Wednesday, November 20, 2013

ACA (ObamaCare) email requirements for employers and employees

















Posted by Paul Babicki
Netiquette IQ

The following are basic rules for using email regarding ACA (ObamaCare). If employees see any violation of these rules they should notify ACA right away.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Employee Notification of Coverage Options

by AHAP on September 10, 2013

The FLSA governs email requirements for Affordable Care Act notification of coverageoptions. Most employers producing more than $500,000 in revenue must meet the provision of the health care law which will be enforced by the DOL. These employers may email the employee notification of coverage if they follow safe harbor rules for disclosure of benefit information communications via electronic media.  
A common sense approach should be used if employers choose to email ACA employee notices. The email requirements have been in place for years to create some guidance for benefit plan administrators. The employee notification of coverage options fall under the same umbrella. Employers should follow these guidelines to ensure their employees access the information.

  1.  Email addresses – Employees must provide employers email addresses voluntarily to receive benefit information.

2.   Verification of Receipt – Employers should use email features to verify the information has been received. Common email features include read receipts, and undeliverable notifications.

3.   Language – Email language must be written so the average employee will be able to understand the information provided.

4.   Email Format – Information disclosed should be in a format that the average employee can open to access the information. An example would be if the notification was sent in a PDF file, then all employees should have a PDF reader so they can access the document.

5.   Verification – Employers should periodically survey their employees to ensure electronic communications are received by employees.

Emailing Affordable Care Act notification of coverage options simply need to get to the employee. Current employees must receive it by October 1st, 2013. All new employees hired after October 1st, 2013 must receive the notice. The Department of labor will just want to see the employer has done the due diligence to ensure receipt of coverage notices.

Emailing ACA notifications are one of many things employers will have to navigate in 2014 as the health care law is implemented. The employer notification is informing employee of access to the health insurance exchanges. Employees will be able to enroll in state health insurance exchanges October 1st 2013. Individuals will be able to purchase required health insurance to avoid individual mandate penalties in 2014.  Qualifying large employers will begin to decide if they will offer health insurance in 2015 to avoid Affordable Care Act employer mandate penalties.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

About Netiquette IQ

My book, "Netiquette IQ - A Comprehensive Guide to Improve, Enhance and Add Power to Your Email" has gone on sale at the CreateSpace estore:http://createspace.com/4083121

 As a Netiquette IQ blog reader, you can use the discount code KBQALZA7. This discount is only through the estore. Thank you for your support on the blog and with the book. The book and Kindle version are now available on Amazon. Please visit my author profile at


amazon.com/author/paulbabicki

More good news!

The Kindle version of my book is now available! Go to the following site to purchase it:


http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FFAMN0U

#PaulBabicki
#netiquette  

#email
 

 

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

150 years later. The Gettysburg Address then and now!






Posted by Paul Babicki and Netiquette IQ

Today is the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address. In my book, "Netiquette IQ - A comprehensive Guide to Improve, Enhance and Add Power to your mail", I have the except shown below. It is meant to convey how today's technology has in so many ways diluted from the power of tradition communications. It is worth thinking about! Here is a link to listen to it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvA0J_2ZpIQ
 


=========================================

The art of letters will come to an end before AD 2000. I shall survive as a curiosity.
—Ezra Pound




 

 


























How would famous letters of the past look today? Here is one scenario:

Original text:
The Gettysburg Address
 
        Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
 
            Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
 
            But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
—Abraham Lincoln
 
2013 version:
The Gettysburg Address
 
TO:                   The US Congress
 
FROM:              POTUS
CC:                   US Army
RE:                   The battle of G’burg
 
 
                        87 years ago the USA was born, so we all would B free. Now we’re @ war. We just had a big battle & I wanted 2 pay tribute 2 the dead and wounded, of course.
 
                        The sacrifices speak 4 themselves and will B remembered. We need 2 make sure we finish the job ASAP. In this we’ll B free.
 
                        God bless the US.
A.    L.
 
 
        Although the rewritten Gettysburg Address may seem overly simplified and a bit comical, emails of today produce results similar or even worse. This book is committed to assist all of its readers to take advantage of today’s technologies by combining them with the positive attributes of traditional communication. By achieving this end, the reader will contribute to his or her own and others’ successes.

===========================

About Netiquette IQ

My book, "NetiquetteIQ - A Comprehensive Guide to Improve, Enhance and Add Power to Your Email" has gone on sale at the CreateSpace estore:http://createspace.com/4083121

 As a NetiquetteIQ blog reader, you can use the discount code KBQALZA7. This discount is only through the estore. Thank you for your support on the blog and with the book. The book and Kindle version are now available on Amazon. Please visit my author profile at


amazon.com/author/paulbabicki

More good news!

The Kindle version of my book is now available! Go to the following site to purchase it:


http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FFAMN0U

#PaulBabicki
#netiquette  

#email