| Incentive to serve
When considering the quality of a Richmond officer's compensation package, Richmond City Manager David Evans said it is important to look at the total benefit package. Some RPD officers' families agree.The father of three children, RPD Senior Patrolman Tim Craft pays nearly one-third of his total take-home paycheck into the city's family health insurance plan. The youngest in the Craft family, 6-year-old Jared, is a special-needs child. The total cost of the Richmond HMO family plan is $1,011.94 each month. The city pays $255.18 of that cost. "We are on the lower health plan and it doesn't cover hardly anything," said Linda Craft, Tim's wife. "We couldn't afford (the HMO plan)."Even on the minimum family plan, the Craft family is responsible for $410.72 each month. That cost does not include any dental or vision insurance."We have even thought about switching to Blue Cross/Blue Shield because it is cheaper than what we pay through the city," Linda Craft said.
UBS: Australian Telecom Dialogue - Broadband politics
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Lawmaker joins fight against condo insurer
BOCA RATON — A state senator joined representatives and lawyers for three dozen condominium associations Thursday in accusing the state's largest private market condo insurer of engaging in an organized plan to deny hurricane claims. ''This is institutionalized bad faith,'' said Sen. Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach of the insurer, Australia-based QBE Group and its representatives, Florida Intercoastal Underwriters, a wholly owned subsidiary of insurance agency Brown & Brown Inc. .
Chubb Offers Ethics Training to Agents
WARREN, N.J., March 19 /PRNewswire/ -- The Chubb Group of Insurance Companies has developed an ethics training program for its independent agents and brokers. The program consists of a half-day ethics workshop and a quarterly newsletter. "Integrity and ethical business practices are fundamental to Chubb's success," said John J. Degnan, Chubb's vice chairman, chief administrative officer and chief ethics officer. "To retain the hard-earned trust of our mutual customers, it's important that we help our distribution force keep abreast of the latest best practices in this area." Taught by David Schmidt, .
Time to Right a Wrong in Georgia
In 2005, the General Assembly rushed through Senate Bill 3, a badly-thought-out mishmash of illogical "tort reform" sought by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, medical insurance companies, hospitals and the medical profession. Its supporters hoped, in seemingly almost child-like innocence, that by drastically curbing "frivolous" medical malpractice lawsuits, physicians' and hospitals' insurance rates would halt their skyrocketing escalation, even dropping below the levels that were current two years ago . Senate Bill 3 approached tort reform in two basic ways: It capped the amount that could be awarded in a medical malpractice lawsuit to $350,000 while making it far more difficult - and potentially expensive - to file such a lawsuit in the first place. It was predicated on the belief that large monetary awards, although there have been relatively few such awards in Georgia, were driving insurance rates up to the point that physicians in some of the more sensitive specialities, such as surgery or obstetrics and gynecology, couldn't afford to stay in practice in Georgia.
UC Increases Pay for Low-Wage Workers
April 09, 2007 — The University of California has recently announced that it will offer $7.8 million to its 36,000 lower-paid employees in order to increase annual salaries.
These wage increases apply specifically to those paid $40,000 or less per year and took place April 1. However, negotiators for unions representing campus laborers are still holding talks with the university concerning the amount of money allocated to employees.
Caroline Buckmaster, president of the San Diego branch of the University Professional and Technical Employees and a staff research associate at UCSD, expressed reluctance about approving of the current agreement.
"The university received $3 million of surplus cash from the state," she said. "In the current agreement, only 0.31 percent of that money is being geared toward raising wages for the employees."
Buckmaster also said that the seemingly progressive wage increase was unimpressive.
Group pushing for universal health care forms Birmingham chapter
A newly reinvigorated chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program - an organization that has been pushing since the 1980s for universal health care - has formed in the Birmingham area. Dr. J. Walden Retan, a practicing internist in the Birmingham area for the past 40 years, is president of the local chapter called Health Care for Everyone. Retan said a local chapter of Physicians for National Health Program had existed in the past, but had been inactive in recent years. The group has reformed locally as part of an effort to influence the health care debate in the presidential campaign leading up to the 2008 election. The group wants to extend a coverage like Medicare to everyone in the country from birth to death and eliminate premiums, co-pays and other out-of-pocket costs for health care.
