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COBRA Problems Can Hurt Texas Residents

COBRA Problems Can Hurt Texas Residents

Texas residents faced with a job loss in Dallas, Houston, Austin, or throughout the state, once had a big problem when it came to health care.

Before the advent of federal legislation commonly referred to by its acronym — COBRA (short for the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985) –leaving one job typically meant losing the coverage altogether, whether the employee left for another job or they were terminated for reasons other than “gross misconduct.”

Since passage of the Act, those same workers have had COBRA working for them, the key option being the ability to continue the employer’s group health insurance plan for up to 18 months, though this can be quite costly, as the former employee typically has to pick up 100% of the cost.

The introduction of COBRA also came with its own set of cautions, since the window for signing up for a continuation of an employer’s coverage is a very narrow one. It’s also “one way,” meaning that once a former employee says “no thanks” to the company’s COBRA plan (or simply chooses to buy an individual plan), they can’t go back later.

But those who are healthy, and whose family members are in the same category, are wise to look into individual health insurance plans instead, as the premium rates can be significantly less than the cost of a comparable COBRA group health insurance policy.

How much less? In some cases, half the cost. The reason for the cost gap has to do with who actually pays the cost of the group health coverage. For most companies, the employer foots a significant portion of the cost for active employees.

What about an employee whose company is not subject to COBRA? Some states have adopted their own version of the idea behind COBRA; in some cases, those plans are even more flexible in determining who is eligible for continuing health insurance coverage. Under COBRA, changes to an employer’s health plan mean the former employee will receive the new benefits. Additionally, a change by the employer to an entirely new plan will mean the former employee will take on the change as well.

Another “all or nothing” aspect of COBRA has to do with an employer plan that has one plan with multiple health insurance benefits. If that’s the case, the former employee can’t “unbundle” the coverage, the exception being a plan that allows that for all who are in the plan.

While eligibility may be one consideration for those looking at COBRA, it isn’t the only one. Those who have no pre-existing conditions and feel that COBRA is too expensive will want to consider buying individual insurance during the time between jobs, to cover a waiting period in a new job, or even to opt-out of coverage in a new job if the cost and benefits are more desirable with an individual plan.

There are several forms of health insurance coverage that are subject to COBRA regulations, including medical plans, dental, vision, and prescription drug plans, drug and alcohol treatment programs, Employee Assistance Plans (known as EAPs, providing services such as counseling or psychological treatment), on-site health care (including discount or free medical services) and, under certain circumstances, section 125 spending arrangements, also known as cafeteria plans.

Benefits not subject to COBRA include wellness programs, life, disability, and long term care insurance plans, and medical savings accounts as well as EAPs that do not provide medical care.

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HCSS Entry-Level Programmers – Experience & Degrees NOT Required!

Apply Now: www.dreamjobshouston.com Would you like a programming career at one of the top 15 Small Workplaces in America? Do you have a serious desire to become a programmer, but lack the experience or degree? If so, HCSS is looking for both experienced and inexperienced tech-savvy motivated individuals to join our software development team. You will be part of a team developing innovative software solutions to real customer problems within the construction industry. To Apply, visit http

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What You Need To Know About Texas Seo Firms – Part Ii

What You Need To Know About Texas Seo Firms – Part Ii

Part II

2. Does their services include content creation, or just optimization of the site as-is?

Content creation refers simply the content on your site including images and graphics. Content can be optimized by being enriched with keywords and tags added to images, etc.

Any Austin Texas SEO firm can do a better job for you with optimized content on your site. Without optimized content, you’re basically throwing free money into the pocket of your internet marketing consultant.

3.Do they guarantee results?

Like I said earlier, no Austin SEO firm can’t guarantee top rankings. What results do they guarantee? Can you get your money back if they don’t live up to it?

4. Do they use a standard method of SEO or do they approach each site individually?

Cookie cutter approaches to SEO work, but a good Austin SEO firm will look at your site and determine what methods will work best for it. You’re a paying customer. You want your site to get the treatment it deserves and not put on an assembly line.

Of course, if your internet marketing consultant’s cookie cutter approaches with other sites impress you, then I can’t tell you not to do it?

5. How long until you see results?

Listen up! Results do not happen overnight unless the Texas SEO firm either owns a magic wand or starts PPC campaigns for your site. With just organic SEO, it can take months to see results.

Any legitimate internet marketing consultant will tell you this. PPC campaigns give immediate results. Everything else? It’s going to take a month or so before the Austin SEO firm’s work produces any noticeable results.

6. Will they just analyze and provide a report on your site or will they perform the SEO work as well?

Some Texas SEO firms analyze your site and provide you with a detailed description of what needs done. They don’t do it for you. If you want an internet marketing consultant, this becomes one of the most important questions you can ask.

