Corporate Veil/ Unemployment

For those of you that have incorporated your business you probably did so in part  to protect your personal assets. Yesterday I received an email from an attorney who is putting on a seminar  on how to pierce the corporate veil. It is important to you as a small business to make sure you protect yourself. I strongly recommend you talk to your attorney about this. See below email I received.

If you are interested in this webinar September 12^th please let me know and I will give you additional information.

I  have written that the Governor wanted to introduce legislation  to eliminate the Unemployment debt to the Federal government[about $10 billion].As of earlier in the week  the Governor has decided not to introduce legislation this session. It will continue to be discussed after session and will reappear probably early next year as urgent legislation meaning it would take effect immediately .

Speaking of Unemployment the unemployment insurance charge will go up $21 per employee in 2014 and $21 per year  after that until debt to Federal government is paid off. The rate will cap at 6%.

Scott Hauge
President
Small Business California
2311 Taraval Street
San Francisco, CA  94116
shauge@cal-insure.com
415-680-2188 

Cyber Liability Calculator/CBS Radio

I have mentioned in past emails  the importance of taking steps to prevent a cyber breach. I found this calculator very interesting as it will tell you the cost should someone get records in your data base. Please see calculator below.  Note it does no include the cost t include You all  may want to consider cyber insurance but even if you don’t purchase it you should take steps to protect yourself

http://www.tech-404.com/calculator.html

-          How many employee records (past & present) do you have in your computer database?

-          Do you have EFT information in your computers for your employees’ pay checks?

-          How many customer files do you have?

-          How many credit card transactions have you run in the last month, year, etc?

-          Do you have a loyalty rewards program for your clients? (grocery store discount card, restaurant loyalty card, etc)  Those programs almost always require a Name, address, and phone number…which counts as “Personally Identifiable Information”.

The privacy and notification laws do not just apply to social security numbers. 

Here is another great website that shows up-to-date information on the latest reported incidents of cyber-crime against businesses: http://datalossdb.org//

You’ll notice on that list that just last week, the university of Mississippi medical center had a breach affecting over 2000 records in their database.  If you plug that number into the calculator, that is going to cost them over $330,000!!

I am still looking  for small businesses in the LA area that will talk to CBS radio in LA about how the Affordable Care Act will affect their business. They would like a business with less than 50 employees and will be interviewing small businesses October 3. If you  are interested in talking to them please let me know as soon as possible.

Scott Hauge
President
Small Business California
2311 Taraval Street
San Francisco, CA  94116
shauge@cal-insure.com
415-680-2188 

Cost of Owning a Car/ Affordable Care ACt/ Unemployment Insurance/ Join SB Cal

Bankrate has just put out a report of the cost of car ownership in all 50 states. The most expensive state was Georgia where car ownership is $4233  and the least expensive was Oregon at $2204 The average was $3201 and California was the second most expensive at $3966. For all states go to www.bankrate.com

Oct 1 Covered California will be up and begin  running. The Individual mandate will be effective Jan 1 2014. If you are not currently providing insurance are you going to do anything to help your employees find out what their options are? If you provide insurance are you going to do anything to help employees meet the requirements of coverage for dependents. I  think there is a role here for your insurance broker.  Has your broker kept you informed about the Affordable Care Act? I would appreciate your thoughts.

I have written about the  Governor introducing legislation to eliminate California’s  debt to the Federal government for unemployment insurance  and to build a reserve for  unemployment  insurance.. It is getting close to the close of session and no legislation has been introduced. Small Business California will let you know but expect rates  to be raised and  the current cap to be  raised from around $7000 to $12000 in the coming years.

I hope you find these emails helpful. If you are not already a member of Small Business California I hope you will consider joining. Not only do we provide valuable information via these emails but we are constantly representing  you in Sacramento and Washington. We have made a difference. Lori Kammerer  our  director of governmental affairs  and I speak for you at numerous legislative committee meetings and we have developed great relationship with legislators and their staff. We also have developed great relationships with media around the state.

The cost is minimal. It is $150 for businesses with less than $1 million in receipts and $300 for those with receipts over $1 million. Please help us help you.

You can sign up online www.smallbusinesscalifornia.org   or we can invoice you if you respond by return email.

Scott Hauge
President
Small Business California
2311 Taraval Street
San Francisco, CA  94116
shauge@cal-insure.com
415-680-2188 

AB399/ Volunteers in Medicine

Thank   all the Associations that have signed onto our support letter for AB 399. This is the bill requiring prompt payment for emergency work for the Department of General Services.