That's odd: Home-builder survey doesn't match other one
Question: Our neighbor complained that some of our trees and a fence post are on his property. We had a survey done to confirm the boundaries. It differs from the improvement location certificate (ILC) our home builder provided to us at the closing.
Is it unusual for the survey and the builder's certificate to differ?
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Attorney General Says Insurance Department Failed To Penalize ...
After seven months of prodding and cajoling the DOI into action, Blumenthal said patients who complained to his office will likely get the benefits they are owed from Assurant Health Insurance (a.k.a. Fortis and John Alden Company) under a consent order announced today. However, Blumenthal said the agreement fails to penalize the company for its abusive practices. .
Madeline Sullivan, 89; insurance benefits expert
HOLBROOK -- Madeline F. (Hanney) Sullivan, a longtime Holbrook resident who spent her career helping state employees and retirees with insurance matters, died March 23 at Oak Hill Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Middleborough. She was 89. Born in Randolph, she was raised in Holbrook and attended Sumner High School, said her daughter, Barbara Hanley of Bridgewater. Mrs. Sullivan lived in Holbrook for about 40 years with her husband, the late Paul, whom she married when she was 22. She later moved to Dennis, then Taunton, and eventually settled with her daughter in Bridgewater. Mrs. Sullivan felt strongly about helping others, her daughter said. She went to work in 1954 for the state's Group Insurance Commission in Boston, where she helped state employees settle health and life insurance issues.
Point/Counterpoint: OIL & GAS REGULATORS
Colorado is experiencing an unprecedented level of oil and gas development that brings both benefits and challenges to the state's future. The development itself reaches many parts of the state, including areas along the Front Range, the Glenwood Springs-Grand Junction corridor, Southern and Southwestern Colorado and counties along the eastern border. In 1999, barely 1,000 well permits were issued. That number has burgeoned to approximately 6,000 in 2007. More than 33,000 active wells are now in operation in Colorado. In Northwestern Colorado alone, on public land, the federal government anticipates an additional 25,000 wells in the next 15 years. What does this activity mean to Colorado and its citizens? For starters, we can anticipate a number of clear benefits: Greater severance and property tax revenues; higher paying jobs; and positive secondary economic spinoffs.
Glasgow 'healthiest' UK city
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UHS hikes birth control prices
The cost of birth control pills offered at University Health Services has skyrocketed in recent months, raising fears that women may switch to less effective methods or stop using contraception altogether. Students and health professionals are concerned this development could increase the risk of unplanned pregnancies.
Due to changes in federal legislation, Princeton no longer qualifies for reduced pricing for contraceptive pills and injections, the University announced this week. Prices have climbed from a $6 monthly flat rate to as much as $45 for some brand-name drugs, which students will have to buy from pharmacies.
"As the price goes up, women will make decisions about using expensive birth control or relying on other methods such as condoms, which may not be as reliable," said Dr.
MBIA Inc. at AIFA 32nd Annual Conference - Final
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Okay, we're going to get started now. The next speaker is from Nationwide. I'm delighted to introduce Peter Golato, who heads up the Individual Life Operations. Thank you Peter, for joining us today. PETER GOLATO, SVP INDIVIDUAL PROTECTION, NATIONWIDE FINANCIAL SERVICES: Thank you, Michelle. And good morning everyone, and welcome. Before we get started, I'll call your attention to this forward-looking information and move on from there. Today's discussion, we're going to be centering around basically four topics this morning, and we're going to be talking a little bit about the Nationwide Financial Individual Protection segment and a market overview, and then go on to some key trends. We're going to talk a little bit about our approach to the marketplace, and then just reiterate some guidance that we've already put out there.
