Getting health care law tax penalty waiver a real chore

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WASHINGTON Millions of Americans may qualify for waivers from the most unpopular part of President Barack Obamas health care overhaul. But getting that exemption could be an ordeal.

Community groups are concerned about a convoluted process for waivers from the laws tax penalty on people who remain uninsured. Not everyone is complaining, however: Tax preparation companies are flagging it as a business opportunity.

The laws requirement that Americans carry health insurance remains contentious. Waivers were designed to ease the impact.

But while some exemptions seem simple, others will require math calculations.

Some involve sending in the application by mail and supporting documents, such as copies of medical bills, police reports, obituaries, utility shut-off notices even news articles. Consumers will have to dig up the documentation its not like filing the W-2s they get from employers.

Two federal agencies have roles, each with its own waivers and time schedules. Some people will apply directly to the Internal Revenue Service when they file their 2014 tax returns next year. Theyll use a new Form 8965.

Others can start now and seek an exemption through HealthCare.gov. If its approved, theyll get a number to put on their IRS form later on.

It will all come to a head this tax-filing season.

Hailed by Democrats as the fulfillment of historical aspirations for covering all Americans, the Affordable Care Act has turned out to have multiple issues. The debut of online insurance markets last fall became an embarrassment for the White House. It took two months to get the website working reasonably well.

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Getting health care law tax penalty waiver a real chore

Ebola Diagnosed in More Health Care Workers

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Virus sickens a nurse's assistant attending to an Ebola patient in Spain

Credit: CDC Global via Flickr

Ebola knows no bordersand frontline aid teams (and even one of their pets) remain in the direct line of contagion. This reality has become increasingly evident in recent days after one case of Ebola developed in Texas, triggering a massive U.S. public health response, and yesterday a nurses assistant in Spain was confirmed as the first person in the current outbreak to have contracted Ebola outside of Africa. In Sierra Leone, meanwhile, a European staffer of one aid organization was reported yesterday as having contracted the disease. The infection of health care and aid workers is not unexpected for an infectious illness that has already claimed 3,400 lives, among them 200 health workers. The midcourse of the epidemic, however, is not showing signs of infecting other countries in west Africa beyond the three where it has reached epidemic levels. Meanwhile, the U.S. and other governments are taking precautionary steps but avoiding major restrictions on travel and commerceand global health authorities are trying to tamp down any urge to panic. The Spanish patient is in stable condition, with no symptoms besides a fever.The announcement by Madrid is only the latest in a string of cases where healthcare workers contracted Ebola in the course of caring for patients, often to the astonishment of the workers themselves who wonder how they may have contracted the illness because, in some cases, they do not recall any close contact without adequate personal protective equipment. Doctors Without Borders, a key aid organization leading the Ebola response in west Africa, reported yesterday that a Norwegian staffer in Sierra Leone contracted the virus and is being sent to Europe for treatment. So far, other than a freelance NBC camera operator receiving care in Nebraska after being transferred there for care, the Dallas patient remains the only Ebola patient in the U.S. Ebola is not an airborne infection and the World Health Organization has taken pains to point out that spread of the virus via coughing or sneezing is rare, if it happens at all. The virus is transmitted via direct physical contact with infected bodily fluids, the most infectious being blood, feces and vomit. It has a 21-day incubation period although patients usually begin displaying symptoms earlier, around 10 days after exposure to the virus. There is no indication that the pathogen is mutating to become more harmful. Its genetic makeup has remained stablechanging by only a half of a percentsince the beginning of the outbreak, CDC Director Tom Friedman said today in a press conference. The new Spanish patient was working as a nurse's assistant at the Carlos III Hospital in Madrid, helping to treat a patient who had been infected in Sierra Leone and medically evacuated by Spain to its captial on September 22, only to die three days later, according to WHO. Outside of two laboratory accidents in Russia where individuals accidentally pricked themselves with Ebola-laden needles, this represents the first case of someone contracting Ebola outside Africa. Reportedly, the Spanish patient's pet dog will be euthanized as part of the effort to control spread of the infection, although evidence of Ebola transmission via dogs is not clear. There is one article in the medical literature that discusses the presence of antibodies to Ebola in dogs. Whether that was an accurate test or relevant we dont know but clearly we want to look at all possibilities, Friedman said. We have not identified this as a means of transmission. In Texas the Ebola patient is now stable but in critical condition and being treated with brincidofovir, an oral medicine developed by Durham, N.C.based biopharmaceutical company, Chimerix. The patient is on a ventilator to support his breathing and is receiving kidney dialysis. His liver function, which declined over the weekend, has improved, the Dallas hospital said, but doctors there caution that his condition could vary during coming days. So far, none of the 10 people who came into close contact with the patient nor 38 others who may have had lesser exposure have developed any symptoms of the virus. After a week of political agitation by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and others for new flight restrictions on travel out of Ebola-stricken countries in west Africa, Pres. Barack Obama on Monday announced that the U.S. government will be ramping up its screening for the virus at domestic airports and in west Africa, but details of those changes have yet to be disclosed. Were working very intensively on the screening process both in places of origin and on arrival to the U.S. and were looking at that entire process, CDCs Friedman said today, adding that the administration would make further announcements in coming days. Right now, patients in affected west African countries are screened with thermometers for fever and fill out questionnaires prior to boarding a flight. In west Africa, there are some indiciations that the virus is being contained, at least in specific areas. Fewer Ebola cases have appeared in some communities that previously had high case loads in Liberias capital, Monrovia, which Friedman said could potentially be attributed to the increase in Ebola isolation units and better burial practice protocolsyet it is too early to say whether the tide has turned. Globally this is going to be a long, hard fight, Friedman said. The enemy here is a virus.

