Tag Archives: Health Insurance

by | July 24, 2010 · 10:19 am

Hotel Industry Health Insurance: Nevada Hotel Operator To Subsidize Medical Insurance For Part-Time Employees In Effort To Reduce Turnover

“We recognize the importance of medical insurance for our team members and their families,” Gordon R. Kanofsky, Ameristar’s chief executive officer, said in a written statement. “This is another way we can show team members we appreciate their commitment to delivering outstanding service to our guests.”

Ameristar Casinos, Inc. said Thursday it will begin subsidizing medical coverage for part-time employees after researching methods for reducing part-time employee turnover.

The company, which owns and operates Cactus Petes Resort Casino and the Horseshu Hotel & Casino in Jackpot, Nev., will pay one-half of the premiums for part-time employees working less than 30 hours per week and their dependents.

“We recognize the importance of medical insurance for our team members and their families,” Gordon R. Kanofsky, Ameristar’s chief executive officer, said in a written statement. “This is another way we can show team members we appreciate their commitment to delivering outstanding service to our guests.”

Ameristar hosted focus groups with part-time employees to gauge how effective the program will be, officials said. Employee feedback led to Ameristar’s decision to make the care plan available to all part-time team members.

For more:  http://insurancenewsnet.com/article.aspx?id=209821

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by | July 9, 2010 · 5:52 am

Hotel Industry Employment Liability: National Labor Relations Board Orders Illinois Hotel To Rehire Employees, Restore Health Insurance Plan And Cease Refusal To Negotiate With Union

The hotel, at 636 S. Michigan Ave., was ordered by the board to offer jobs back to 14 employees who were laid off last month, and provide them with back wages, according to a news release. A board judge also ordered the hotel to restore its 2008-2009 insurance plan and pay employees to compensate for increases to health care costs that were deemed unlawful.

The hotel was also ordered to stop refusing to bargain with the union on the health care package and layoffs, the release said.

The union estimates that the lost earnings and increased benefit costs amounted to at least $250,000, the release said.

For more:   http://cbs2chicago.com/local/blackstone.hotel.union.2.1793955.html

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by | May 20, 2010 · 7:17 am

Hospitality Industry Health Insurance: Hotel Industry Must Comply With New Health Care Law Provisions For Automatic Enrollment, Waiting Periods And Coverage For Dependents

The hotel industry has some unique work-force characteristics that make the health-care reform law of particular interest, said Ron Kramer, partner with Seyfarth Shaw.

The abundance of part-time workers, seasonal workers and independent contractors, to name a few, will have a dramatic impact on how the hotel owners and managers accommodate the act’s many provisions, he said.

  • “There’s a provision that requires automatic enrollment for employers with 200 or more employees,” Kraft said. “That means they would have to automatically enroll employees.”
  • The waiting period for enrollment is being set at 90 days, which means many employers will have to shorten their current policies.
  • The act puts a prohibition on rescissions (cancellation of contracts) by insurance companies, except in cases of fraud. In the past, some insurance companies have been accused of scouring through a participant’s medical files upon huge claims to try to find some reason to rescind coverage.
  • By 2014, there will be no pre-existing conditions exclusions for any covered individuals.
  • While group health plans are not required to provide coverage for dependents under the act, they must extend that coverage to dependent children up to age 26 if such coverage already exists. Grandfathered plans must only extend that coverage if the dependent does not have any other employment-based coverage. By 2014, all plans will be required to provide coverage for dependent children.

For more:  http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/articles.aspx?ArticleId=3359&PageType=News&ArticleType=35

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by | May 12, 2010 · 6:01 am

Hospitality Industry Health Insurance: New Health Care Law Puts Restaurants, With A Higher Percentage Of Unskilled And Part-Time Workers, At A Disadvantage In Finding Cost-Effective Health Insurance

The new health care law will make it far harder for the restaurant and retail sectors, the primary employers of part-time and low-skill workers, to operate. 
 
Restaurants and drugstores that are open 24 hours a day will be disadvantaged, because they need several shifts of workers to stay open.
 
Firms with more than 50 workers will have to offer the right kind of health insurance, costing no more than 9.5% of the employee’s income, or pay a $2,000 penalty.
 
This will give small restaurants and stores a substantial cost advantage.  It will wreak havoc with franchisees, who frequently own groups of small establishments.  
 
 
(From a GLGroup.com article)   In 2009, 50% of restaurant employees and 36% of retail employees worked part-time, i.e. under 35 hours per week. A higher percentage of women, 58% in the restaurant industry and 44% in the retail industry, work part-time.  
 
With higher-skill jobs, employers can offer the required benefits and pay for them by cutting the wage. But low-wage jobs in the restaurant and retail sectors leave little room for cuts in wages.
 
So firms will have an incentive to become more automated, or machinery-intensive—and hire fewer workers.  Fast food restaurants could ship in more food and have it reheated, rather than cooking it on the premises. Department stores could have fewer sales clerks and more price-scanning stations, so that shoppers could scan labels for prices rather than asking sales assistants.
 
 

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by | April 21, 2010 · 7:08 am

Hospitality Industry Insurance: Health, Workers Comp And Liability Insurance Represent Fastest-Growing Expense For Hotel Operators

“….insurance is the fastest-growing expense for hotel operators in the country, according to an August report from PKF Hospitality Research, part of Los Angeles-based PKF Consulting…”

(From an InsuranceNewsNet.org article)   Though workers’ compensation insurance rates in California have fallen in the past year and a half, healthcare premiums continue to climb, the future of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act is in question and property insurance is almost sure to increase after this year’s unprecedented hurricane season.