Council needs to know a few things before striking budget
It's a daunting task trying to involve the public in a budget process that must reveal all required information and be clearly presented with transparency and plain language. The Kitchener city council process is still a work in progress, and judging from the answers given to those attending the Jan. 17 public budget meeting, a greater effort is required. Taxpayers want council to be candid on budget items and to inform us, say, if it intends to subsidize provincial responsibilities or claw back a tax break. We want to know the entire GST rebate and where it is to be spent, and where will the millions in rebate from the fuel tax be spent, and what legislative changes require more expensive staff, and why is the 3.3 per cent municipal price index used to increase staff salaries instead of the lower consumer price index.
You ain't seen nothin' yet
If you thought the lovely Easter weather was too good to last, think again. Good Friday was good, but this Friday is likely to be even better with the mercury set to hit 70F on the South Coast. Bournemouth weather expert Dr Richard Wild said: "The fine weather will last, until at least the end of this week with dry, sunny spells and calm to light winds. "It will get gradually warmer, probably going up by a degree or so every day until the weekend when Dorset will see temperatures reaching the magical 70F." He described the warm spell as unusual. "It has certainly been a good deal warmer than normal but a late Easter and high pressure have helped. People who are jetting away this week will be disappointed because it's set to be hotter here." Dr Wild said it was too early to predict what's in store this summer but evidence from the Met office points to another sun-baked season.
Schultz Says Starbucks Can Retain Coffee-House Nature (Update2)
April 5 (Bloomberg) -- Starbucks Corp. Chairman Howard Schultz says he can preserve the chain's coffee-house nature even as he adds seven new stores a day. ``This is really hard to do,'' Schultz said in an interview at the Seattle headquarters of the world's largest coffee-shop chain. ``And because very few people have done it before, they're out there waiting for us to fall.'' Schultz's concern about damaging what he calls ``the intimacy of the experience'' at Starbucks surfaced in February, when a memo he wrote was published in newspapers and on the Web. In it, he urged executives to re-think decisions such as using automatic espresso machines instead of having baristas draw shots by hand. He said such moves could lead to a ``watering down'' and ``commoditization.'' ``He's rightfully questioning things like whether the restrooms are clean, and how long the lines are,'' said Reed Bender, who helps manage $300 million at Robert Bender & Associates in Pasadena, California.
American Family Insurance Selects Exstream’s Dialogue Software
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Fewer health plans offered
A major source of health insurance for people who work for themselves has all but disappeared, casting thousands of contractors, freelancers and solo practitioners into the ranks of the uninsured with little hope of obtaining new coverage. Health plans offered by professional associations were once safe havens for millions of people who couldn't obtain coverage anywhere else. But, as medical costs have soared, groups representing professions as varied as law and golf have been forced to stop offering the benefit or been dropped by insurers. More than 8,000 California Realtors and their families could be next if Blue Shield of California succeeds with its plan to cancel their association health coverage. ''It's a real stab in the heart,'' said Marcy Garber, 62, a Los Angeles real estate agent whose history of breast cancer makes her an almost-certain reject if she seeks similar coverage on her own.
America Gets to Decide on Their Favorite "'The King of Queens ...
LOS ANGELES, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- April 04, 2007 -- For the first time ever, Sony Pictures Television (SPT) -- with the help of the 208 affiliates in 98% of the country carrying the highly-rated sitcom in syndication -- will ask fans to vote for their favorite "'The King of Queens' Viewers Choice" episodes and have their selections subsequently air in national syndication during the May sweep. Beginning Monday, April 16, through Friday, April 27, "'The King of Queens' Viewers Choice" episodes will be posted on Yahoo! TV (http://tv.yahoo.com). For reference, twelve of the most popular episodes from the past eight seasons, along with brief descriptions and clips, will be displayed to make the process of voting more entertaining. In addition, "The King of Queens" stations' websites will be directly connected with the SPT's www.thekingofqueens.com site, giving voters yet another method to cast their ballot.
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