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Insurance

COBRA claim for employee who didn’t sign up for health insurance?

04/25/2008

Q. We offer insurance benefits that begin three months after hire. Due to changing business conditions, we had to terminate an employee after only six months on the job. It seems that the worker wasn’t signed up for the health plan on his termination date. Does he now have any claim to COBRA? …

Is your PEO ripping you off? A primer on the fine print

04/24/2008
Say you’ve decided to hire a professional employer organization (PEO) to handle some of your HR services—or you’re considering new PEO vendors to replace your current one. You have a choice of more than 700 PEOs to choose from. Prices and services offered by PEOs vary so much it’s hard to spot the best deal …

Wal-Mart touts savings from generic drug program

04/23/2008
Arkansas-based Wal-Mart says its $4 generic prescription drug program has saved consumers $1 billion as of March. The company reports that the $4 prescriptions now account for 40% of all prescriptions it fills. North Carolina consumers benefited from the third-highest savings nationwide: $48,241,530 …

Continuation medical coverage and small North Carolina employers

04/23/2008
Q. Does North Carolina have a “little” COBRA Act that requires small employers to offer continued health insurance to terminated employees? …

Termination and unemployment comp

04/23/2008
Q. We have terminated a poorly performing employee and she has applied for unemployment benefits. Since she was terminated, is she entitled to benefits? …

A dim-Witted way to cut your organization’s health costs

04/17/2008
Do some of your employees’ spouses or children have serious (and expensive) health troubles? It may be tempting to offer suggestions about less costly treatments—or even to send that employee packing. But don’t do it. As this new ruling shows, it’s illegal to discriminate against employees based on their relationship with a disabled person …

Wal-Mart touts generic drug program savings

04/14/2008
Arkansas-based Wal-Mart says its $4 generic prescription drug program has saved consumers $1 billion as of March 10. The company reports that the $4 prescriptions now account for 40% of all prescriptions it fills. Florida consumers benefited from the second-highest savings nationwide: $72,443,467 …

USERRA and the choice of paying or not paying for health insurance

04/10/2008
Q. It has been our company’s policy to maintain health insurance coverage for the families of employees who are serving in Iraq. It has recently come to our attention that one such family includes a spouse who is working, and the spouse has declined health insurance coverage at her job because we have been providing it free of charge. I have been asked whether we have an ongoing obligation to provide for this family’s health insurance coverage while our employee is on leave to serve in the military …

Resist the temptation to misclassify employees as contractors

04/09/2008
You’re writing your unemployment insurance checks, paying workers’ compensation premiums and remitting payroll taxes to the government when a bright idea occurs to you: If only your employees were independent contractors, you wouldn’t have all these expenses. The Illinois General Assembly understood the appeal of that daydream—and took action to slap you back to reality …

Beware cancellation of Assigned Risk Plan workers’ comp

04/08/2008
Employers that can’t get workers’ compensation insurance in the private insurance market can get coverage through the Minnesota Workers’ Compensation Assigned Risk Plan (MWCARP). To get the coverage, an employer typically pays a small estimated premium …