3 Things They Dont Tell You in the "Looking for a Medicare Plan?" commercial

I know it sounds weird, but I have actually been watching some of these medicare infomercials lately.  Yes, I am an insurance nerd.  It just really irritates me because they are skipping over some of the key points and in my opinion are using a bait and switch tactic.

1- When they talk about all the benefits that their plan offers, they are comparing their plan to Original Medicare, but then they turn around and talk about the fact that their plan is "All in One" and compare it to having Original Medicare PLUS a Medigap Plan. It would be  like me trying to sell you a used car and comparing how well it drives to a car in the junk yard then when I talk about the price, compare it to a new Lexus.  It can be confusing to people who dont do this all day long like we do.

2- They say that their Medicare Plan "Covers" Hospital Visits- while this is true, they do not say that there is a copy for this AND they do not say how much or how often the co-pay will pop up.  With most of these plans you are going to pay $175 to $400 per day for between 3 and 7 days AND you will pay the for each admission up to the plan's maximum out of pocket limit.  While this is better than just having Original Medicare, it is not better than what you would have if you had a good Medigap plan.

3- They dont tell you that if you have to go to doctors in their network or they are not going to pay for anything.  This is how they keep your price low.  If you want to see your doctor get on a soap box, just ask your doctor how much they get paid from an Advantage Plan compared to Original Medicare.  It is a TON less.  They are squeezing the doctors and limiting their network so they can get pricing down as much as possible.

If you really want to know the TRUTH about Medicare, Medicare Advantage Plans, Medigap Plans, and Prescription Drug Plans, call our office.  We would by happy to answer any questions that you have.

New Expiration Date for COBRA General and Election Notices is November 30, 2016 Previously Set to Expire on October 31, 2016

The U.S. Department of Labor has extended the effective date of its model General Notice of COBRA Rights and COBRA Election Notice through November 30, 2016. Previously, these model notices were set to expire on October 31, 2016.

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Grace & Peace,
Andrew Darlington CRM, CIC, CBIA, AAI

***Typed qith tumbs or used voice to text soplease forgive the gramatical errora.***

Veritas Risk Management & Insurance Services
PO Box 4539 Johnson City, TN 37602
Phone- (423)292-4142

Extension for Forms 1095-B and 1095-C in Early 2017

The IRS has extended the due dates for furnishing 2016 Forms 1095-B and 1095-C to covered individuals and full-time employees, respectively, from January 31, 2017, to March 2, 2017. In addition, the IRS is also extending good faith penalty relief to reporting entities who can show they made good faith efforts to comply with the calendar year 2016 information reporting requirements.

What is a Health Savings Account?

So Donald Trump has mentioned on several occasions that he would like to expand the use of Health Savings Accounts (HSA).  We have been talking about these for years, along with HRA and FSA plans.  I figured I would give some detailed information on these since there seems to be some confusion.

A health savings account (HSA) is a tax-exempt trust or custodial account you set up with a qualified HSA trustee to pay or reimburse certain medical expenses you incur. You must be an eligible individual to qualify for an HSA. No permission or authorization from the IRS is necessary to establish an HSA. You set up an HSA with a trustee. A qualified HSA trustee can be a bank, an insurance company, or anyone already approved by the IRS to be a trustee of individual retirement arrangements (IRAs) or Archer MSAs. The HSA can be established through a trustee that is different from your health plan provider.

So in English, this just means, it is an account you set up with someone, a bank, your investment adviser, insurance company, or someone like that.  You open the account and deposit money in there either one time or many times throughout the year.

What are the benefits of an HSA? 

1. You can claim a tax deduction for contributions you, or someone other than your employer, make to your HSA even if you do not itemize your deductions on Form 1040. 
2. Contributions to your HSA made by your employer (including contributions made through a cafeteria plan) may be excluded from your gross income. 
3. The contributions remain in your account until you use them. 
4. The interest or other earnings on the assets in the account are tax free. 
5. Distributions may be tax free if you pay qualified medical expenses.
6. An HSA is "portable." It stays with you if you change employers or leave the work force.

The amount you or any other person can contribute to your HSA depends on the type of HDHP coverage you have, your age, the date you become an eligible individual, and the date you cease to be an eligible individual. For 2016, if you have self-only HDHP coverage, you can contribute up to $3,350. If you have family HDHP coverage, you can contribute up to $6,650.  For 2017, if you have self-only HDHP coverage, you can contribute up to $3,350. If you have family HDHP coverage, you can contribute up to $6,700.  

Additional contribution. If you are an eligible individual who is age 55 or older at the end of your tax year, your contribution limit is increased by $1,000. For example, if you have self-only coverage, you can contribute up to $4,350 (the contribution limit for self-only coverage ($3,350) plus the additional contribution of $1,000).   