Last week, the California Medical Association released a report alleging workers’ comp insurers are interfering with and denying treatment to injured workers.

The group, which represents about 90,000 California doctors, suggested its members might have to cut back or discontinue treating injured workers because of reimbursement issues, raising the specter of a renewed battle over workers’ compensation.

http://www.insurancenewsnet.org/html/HealthInsurance/2010/0409/Property–Health-Insurance-Top-Hotel-Chain-Worries.html

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by | April 19, 2010 · 1:13 pm

Small Hotel And Hospitality Companies Can Qualify For Tax Credit Portion Of Health Insurance Bill

The tax credit’s value depends on a company’s size and average wage. Businesses with 25 full-time employees or more aren’t eligible for the credit. Neither are businesses that, on average, pay their employees more than $50,000 a year. The full value of the credit—35 percent of a company’s premium costs—is available only to businesses with 10 or fewer full-time employees and an average wage of $25,000 or less.

The full value of the credit increases to 50 percent in 2014, when small businesses and individuals will be eligible to purchase coverage through new state-based insurance exchanges. The tax credit could disappear after 2015, however. The law allows eligible small businesses to claim the credit from 2010 through 2013, and then for any two years after that.

(From a Portfolio.com article)   “…the owner of Hawthorne Auto Clinic in Portland, Oregon, expects to save $10,000 to $12,000 a year on his company’s health insurance costs thanks to the tax credit. He hopes to use that savings to give raises to some of his nine full-time employees. Houser hasn’t been able to increase their pay in recent years because of the rising cost of health insurance. He wants to “show that they’re appreciated,” he said.

Other small-business owners are just beginning to look at how health care reform will affect them. Many of the changes won’t go into effect for a few years, but the tax credit is available now. White House officials estimate that 4 million businesses qualify for this tax break, and they’re promoting it through Web chats, postcards to small businesses from the Internal Revenue Service, and workshops around the country.

Ever since the bill became law last month, “there’s been a real hunger” for information about what’s in the bill, said John Arensmeyer, CEO of Small Business Majority, an organization that supported the legislation. Arensmeyer’s organization has created a tax credit calculator that businesses can use to determine how much money—if any—they can save through the tax credits.

Read more: http://www.portfolio.com/business-news/2010/04/19/businesses-seek-answers-on-health-reform-tax-credit#ixzz0laBXx72m

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by | April 2, 2010 · 6:48 am

Hospitality Industry Insurance Update: New National Health Law Will Mandate Health Insurance On Hotel And Restaurant Operators With More Than 50 Employees, While Massachussetts Requires Coverage For Businesses With 11 Or More Workers

Don Day is also worried. Day owns eight small businesses in McKinney, Texas, including two restaurants, a boutique hotel and several retail shops.

Although he employs 125 workers, he offers health care for just a few key employees. Just an extra $200 a month per employee for health care could set him back hundreds of thousands of dollars a year — a cost he can’t afford.

“It’s not just me, it’s every small business across this land,” he said. “A lot of small businesses are going to go out of business.”

(From an Associated Press article)   As business owners across the country weigh the new law, they’re looking to Massachusetts for harbingers of things to come.

Massachusetts’ law, which mandates near-universal coverage and requires that businesses with 11 or more workers offer insurance, provided the blueprint for the health law signed by President Barack Obama. Massachusetts employers who don’t comply face annual fines of $295 per worker.

While there’s been plenty of grumbling among business owners that the state law has squeezed them financially during a tough recession, there’s little evidence the law is forcing employers to close or sending them fleeing for the border. Other businesses have welcomed the law and business leaders helped guarantee its passage.

Drawing parallels between the state and national laws is tricky. While both share many of the same tenets — requiring businesses to shoulder more of the burden of health coverage — there are major differences.

The national law doesn’t require businesses offer insurance but hits employers with 50 or more workers with an annual $2,000-per-employee fee if the company doesn’t insure them and the government ends up subsidizing their workers’ coverage.

The national law also grants tax credits for businesses with 25 or fewer workers with average annual wages below $50,000, which Democrats say that will benefit 3.6 million business nationwide. And beginning in 2014, businesses with up to 100 employees will be able to pool their employees in state-created insurance exchanges to increase their negotiating clout with insurance companies — a move supporters say could aid 29 million businesses.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g0ZR7xK3OfnUMkC7pOMMHB6Kl38gD9EPFRI80

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by | March 24, 2010 · 6:17 am

Restaurant Industry Food Safety: Foodservice Employees’ Illnesses Are A Source Of Contamination At Restaurants And Can Be Traced To A Lack Of Insurance And Paid Sick Days

“…Affordable health insurance and paid sick days for all foodservice employees…would achieve significant and measurable improvements in food safety, especially as it relates to the thousands upon millions of non-outbreak, or sporadic, illnesses caused by contaminated restaurant food each year….”

(From a ChainLeader.com article)   First, many servers and food workers are responsible for covering their own shifts, which, in these times of lean staffing, can be next to impossible. Second, if they stay home, they make no money. Third, if they appear to “flake out” by not coming to work, they may lose premium shifts. They might even lose their jobs.

And so the food-safety precaution that the restaurant industry relies on to protect customers from much of foodborne illness is the expectation that these employees will decide on their own to stay home.

http://www.chainleader.com/article/452255-Food_Safety_Solutions_Execution_and_Advocacy.php

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