See below the Associations that have signed on. Some of you may be asking yourself why did some of these associations sign on as it doesn’t affect them. The reason is because they understand we are all part of the small business community. When  issue affects one it effects all of us. They recognize that the next issue that comes up may affect them and not others.

Associations Signing 

Brand Source Pacific Rim

California Association of Competitive Telecommunications Companies (CALTEL)

California Association for Micro Enterprise Opportunity (CAMEO)

California Chapter of the American Fence Association

California Employers Association

California Fence Contractors' Association

California Independent Oil Marketers Association (CIOMA)

California Metals Coalition

California Service Station and Automotive Repair Association (CSSARA)

Engineering Contractors' Association

Flasher Barricade Association

Fremont Chamber of Commerce

Livermore Chamber of Commerce

Marin Builders Association

Monterey County Business Council (MCBC)

Napa Chamber of Commerce

National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB)

Northern California Independent Booksellers Association

Pacific Contractors Association (PCA)

Plumbing Heating and Cooling Contractors of California (PHCC)

Roofing Contractors Association of California (RCAC)

San Francisco Builders Exchange (SFBE)

San Francisco Chamber of Commerce

San Francisco Council of District Merchants Associations (SFCDMA)

San Francisco Locally Owned Merchants Alliance (SFLOMA)

San Francisco National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO)

Small Business Advocates

Small Business California

Small Business Majority

Western Carwash Association

------------------------------

Most  of you know of all the volunteer work I do I am most proud of Volunteers in Medicine and Clinic by the  Bay in SF. I am pleased to tell you Volunteers In Medicine opened its 96^th free clinic in Montgomery County Indiana. See a list of all the clinics around the country.

For those of you in the Bay Area if you ever want to visit Clinic by the Bay please let me know. I would love to show off our clinic and our volunteers.

http://volunteersinmedicine.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Fact-Sheet.pdf.

Scott Hauge
President
Small Business California
2311 Taraval Street
San Francisco, CA  94116
shauge@cal-insure.com
415-680-2188 

Employees Pretax Health Premiums/ Increase health cost 2012 to 2013

How many of you that are providing health insurance to your employees have a percentage the employee pays. If you require employees to pay part of the premium do you have a plan set up that allows employees to make these payments on a pretax basis.  I am trying to find out if this will be allowed  under the Affordable Care Act so it is important that I hear from you.

For the year 2011 to 2012 health insurance premiums went up 4%. A report will be coming out the next few days giving the increases for 2012 to 2013. If  you are providing group health insurance for your employees how much did your insurance go up for that year. Did you reduce your coverage or increase the amount employees pay for their group coverage.

Scott Hauge
President
Small Business California
2311 Taraval Street
San Francisco, CA  94116
shauge@cal-insure.com
415-680-2188 

Support for SB 399 and AB 1098

Lori Kammerer Small Business California  governmental affairs person wrote the following. We need your help.

Small Business California is working to make sure that two very good bills for small businesses will advance to the Governor’s desk this month and we need the help of all associations who represent small businesses.  If you are a member of an association, please forward this email to your contact and ask them to email their association’s logo to be added to the letterhead, along with about 25 statewide associations who represent small businesses. 

SB 399 authored by Senator Roderick D. Wright is a measure that would strengthen the Prompt Payment Act that would ensure small businesses who contract with the state are paid on time and that interest penalties would apply if payments to small businesses are delayed.  There have been many cases where small businesses will perform the work, invoice the Department of General Services and wait for months for payment.

Assembly Bill 1098 authored by Assembly Member Sharon Quirk-Silva requires that the Governor’s Small Business Administration commission a study to determine the effects of regulations on small businesses. There are two sources of data on the cost of regulatory compliance on businesses, including federal the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the state Office of Small Business Advocates (OSBA).  For the past 10 years, the federal SBA has conducted a peer reviewed study that analyses the cost of federal government regulations on different sizes of businesses.  This research shows that small businesses continue to bear a disproportionate size of the federal regulatory burden.  On a per employee basis for small businesses who employ 20 or less employees, it costs approximately $10,585, or 36% more for small businesses to comply with federal regulations than larger businesses.

The letters for SB 399 and AB 1098 are in the links below.  We have until next Wednesday, August 21^st COB to complete our association letters and distribute them to the all Assembly and Senate members.  Thank You!