7. Ask the Austin SEO firm to tell you, as precisely as possible, what they will do to and for your site.

If they don’t know the answer to this question after looking at your site, then move on to the next Austin, Texas SEO firm!

Now, don’t expect them to go into detail because that would tell you how to do their job (and saving you money), but you do want to know as much of their intended strategy as possible.

8. What search engines will they target?

Plenty of little, no-name search engines exist, and your site could achieve top rankings with them. But let me ask you this.

Who uses them? Get the names of the search engines the Texas SEO firm will target. Better yet, get those names in the contract!

9. PPC or paid inclusion listings with the search engines?

PPC gives you immediate results. Paid inclusion doesn’t guarantee top ranking, but it does guarantee ranking. However, the results the Austin SEO firm gets with these methods will stop when your contract ends or you stop paying them.

If this entails all the only SEO that they’re doing for you, just keep in mind that the SEO work lasts only as long as you fork out money to the Austin, Texas SEO firm. If that’s what you want from your internet marketing consultant, then go for it.

10. How many hours will they put into working on your site?

I think that’s clear enough of a question. Any internet marketing consultant or Texas SEO firm should put some initial time into kicking off the SEO campaign. After that, your site will require regular maintenance to retain its ranking.

These questions make up a few that you will want to ask all Austin SEO firms that you contact. Of course, I encourage you to come up with questions of your own and to request, then explore, a contract with any Texas SEO firm you decide to hire.

Top notch SEO provides you with a successful and profitable website. Hiring a knowledgeable, experienced Austin SEO firm spells out the difference between being an Ohio-like business and a Texas one. Everything comes bigger (and better) in Texas, you know.

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Learn To Get Easy Online Home Based Jobs Very Easily

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Host Poker Tournaments for Profit

A few Texas Jobs products I can recommend:

Host Poker Tournaments for Profit
Sell the Sizzle of Operating A Texas Holdem Poker Tournament for Profit. Designed to Convert!
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Code Red: Texas In Crisis Over Number Of Uninsured

Code Red: Texas In Crisis Over Number Of Uninsured

The American populace has been sufficiently bombarded by information on the “health insurance crisis,” the “healthcare crisis,” the “community crisis.” Despite living in a country where everyone is supposedly entitled to equal access, another horrifying and dismal piece of information seems to be released almost everyday on the declining state of healthcare for the uninsured and underinsured,

The uninsured die more often, receive less preventative care, less therapeutic care, and are diagnosed at more advanced stages of disease than the insured. One-third of those who went without insurance did not receive a recommended test or treatment due to cost in 2004, three to four times the rate of the insured. Texas is the hardest hit, with 25% of its population currently uninsured, in some areas more like 33%. What we have to ask now, knowing we have a major problem on our hands, is what all this actually means for those who lack individual health insurance.

It means that hospitals, clinics, and emergency rooms are shutting down across the country, including in major cities like Dallas and Houston, due to lack of funding, in part because of covering the costs of treating uninsured who had nowhere else to go. It means you may not have an emergency room in your community next year.

The number of doctors no longer accepting Medicaid “the government’s free insurance program for the low-income” is climbing, and the number of those accepted to the program is decreasing, due to a 2006 Congressional approval of .1 billion in budget cuts to the program over the next ten years. That means those foregoing needed medical attention, including those in Texas, because they simply can’t afford it, is also on the rise. The extent of this situation is difficult to even estimate, because those who don’t have insurance are less likely to get checked, and those who don’t at least attempt to receive care don’t make it into most of the studies. That means if, like so many, you are uninsured, this could be you.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 46 million, or 15.7% of the population, went without health insurance in 2004. Almost one-third of the non-elderly went without in 2002-2003 – 43% for Texas – and millions more were considered underinsured in the same years.

Texas has the highest percentage of uninsured adults, working adults, and children, only a portion of whom are actually in poverty. According to the Institute of Medicine, a large percentage of the uninsured are working individuals who can sustain themselves, but who cannot afford health coverage due to rising costs; premiums alone have increased an average of 15% over the last five years nationally, and employee spending for healthcare increased by 143% between 2000 and 2005.

It’s difficult, particularly for young people, to conceptualize the consequences of not having individual health insurance until a catastrophe, even a small one, hits.

“Yeah, it’s horrible,” grumbles David*, a construction worker who has worked in Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico. “There’s always work in the Southwest because the weather is so great, but most of the time I can’t do it anymore because of this,” he says, aggravated, pointing at his midsection. “It’s not the worst thing that could have happened to me, but it’s definitely one of the more damaging to my career.”

