BUSINESS

Valencia Award Program Honors the Achievement Applied Resource Insurance Solutions has been selected for the 2017 Best of Valencia Award in the Insurance Company category by the Valencia Award Program. Each year, the Valencia Award Program identifies companies that they believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are […]

Overview of Eligibility Requirements for Small Employers The Small Business Health Care Tax Credit is designed to encourage small businesses and small tax-exempt employers to offer health insurance coverage to their employees. The credit can be worth up to 50% of the amount a small business contributes toward employees’ premiums (35% for tax-exempt small employers). In general, […]

Certain Group Health Plans Required to File Group health plan administrators are reminded that Form 5500, Annual Return/Report of Employee Benefit Plan, must be filed with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) by the last day of the seventh month after the plan year ends. For calendar-year plans, that due date falls on July 31. Who Must […]

Guidance on Tax Withholding, Tip Income Reporting & More Students and teenagers often get summer jobs to earn extra spending money or to save for later. The IRS offers a few tax tips for taxpayers with a summer job: Withholding and Estimated Tax: Student and teenage employees normally have taxes withheld from their paychecks by […]

Various Disclosures Permitted without Individual Authorization Employers are reminded that the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) permits disclosures of an individual’s health information for workers’ compensation purposes. Most notably, HIPAA permits covered entities–including health care providers and their business associates–to disclose the health information of an individual to workers’ compensation insurers, employers, state […]

Effective July 1, the minimum wage is increasing in the following states and localities: Maryland: $9.25 per hour Oregon: $10.25 per hour ($11.25 per hour in the Portland metropolitan area; $10.00 per hour in nonurban counties) Los Angeles, CA: $12.00 per hour for employers with 26 or more employees; $10.50 per hour for employers with […]

Electronic Data Collection System to Launch by August 1, 2017 The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued a proposed rule seeking to extend the date by which certain employers are required to electronically submit the information from their completed 2016 Forms 300A. The proposed rule would change the submission date from July […]

Employers Must Withhold Tax for High Earners The Affordable Care Act’s Additional Medicare Tax applies to an individual’s wages that exceed a threshold amount based on his or her filing status ($250,000 for married taxpayers who file jointly, $125,000 for married taxpayers who file separately and $200,000 for all other taxpayers). The following are five […]

Tips for Responding to Cyber-Related Security Incidents The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Civil Rights (OCR) has released a quick-response checklist briefly describing the steps that HIPAA-covered entities (including medical and dental offices) and their business associates should take in response to a cyber-related security incident. Steps include: Executing the entity’s […]

A growing number of clinical experts believe medical marijuana could play a critical role in reducing the nation’s reliance on opioid painkillers. Publications like The Atlantic have reported that in states in which legalization has occurred, patients are now turning down popular opioid painkillers, like oxycodone, in favor of medical marijuana — and according to […]