AB399 - http://smallbusinesscalifornia.org/SB%20399%20Wright%20Multi%20Association%20Support%20081513.doc

1098 - http://smallbusinesscalifornia.org/AB%201098%20-%20support%20-%20SB%20Cal.pdf

I received a call  today from a major media outlet in Southern California regarding the Affordable Care Act. If you would be willing to talk to them about how the Affordable Care Act  will affect your company  or even if you are not sure how it will affect you please let me know. Tell me what your business does, how many employees and where you are located.

If you are not in Southern California but would be willing to talk to the media let me know that also. I get a lot of calls from the media  around the state and they are always looking for small businesses to talk to.

Scott Hauge
President
Small Business California
2311 Taraval Street
San Francisco, CA  94116
shauge@cal-insure.com
415-680-2188 

ACA Out of Pocket Change

Yesterday there was an announcement that the Affordable Care Act was going to hold off the implementation of the out of pocket limits. This hit the news wires and the sparks really flew. I have spent a lot of time today to find out exactly what was happening and find it is not the big deal it appeared to be. First it did not apply to individual policies and second I have found it will not apply to the Small Business Health Option Plan in California[SHOP].

Please see email from Micah  at the Bay Area Council along with a link to New Republic.

The second email is from Leesa Tori at Covered California confirming it will have no impact on SHOP. My guess is that will also have little to no effect outside Covered California. What is interesting is this announcement was originally made in February and very few people knew about it until  yesterday.

Scott Hauge
President
Small Business California
2311 Taraval Street
San Francisco, CA  94116
shauge@cal-insure.com
415-680-2188 

--------------------------------------------------------- 

Scott,Looking into this further, I’m not sure that it’s even applicable.  Here’s a good summary.  This is much more limited than it’s being made out to be in the press and I’m not sure it would even potentially apply to the SHOP.

“Employers told the administration that coordinating records from the different plans was difficult, so the administration gave them some leeway. Employers who already have such arrangements—and only employers who already have such arrangements—can have one extra year to put new accounting systems in place. During that time, the $6,350 limit will apply to “major medical”—doctor visits, hospitalizations, and so on—but not prescriptions, dental, or vision.” 

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/114297/obamacare-consumer-protection-delay-and-conservative-overreaction

Best,

Micah

Micah Weinberg, PhD | Senior Policy Advisor | BAYAREA COUNCIL

mweinberg@bayareacouncil.org | www.bayareacouncil.org | @mdweinberg

1215 K Street, Suite 2220 | Sacramento, CA 95814

916-949-6240 (c) 916-706-1277 (o) |

--------------------------------------------------------- 

From: Leesa Tori [mailto:leesa.tori@thetorigroup.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2013 11:32 AM
To: Scott Hauge
Subject: Re: SHOP

Hi Scott, we do not intend to change our benefit designs and  I think it’s business as usual for us with no change.  Hope you are well!  Thank you.  L.

Legislature/ACA

Many of you have asked what are the timelines for bills in the 2013 session. Many bills  that are still pending are on suspense in the appropriation committees of the Senate and the Assembly, Many will stall there or become a two year bill meaning they will be brought back and start over in 2014.

• All bills must get to the Assembly or Senate floor by the deadline August 30.
• If they get to the respective floors they must pass by September 13.
• If passed it goes to the Governor and he must sign or veto by October 13.

As you know Small Business California is working with the California Endowment Foundation to get information out about the Affordable Care Act to small businesses I have sent numerous emails out about ACA but would like to have you send any questions you may have about it. Please let me know.

Scott Hauge
President
Small Business California
2311 Taraval Street
San Francisco, CA  94116
shauge@cal-insure.com
415-680-2188 

California Commission for Disabled Access

You all know I am on the California Commission for Disabled Access. We are looking to redesign our website. How could we be more helpful to you? Could you take a few minutes to go over our website and give me comments before our next meeting August 15.

The Commission now gets a copy of all demand  and claims letters in California made on businesses for  disability access. In the website you will see the top 10 areas demands and claims are being made. You will see it starts in parking lots and travels to the entrance and through the business

 CCDA WEBSITE

www.ccda.ca.gov

I look forward to your comments.

Scott Hauge
President
Small Business California
2311 Taraval Street
San Francisco, CA  94116
shauge@cal-insure.com
415-680-2188 

Affordable Care Act [ACA]/Minimum Wage

I have been trying for months to find out if there is any way an employer can provide a defined contribution to an employee so that the employee can purchase individual health insurance.  My difficulty may be that the IRS has not come out with those regulations.

There are some companies  that are promoting that  this is possible to do with a health reimbursement account [HRA]. Some are even telling employers with 2 to 50  to drop their group coverage and  set up an HRA. Beware of such claims. Do not drop your coverage until you know if this is best for your company.

