An insurance agent from Lackawanna County charged in July with defrauding three clients in Susquehanna County was arrested Thursday on violations involving three additional firms in Luzerne County, authorities said. Tell me more >>>
IG Report: CMS Needs Bond Requirement for Home Health Providers
Medicare has long been plagued with overpaying providers, and one of the primary duties of program integrity contractors is to collect the overpayments and return them to Medicare. However, this may not be happening, as evidenced by a recent report from the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General. Read the full article >>>
Trump Tax-Cut Proposal for Small Construction Businesses is Unclear
Tax bills for most small construction companies would fall under a broad tax-reform outline unveiled on Sept. 27 by the Trump administration and congressional Republicans. The proposal calls for cutting the corporate tax rate to 20% from 35%. Perhaps most important for small construction firms, the tax rate for pass-through businesses would be limited to 25%. Pass-through entities, such as sole proprietorships, partnerships and S-corporations, are taxed at individual, not corporate, rates, which hurts many construction companies in those categories. Tell me more >>>
Credit Rating Firms’ Changes Might Benefit Surety Bonding Access, Rates
Nowadays credit scores are important in countless instances. Applying for a mortgage, getting insurance or obtaining a surety bond for your business are all instances where a higher credit score is beneficial. Which is why you will probably find the below information good news. Read the full article >>>
Democratic Senators Seek $500B in Tax Dollars to Enhance Infrastructure
Senate Democrats, emboldened by the GOP’s failure to unilaterally pass a health-care bill, are launching an effort to win bipartisan support for the investment of $500 billion in taxpayer dollars in infrastructure improvements. Tell me more >>>
Contractors Fronting Money for Materials Can Lose Investment
Article provided by Cohen Seglias Pallas Greenhall & Furman PC Have you ever been in a situation where your subcontractor or fabricator did not have the financial ability to purchase material needed for a project? Have you ever offered your assistance by way of either directly purchasing the material and providing it to the subcontractor/fabricator or advancing funds to the subcontractor/fabricator to allow for the purchase? While this arrangement has its advantages, contractors should be aware of their exposure, particularly if the subcontractor/fabricator has financial issues down the road. Even though a contractor fronts the funds to purchase the materials, it could lose its interest in those materials to the subcontractor/fabricator’s lender, especially if that lender holds a security interest …
Liberty Mutual Hit With $546K Bedbug Bill
Liberty Mutual may have to cough up a sizable chunk of change over a bedbug infestation. The company, which acts as the insurer for the Hilton Garden Inn Ontario/Cucamonga in California, was named along with the hotel as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by a family that lodged there in 2013. A jury just awarded the family $546,000 – the largest judgment ever for a bedbug-related case. Read the full article >>>
Why the Average Retirement Age is Rising
Social Security, pension type, and education are factors that have contributed to the rise in the retirement age since the mid-1980s, writes Alicia H. Munnell, director of Boston College Center for Retirement Research, in this article on MarketWatch. Other factors that have also spurred an increase in retirement age are improved health and longevity, jobs becoming less physically demanding, writes Munnell. “While all these factors help explain the gains since the mid-1980s, I was concerned that they had played themselves out. At least for men, though, the increase in the average retirement age from 63.9 in 2013 to 64.6 in 2015 is encouraging.” Tell me more >>>
Employee Engagement Tops the List of 2017 HR Trends
Written and compiled by Catherine Conlan, Senior Writer at Reputation Capital Media Services and shared here by Sherri Hebda, MBA, SPHR, SHRM-SCP After a big hiring year in 2016, many HR managers say they are turning their attention to employee retention. The reason: all that recruiting work is wasted if the employees don’t stick around. “Employee engagement will play a big role in the HR realm in 2017,” says Brad Stultz, human resources director at Totally Promotional, which custom prints promotional products in Coldwater, Ohio. “With record low unemployment rates continuing across the country, employees find themselves in a position to change career paths on a whim.” To that end, here are the 2017 HR trends that HR managers envision: …
Project Manager Can Offer Knowledge To Novice Owner, Be Contractor Ally
As the construction industry has moved toward more collaborative forms of project delivery, many owners have begun engaging outside professionals who are known as owners project managers (OPMs). They assist with overall project planning, coordination and project oversight beyond what is typically performed by the owners’ design professionals. They also serve as a liaison between the owner and project team. Read the full article >>>