Business Archives - Page 7 of 10 - Premier Insurance Services

How to Open Shop and Bring Staff Back to Work

Post author:Mark Kofalt
Post published:April 23, 2020
Post category:Business

If your business is preparing to open due to a relaxation of shelter-at-home orders, you should proceed with caution and make sure you have safeguards in place to protect your workers, as well as customers if they are entering your premises. How can you take that first step back to a semblance of normalcy? Here are some recommendations from the Los Angeles Department of Public Health and other sources that can apply to any municipality anywhere in the country. The advice mainly applies to establishments that will have customers, but most of the recommendations are relevant across a wide swath…

CARES Act Boosts Unemployment Benefits for Laid-off, Furloughed Workers

Post author:Mark Kofalt
Post published:April 16, 2020
Post category:Business

With the sudden eruption of economic calamity, and more than 247 million Americans under stay-at-home orders, some 3.1 million individuals filed for unemployment in the last week of March. To counter the blow to their income, Congress passed and President Trump signed the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which in part allocates around $250 billion in unemployment benefits for the workers who have lost their jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic. The CARES Act extends unemployment insurance benefits to workers who are not eligible for additional benefits at the state level, as long as they…

Filing Late and Other Ways to Have a Claim Rejected

Post author:Mark Kofalt
Post published:April 6, 2020
Post category:Business

One of the biggest mistakes you can make if you incur damage to your business premises is to wait too long before filing the claim with your insurer. The owners of a hotel in Dallas learned this the hard way when a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that the business had waited too long to file a claim with its insurer after suffering hail damage. The court ruled that because the hotel had waited more than 19 months to file the claim, it was impossible for the insurer to ascertain exactly when the damage had occurred. The hotel's property…

Struggling for Survival: Businesses That Went Thin on Insurance

Post author:Mark Kofalt
Post published:March 16, 2020
Post category:Business

Imagine several small businesses located around the country. Each is well-established and profitable. Each of them bought business insurance - property, liability, automobile and workers' compensation. They told their agents they wanted the lowest possible price for coverage, and the agents came through. But they didn't also take their agents' recommendations to purchase additional coverage. Unfortunately, they each suffered losses that threatened the very survival of their businesses. This is how they each got into such a fix: The underwater restaurateur The owner of a restaurant on the south shore of Long Island, NY, rejects his agent's offer of flood…

As Dump Trucks Grow Longer, Tip-overs Increase

Post author:Mark Kofalt
Post published:March 13, 2020
Post category:Business

Dump truck and semi-trailer dumping rig tip-overs are occurring at an increasing frequency, often resulting in drivers and sometimes workers on the ground being injured or killed. The reason for the increase is that end-dump-truck bodies and semi-trailer dumping rigs are being built longer than ever before. For the most part, tip-overs are more often associated with semi-trailer rigs than with straight dump trucks, but both are susceptible to tipping over. If you have these vehicles in your fleet, you should be concerned about the main factors that can result in tip-overs: Truck stabilityPoor hazard controlsPoor maintenance Improper loadingImproper dumping…

Train Your Workers in COVID-19 Prevention

Post author:Mark Kofalt
Post published:March 6, 2020
Post category:Business

As the COVID-19 coronavirus spreads across the world and the number of cases growing in the U.S., there is a lot of hysteria and misinformation about how to protect yourself from this new virus strain. More and more people are wearing surgical masks when they go outside, thinking it will protect them. Some people have even stopped drinking Corona-brand beer because they believe it is the same as the coronavirus. (If that's not the definition of panic, we're not sure what is.) This has left plenty of people not sure what they can do to avoid catching it themselves. There…

The Cost-Benefits of Employee Wellness Programs

Post author:Mark Kofalt
Post published:February 26, 2020
Post category:Business

The key to getting the biggest bang for your buck in your wellness program is to focus on a few tried and tested offerings that studies have found result in better health for employees and reductions in your overall health care insurance costs. If you use a scattershot approach, the returns may not be as great, and the cost of a wellness program correlates directly with the width and scope of services offered. The following are the top wellness offerings by participation rate, according to a study by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans: Flu shot programs, 50%,Health screenings,…

Concerns Rise Over Letting Employers Fund HRAs for Individual Health Plans

Post author:Mark Kofalt
Post published:February 5, 2020
Post category:Business

Employers, health insurers, regulators and hospitals are all raising concerns about the Trump administration's rules issued last year that allow employers to fund health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs) that their workers can use to purchase health plans on the open market. The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, IRS and Department of Labor issued the final rules in late 2019. They reverse one of the major pinch-points of the Affordable Care Act, which bars employers from paying employees to buy their own health insurance either on publicly run health insurance exchanges or on the open market. The fine for breaching this…