David, 29, suffered a hernia four months ago, a condition that is usually not life-threatening, but inhibits a person from performing certain activities, including heavy lifting. With no individual health insurance of his own, the only way it will be treated properly is if he can somehow pay for the expensive surgery himself. “Medicaid won’t cover me because my average income is too high, workers’ comp won’t cover me because it didn’t happen on the job, and the hospitals won’t cover me because it’s not a life-threatening situation. I don’t have my own insurance because the premiums are too high. So what am I supposed to do? Construction is the only skill I have.”

What this translates into, practically, is that David now has to choose between the lesser of two evils. He risks serious injury by taking assignments requiring heavy lifting – almost all construction jobs – but not working means he can’t pay the bills. As a high school graduate who went directly into construction, he has little experience outside of the field, and no other skilled trades. “It’s either this or fast food.”

Texas, with the highest rate of uninsured and some of the strictest guidelines to qualify for Medicaid, is a prime example of how difficult receiving adequate healthcare is without coverage. While Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program is largely the state’s responsibility for those who actually make the cut, care for medically indigent patients is the county’s responsibility, and funding across the state varies widely. Some counties only provide for those without any, or with extremely low, incomes – which means that cities like Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin are absorbing the cost of patients coming in from other parts of the state. But Texas cities have their own problems; 28% of Houston residents, for instance, are uninsured themselves.

And the problem is not just with healthcare, but with all the aspects of personal life and the economy that poor health can affect. Poor health, for a notable example, negatively impacts educational status, which, in turn, negatively impacts health. The problem is so urgent in Texas that a Task Force of ten of the state’s academic institutions was created to address the crisis. The Task Force concluded – among other things – that, “in the absence of vigorous initiatives” to correct the situation, hospitals and emergency rooms will continue to close, the state’s economic power will decrease, and both state and county budgets will spin into crises.

So what does this Code Red for Texas mean exactly? It means that if you’re uninsured, you have less access to care, lower quality of care when you get it, and a higher chance of the care you get being too little, too late. It means that if you’re unfortunate enough to contract cancer while uninsured, you are statistically more likely to get diagnosed at a later stage of disease, more likely to receive less therapeutic (i.e., effective) care, and, sadly, more likely to die. It means that if you’re uninsured and diagnosed with HIV, or diabetes, or high blood pressure, you will probably suffer a similar fate.

Texas’ Code Red also means that, under the current conditions of the economy and healthcare system, you’re statistically more likely to survive, or suffer less severe consequences of a disease, if you invest in health insurance. While the country, of course, needs to fight the dysfunction that created this terrible situation, you had best protect yourself. It could literally be a matter of survival.

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More People in Texas Lack Texas Health Insurance

More People in Texas Lack Texas Health Insurance

It seems there have been studies lately that have indicated that a lot of people Texas do not have proper health insurance. Hispanic people are among those least likely to have insurance, but it is a problem for people from all races and colors. Everyone needs to have health insurance, but many people don’t think they can afford it.

This is not good for anyone. There are too many impoverished people in Texas that cannot seem to afford insurance and other people who work, but don’t think insurance is the best use of their money. Too many employers fail to offer proper health insurance in Texas to their employees.

There are also a lot of immigrants residing in Texas. These people often work illegally and since the employer is giving them a job “under the table” they don’t follow the other laws, like offering them health insurance either. This is a shame and it hurts everyone. The children who grow up in homes without health insurance in Texas spread illness and disease to the other children they play with. Anyone who thinks it is not their problem is wrong.

Even the people who have a decent job and have insurance offered to them often decline because they don’t want to have any money withheld from their paycheck. They think they are struggling to pay the bills and buy food and just don’t think they can get by on less. It is unfortunate that they aren’t thinking about what will happen to their finances if one of their family members gets a serious illness or gets in an accident. They could end up smothered in debt for the rest of their lives without health insurance in Texas.

Another problem is that the premiums for health insurance in Texas seem to go up each year whether or not people get a raise. With the price of everything else going up, too people often feel they have to make a choice over what to do without and since an immediate benefit isn’t always obvious, insurance is usually the first thing to go. This decision will blow up in somebody’s face when they get smacked with a huge emergency room bill one day.

Even small business owners face the same tough decisions. They are usually already paying more for health insurance in Texas and when increases hit it can make it tough for them to justify the expense. Nobody wants to pay a high cost when they don’t feel they are getting anything for their money.

Having health insurance in Texas is very vital to good health and to protect your finances in the event of an emergency. If you have an emergency, the hospital may have to treat you, but if you haven’t got health insurance, you will end up paying through your teeth. You just need to shop around in order to find an insurance plan that will give you decent coverage without costing you an arm and a leg.

