Urged to Check Tax Withholding Amount, 5-9-18 https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/ seasonal-part-year-workers-urged-to-check-tax-withholding- amount]. The calculator makes recommendations for part- year employees accordingly. If a taxpayer has more than one part-year job, the withholding calculator can account for this as well.
In contrast, the Form W-4 worksheets do not distinguish between part-year and full-year jobs. Two-income families, multiple-job holders, and individuals with more complex tax profiles, such as two incomes or multiple jobs, may be more vulnerable to being underwithheld or overwithheld [IRS, Two-Income Families, Taxpayers Working Multiple Jobs Should Check Withholding Amount, 5-24-18 https://www.irs.gov/ newsroom/two-income-families-taxpayers-working- multiple-jobs-should-check-withholding-amount].
The withholding calculator allows users to enter income from multiple jobs or from two employed spouses. It also ensures that these taxpayers apply their 2018 tax deductions, adjustments, and credits only once – rather than multiple times with different employers.
The TCJA nearly doubled standard deductions and changed several itemized deductions. Some individuals who formerly itemized may now find it more beneficial to take the standard deduction, and this could affect how much taxpayers need to have their employers withhold from their pay.
Even those who continue to itemize deductions should check their withholding because of changes made by the TCJA [IRS, Taxpayers Who Usually Itemize Deductions Should Check Their Withholding to Avoid Tax Surprises, 5-16-18 https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/taxpayers-who-usually- itemize-deductions-should-check-their-withholding-to- avoid-tax-surprises].
When these taxpayers use the withholding calculator, they can indicate whether they are taking the standard deduction or itemizing. If they are itemizing, they will enter estimates of their deductions. The withholding calculator applies the new law to these amounts when figuring the withholding.
Taxpayers with even more complex situations might need to use Publication 505, Tax Withholding and Estimated Tax, instead of using the withholding calculator.
Riddle me this: What is $325 BILLION in size, nearly 2% of the GNP of USA, almost 10% of the total health expenditure of the USA, and growing at a rate of 6% a year? If you guessed prescription drug costs, you are right on the mark!
President Trump announced his plan to overhaul and address the spiraling and skyrocketing costs of prescription drugs, a problem that affects every consumer, young or old. While he stopped short of suggesting the government would regulate and negotiate directly with the industry, he did lay out a foundation that may bring some relief to consumers, in time.
It’s a challenge to an industry that was overturned just 8 years ago, when the ACA mandated plan structure and eliminated plans that had narrow drug formularies, and limited consumer selection to generic drugs only.
The plan also stops short of seeking drastic changes to the health care industry that would more directly overhaul the costly path drugs take from development to Americans’ doorsteps.
Taken together, the administration’s strategy —which mixes new policy ideas with proposals already laid out in the White House’s 2019 budget request — reads as an ambitious attempt to alter a drug development and distribution system that both Republicans and Democrats have derided as too expensive and burdensome for patients.
While everyone on both sides of the political spectrum agree that the costs of drugs and the high-cost impact to the healthcare system is a problem, there is no consensus on “how” to address this problem and this plan leaves much room for clarity.
Public attention to pharmaceutical costs has risen in recent years, spurred by the steep price hikes some manufacturers have imposed for crucial drugs. In one of the highest-profile cases, Turing Pharmaceuticals hiked the price of its lifesaving drug, Daraprim by more than 5,000 percent in 2015 to $750. The company’s founder, Martin Shkreli, ultimately landed in jail on unrelated security fraud.
Under the copay accumulator programs introduced by some health plans in 2018, accumulator programs target specialty prescription drugs, which a manufacturer provides copayment assistance for. Accumulators shift a majority of drug costs on consumers and manufacturers.
Unlike conventional benefit plans, the manufacturer’s payments no longer count toward a patient’s deductible or out-of-pocket maximum. In turn, this will discourage the appropriate utilization of specialty treatmentsand many consumers won’t understand their new “benefit” plan.
Until market prices come down, consumers need to continue to be vigilant in purchasing, ask for lower cost alternatives, seek out discount programs, consider non-pharmaceutical approaches to their health, and work with their physicians / seek guidance on the most efficient way to obtain their drugs.
We understand that navigating the changes in health care can be challenging. CorpStrat will keep you appraised as the clarity of reform becomes available. Stay tuned…
Healthcare and Health Insurance are directly linked, both the subject of contentious debate, as the costs for healthcare and insurance continue to spiral at rates that are unsustainable.
No doubt, given the unlikely chance that anything further will come from Washington on a National level, states will attempt to force changes to try and improve the system.
California Assembly Bill 3087, introduced by Assemblyman Ash Kalra, D-San Jose, would create a government-run rate-setting process that would unilaterally cap payments to doctors, dentists, hospitals and other clinicians for the health care services they provide to people with commercial health insurance.
While we aren’t sure exactly HOW the state proposes to regulate the free market, nonetheless, there is interest and momentum to do something and so it’s an interesting bill to look at.
Because AB 3087 does nothing to address the underlying causes for rising health care costs, this legislation would mean that hospitals and doctors will be paid less, regardless of what it actually costs to provide care.
That is like telling your local coffee shop that you are only going to pay them $2 for a $3 cup of coffee. Just because you have decided to “pay” less doesn’t mean that the actual cost of that cup of coffee has dropped. The coffee shop would lose money since the price it charges includes not only the cost of the coffee itself but also the costs for labor, materials and rent.
The same would be true for hospitals if AB 3087 is enacted. The bill would not regulate the prices a hospital would pay for a new imaging equipment, medical devices or life-saving drugs. Nor would it solve the chronic payment shortfalls that plague the Medicare and Medi-Cal programs.
For more than two decades, these government-sponsored programs have paid hospitals, doctors and other providers far less than the actual cost of care. (For example, Medi-Cal only pays hospitals about 68 cents for every dollar of care provided to a Medi-Cal patient.)
According to an analysis by the California Hospital Association, AB 3087 would cut $18 billion every year from hospitals throughout the state. Cuts this deep will result in devastating impacts on your ability to get the health care services you need, when you need them. Many hospitals could be forced to cut vital programs or even close altogether. Even getting a doctor’s appointment could be in jeopardy as many established doctors cut back or retire early, and newer physicians decide to flee the state.
Ultimately, whether AB3807 passes or fails, we will watch and see how each attempt to change the status – quo impacts the pricing, quality, and ultimately the delivery of healthcare and insurance. One thing for sure: no change to the system will come easily.
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