Speaking of ACA the definition of full-time employees is 30  hours. If you are providing group health insurance keep this in mind as there are participation requirements for group coverage. Many  small businesses set a higher number of hours  and under the new rules would have to include people working  30 hours or more in their group coverage. The participation requirement under the Small Business Health Option Plan is 70% of full-time employees.

AB 10 is working its way through the legislature. This would increase the minimum wage to $8.25 in 2014, $8.75 in 2015, $9.25 in 2016, $9.50 in 2017 and $10 in 2018. The cost of living increase has been taken out of the bill.

Scott Hauge
President
Small Business California
2311 Taraval Street
San Francisco, CA  94116
shauge@cal-insure.com
415-680-2188 

Affordable Care Act website/ ACA and start up businesses/ My assistant

The White House has put out  a link to answer questions by business owners on the Affordable Care Act, This could be very helpful in your understanding your options.

Here is a resource worth checking out

http://www.inc.com/jana-kasperkevic/white-house-website-obama-health-care-businesses.html

Here is the direct healthcare link:

http://business.usa.gov/healthcare

One of the benefits of the Affordable Care Act will be people who want to start  their own businesses in the past may be  afraid to leave their current job because they will lose their health insurance. With the Affordable Care Act  people will not have to worry about pre existing conditions and because the subsidies are geared to income may be eligible for subsidies.

Do you think this will increase the ranks of the self employed?

Many of  you  have worked with Rusilah A who has been my  assistant the last couple of years. She will be leaving Friday to going  to nursing school. Her replacement is  Lourdes  Ramos. Her email is Lramos@cal-insure.com and phone number is 415-680-2110.  I hope  you all will wish Rusilah well and welcome Lourdes.

Scott Hauge
President
Small Business California
2311 Taraval Street
San Francisco, CA  94116
shauge@cal-insure.com
415-680-2188 

Small Business Health Options Program

Yesterday the Small Business Health Options plan was rolled out by Covered California by Peter Lee Executive Director of Covered California.

This is designed for small businesses with 2 to 50 employees and acts as a purchasing pool for small businesses health insurance.

The rates were generally lower based on an employee of 40 years old. The problem is that it is hard to tell what the cost will be at different ages.

It will however be the only way small businesses can obtain tax credits if they have less than 25 employees with an average income below $50000.

The real benefit of SHOP is that employees will be given choice of plans to choose from which usually involves additional cost to employers. It also will standardize coverage making it easier for employers to compare different plans.

The SHOP will be available for enrollment Oct 1 and coverage will take effect January 1st, 2014. Peter Lee indicated that the rates and Bronze Gold and Platinum plans would not be available until Oct 1 as they need to be reviewed by the Department of Insurance and Department of Managed Care.

If you are providing health coverage for your employees are you going to look into the SHOP when your coverage renews?

If you would like additional information on SHOP please  let me know by email.

Scott Hauge
President
Small Business California
2311 Taraval Street
San Francisco, CA  94116
shauge@cal-insure.com
415-680-2188 

Loss Prevention/ Michael Lujan

On Tuesday I attended a meeting with Christine Baker head of the Department of Industrial Relations, Ellen Widess the head of Cal OSHA and a number of representatives of insurance companies. The topic was Loss Control/ Prevention and our discussion centered around work place injuries of employees.  The goal of the meeting was to figure out how the state can partner with insurance carriers and business associations to provide information to employers about how to integrate loss control in their business practices.

I am writing to you to get your thoughts.

What do you do in this area?

Do you have a written Injury and Illness Program,IIPP,which is a requirement of all businesses?

Do you have regularly scheduled safety meetings and discuss your  IIPP.

Are you aware of the cost to you of workplace injuries?

Do you use the resources of your insurance carrier in this area? Have you had an insurance carrier come out  and walk through your business? Did you find it useful?

Have been audited by OSHA?

Do you think your business has a culture of safety?

 

What is the best way to provide information to your business on loss prevention? Is it written materials, webinars, internet etc.  Are there topics you are particularly interested in. Would you use this information?

I would greatly appreciate your responses.

Big surprise yesterday. Michael Lujan the head of the Small Business Health Option Plan,SHOP  resigned yesterday from Covered California effective August 9. Michael was great to work with and a real friend to small business. Thank you Michael and all the best to you. We will miss you..

Scott Hauge
President
Small Business California
2311 Taraval Street
San Francisco, CA  94116
shauge@cal-insure.com
415-680-2188