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Texas Health Insurance – Texas Moveable Health Insurance Plan

Texas Health Insurance – Texas Moveable Health Insurance Plan

The laws of Texas health insurance, also known as the portability and the Health Insurance Accountability Act, were established in 1996 by Congress to protect workers and their families to health insurance and establish standards for insurance providers and employers. Title I to protect workers if they change jobs or get fired from a current job. The protection extends to employees as family members. Title II covers a different aspect of the legislation on health insurance, requiring health care facilities, employees, insurance providers and health to meet the standards set nationally. Title II is also known as Administrative Simplification (AS), using electronic data systems in Texas and across the United States to issues of health care much more efficient than in the past.

Title I of the Texas Health Insurance main objective is to change the law on service of public health and retirement income of employees of the Security Act. Under Title I, the providers of health insurance in Texas and across the United States cannot judge eligible workers or not simply based on disability, genetics, or their medical history. Health insurance companies in Texas and other states to be able to impose restrictions on health insurance plans for workers who had pre-existing conditions. However, Title I limits of these restrictions that insurers are allowed to put on benefits for workers who fall into this category. In addition, Title I also prohibits providers of health insurance restrictions on coverage or refuse workers to pre-existing conditions.

Title II of HIPPA was created first for the simplification of administrative rules, which require the Department of Health and Human Services to help promote efficiency and effectiveness of health care system in Texas and all other states. Title II also includes two sets of criminal and civil penalties for those who violate the laws. The Department of Health and Human Services has established five key rules: security, privacy, laws, unique identifiers, and transactions and code sets rules.

The safety rule consists of three sections: administrative, physical and technical. Protective measures administrative guidelines for health care to be met, particularly regarding security issues. The Privacy Rule expands on this, imposing restrictions on disclosure of information concerning a person’s health care status. The application of the Article sets of sanctions, primarily civil violations and fines for those who have violated HIPAA. The article attributes the unique ten-digit National Provider Identifier number to entities such as hospitals or doctors to promote the effectiveness of the health care system in Texas and across the U.S. Finally, the Code operations and establishes rules cover many aspects of health care such as requests for information on eligibility and benefits and the transmission of information on health care.

The HIPAA originally charged health care facilities at a cost to get “in conformity” with the HIPAA. Since its inception, the HIPAA laws have affected research and clinical care. Because HIPAA call for details on many forms, some patients complain that many things are extremely user-hostile. Other studies suggest that the HIPAA privacy rules May have adverse effects on costs and results of health research. The implementation of HIPAA also had effects on clinical care as well. Research shows that health facilities are often uncertain of privacy restrictions, so that May be made for patients as a very reluctant to disclose individual information.

One of the most important areas of HIPAA for those with pre-existing is to cover the requirements in Title I. Title I of the Texas forces individual insurance companies to offer guaranteed issue Texas HIPAA portability of health insurance plans for TX residents who meet certain criteria. If you have any major pre-existing conditions and feel that you May be eligible for a TX HIPAA health insurance plan then be sure and speak with a licensed insurance agent health in Texas to verify your eligibility.

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Farming Ranching, & Agriculture in Texas or anywhere is so hard on the family

I am aware of the stresses and pressures which are being felt by many who are involved in family farming and ranching. Our rural pastors have been ministering to expressions of anxiety, distress, desperation and, most commonly, uncertainty about the future and about survival in agriculture. The economic hardships experienced by family farmers and ranchers exact a human toll: on personal relationships, marriages and family life. Rural communities are challenged by the social consequences of these economic hardships and stresses. The loss of family farms and ranches is not the fading of a nostalgic past, as some claim, but occasions of real loss for businesses, schools, churches, community services and a sense of shared responsibility for the community’s well-being.
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College of Ag News: Agriculture Career Exposition

March 2009 Texas A&M College of Ag News–Agriculture Career Exposition: Students in the College meet with 30+ employers to explore career options, plus interview for internships and jobs.

The Texas Association for Interior Design (TAID) wants to make it illegal to practice interior design in Texas without a government license. Over the past 20 years they have spent tens, maybe hundreds, of thousands of dollars on lobbyists, claiming that unregistered interior designers present a danger to the public health and safety. On June 6, 2007, Marilyn Roberts, president of TAID, e-mailed the group’s membership the following request for information: “We must get cases of harm in Texas!!!!!!! Any jobs you have had that you have corrected something potentially or proven harmful to your clients (harmful physically or emotionally). Any contacts you have with building plan reviewers, Registered Accessibility Specialists inspectors, fire marshalls, inspectors of any kind that would have found violations that hopefully a registered interior designer corrected. Would help to have cases from residential, commercial-large or small projects, medical facilities, nursing homes, etc. Remember, not just fire code related issues, but using materials that are not antimicrobial where needed, not having areas accessible, anything………..” Two years later, KXAN TV-Austin asked Ms. Roberts to name one example of an unregistered interior designer harming a member of the public. Her answer to this important question? “Actually, there are not things that I can document right now.” Regulating interior design has nothing to do with protecting the public and everything to do with …
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