Exception if you are enrolled in Medicare. Beginning with the first month you are enrolled in Medicare, your contribution limit is zero. Example.... You turned age 65 in July 2015 and enrolled in Medicare. You had an HDHP with self-only coverage and are eligible for an additional contribution of $1,000. Your contribution limit is $2,175 ($4,350 × 6 ÷ 12).

This is the form that you will fill out when you do your taxes - https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8889.pdf

For most of this information I used https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p969.pdf so if you need additional information, go here and check out the actual guidance.

Feel free to call or email us if you have questions, we would be happy to help in any way that we can.

In Johnson City, Kingsport, and Bristol Tennessee and most of South West Virginia, TruPoint Bank offers a FREE HSA  https://www.trupointbank.com/?Cabinet=Main&Drawer=Personal&Folder=Deposit+Products&SubFolder=Health+Savings+Accounts 

Andrew Darlington CRM, CIC, CBIA, AAI

The New I-9 Form Required to be used after January 22, 2017 has been released

There is a new I-9 Form that just came out for all of us to use.  This is the form that a business is required to use when they hire a new employee.

Here is the website that has all the info and where you can get the new form https://www.uscis.gov/i-9

We have tools available and can help you make sure that you are completing and storing the form.  Give us a call if you would like for us to swing by and do a quick free audit on your I-9 Retention and Completion procedures.

Form I-9 is used for verifying the identity and employment authorization of individuals hired for employment in the United States. All U.S. employers must ensure proper completion of Form I-9 for each individual they hire for employment in the United States. This includes citizens and noncitizens. Both employees and employers (or authorized representatives of the employer) must complete the form. On the form, an employee must attest to his or her employment authorization. The employee must also present his or her employer with acceptable documents evidencing identity and employment authorization. The employer must examine the employment eligibility and identity document(s) an employee presents to determine whether the document(s) reasonably appear to be genuine and to relate to the employee and record the document information on the Form I-9. The list of acceptable documents can be found on the last page of the form. Employers must retain Form I-9 for a designated period and make it available for inspection by authorized government officers. NOTE: State agencies may use Form I-9. Also, some agricultural recruiters and referrers for a fee may be required to use Form I-9.

11/14/2016. Starting 01/22/17, USCIS will only accept the 11/14/16 edition. Until then, you can use the 03/08/13 edition. You can find the edition date at the bottom of the page on the Form and Instructions.

Dont Forget to make sure you comply with the new Overtime Rule Effective December 1

Effective December 1, a new rule updates the regulations governing which executive, administrative, professional, and highly compensated employees are entitled to the minimum wage and overtime pay protections of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Current Rules
The current federal rules provide an exemption from both the minimum wage and overtime pay requirements of the FLSA for bona fide executive, administrative, sales, and professional employees who meet certain tests regarding their job duties and who are paid on a salary basis at not less than $455 per week ($23,660 per year). "Highly compensated employees" (HCEs) who are paid total annual compensation of $100,000 or more and meet certain other conditions are also deemed exempt.

New Rule
The new rule updates the salary and compensation levels needed for executive, administrative, professional, and highly compensated employees to be exempt. In particular, the final rule:

• Raises the salary threshold from $455 a week to $913 per week (or $47,476 annually) for a full-year worker;
• Increases the HCE total annual compensation level to $134,004 annually;
• Amends the regulations to allow employers to use nondiscretionary bonuses, incentives, and commissions to satisfy up to 10% of the new standard salary level, so long as employers pay those amounts on a quarterly or more frequent basis; and
• Establishes a mechanism for automatically updating the salary and compensation levels every 3 years, beginning on January 1, 2020.

Note: When both the FLSA and a state law apply, the employee is entitled to the most favorable provisions of each law.

4 FREE & Essential Elements in a Great Fleet Safety Program

Whether you are a small company in Johnson City with 1 vehicle or a large company in Kingsport with over 1,000 vehicles, you need to have a fleet safety program in place.  There are many things that you can do but if you will just start with these 4 things, you will be well on your way to keeping your team and everyone else on the road safe.

1- Driver Qualification Check List - This is the first an most important element of a fleet safety program.  If you dont know who is getting behind the wheel of your vehicles, you are in big trouble.  By gathering information up front, you may find out that this is the kid that lived down the street from your grandparents in Bristol who always spun out in the driveway every morning.

2- Written Fleet Safety Program - You must have guidelines so that your employees know what you expect of them in the course of business.  This will also give you a way to measure if they are doing a good job and give you a defense for termination if the need arises.

3- Training - You need to have some sort of training weekly to remind your drivers to be safe.  This does not have to be long, just one or two minutes is perfect.  A great thing to do would be to go through your safety program and hit a few of the main points each week.

4- Accident Investigation - When you do have an accident (or near accident), which you will, you need to take the time to find out what happened and how to prevent it.  By asking the right questions, you can understand what happened and the measures you can take to prevent it from happening again.

For all of these Free Resources, click here and we will send you all of these forms and more!  

At Veritas, we give you the Truth about insurance and want to serve you in any way we can.