More Ebola coverage: Ebola Doctor Reveals How Infected Americans Were Cured

Fact or Fiction?: The Ebola Virus Will Go Airborne

First Ebola Case Diagnosed in the U.S.

In-depth report: Ebola: What You Need to Know

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Ebola Diagnosed in More Health Care Workers

Home health care workers rally in St. Louis for higher minimum wage

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Home health care workers and their patients rallied this morning in downtown St. Louis as their union negotiates with state officials for a higher minimum wage.

About 100 people gathered in front of the Wainwright State Office Building to ask Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon to back a proposed $11 hourly minimum wage for workers paid through the state's Medicaid program.

"Governor Nixon, raise our pay!" chants echoed throughout the morning as patients and workers took turns addressing the crowd.

A spokesman for Nixon did not immediately return a voice message seeking comment.

The Missouri Home Care Union is in the midst of collective bargaining negotiations with the Missouri Quality Home Care Council over the wage issue. Nixon appoints the council's members and his administration would be responsible for implementing the collective bargaining agreement.

The current hourly minimum wage is $7.50 but home health care workers are paid an average of $8.60, according to the union.

Medicaid pays about $15 an hour to health care agencies for the in-home care provided by attendants. But the union says only about half of that makes it way to workers while the rest is spent on administrative costs. It says an $11 minimum wage would not require the state to spend more Medicaid money on in-home services.

Michael Richards, who attended the rally with one of his attendants from Moberly, Mo., said home health care workers deserve a higher minimum wage because of their difficult work.

"If their needs can be met then those of the people they take care of can also be met," he said, adding that home health care services has greatly improved his quality of life.

This report was prepared in collaboration with Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

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Home health care workers rally in St. Louis for higher minimum wage

Health Care Costs, Casinos, Gas Tax Highlight WBZ-TV Mass. Governors Debate

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BOSTON (CBS) All five candidates running for governor of Massachusetts met in their first debate televised in Boston Tuesday night at the WBZ-TV studios.

Republican Charlie Baker, Democrat Martha Coakley and independent candidates Evan Falchuk, Scott Lively, and Jeff McCormick faced off in a wide ranging discussion moderated by WBZ-TV political analyst Jon Keller.

Watch: The WBZ-TV Gubernatorial Debate

The candidates started off by sparring over what went wrong in the current Patrick administration and how they plan to fix it.

Gallery: Photos From The Debate

Baker and Coakley, who are locked in a dead heat according to the latest WBZ-TV-UMass Amherst poll, argued over the failures of the Department of Children and Families and the botched state Health Connector web site.

Charlie Baker and Martha Coakley at the WBZ-TV debate, Oct. 7, 2014. (WBZ-TV)

An ad by a pro-Baker super PAC that claimed Coakley opposed DCF reforms came up in the debate as well, but Falchuk jumped in criticizing them for having an argument over super PACs and not focusing enough on protecting children.

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Health Care Costs, Casinos, Gas Tax Highlight WBZ-TV Mass. Governors Debate

Wal-Mart Eliminates Health Care Insurance Coverage for Most Part-Time Workers

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NEW YORK Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to eliminate health insurance coverage for most of its part-time U.S. employees in a move aimed at controlling rising health care costs of the nation's largest private employer.

Starting Jan. 1, Wal-Mart told The Associated Press that it will no longer offer health insurance to employees who work less than an average of 30 hours a week. The move, which would affect 30,000 employees, follows similar decisions by Target, Home Depot and others to eliminate health insurance benefits for part-time employees.

"We had to make some tough decisions," Sally Wellborn, Wal-Mart's senior vice president of benefits, told The Associated Press.

Wellborn says the company will use a third-party organization to help part-time workers find insurance alternatives: "We are trying to balance the needs of (workers) as well as the costs of (workers) as well as the cost to Wal-Mart."

The announcement comes after Wal-Mart said far more U.S. employees and their families are enrolling in its health care plans than it had expected following rollout of the Affordable Care Act. Wal-Mart, which employs about 1.4 million full- and part-time U.S. workers, says about 1.2 million Wal-Mart workers and family members combined now participate in its health care plan.

That has had an impact on Wal-Mart's bottom line. Wal-Mart now expects the impact of higher health care costs to be about $500 million for the current fiscal year, or about $170 million higher than the original estimate of about $330 million that it gave in February.

But Wal-Mart is among the last of its peers to cut health insurance for some part-time workers. In 2013, 62 percent of large retail chains didn't offer health care benefits to any of its part-time workers, according to Mercer, a global consulting company. That's up from 56 percent in 2009.

"Retailers who offer part-time benefits are more of an exception than the rule," says Beth Umland, director of research for health and benefits at Mercer.

Wal-Mart has been scaling back eligibility for part-time workers over the past few years, though. In 2011, Wal-Mart said it was cutting backing eligibility of its coverage of part-time workers working less than 24 hours a week. And then in 2013, it announced a threshold of 30 hours or under.

Wal-Mart, like most big companies, also is increasing premiums, or out-of-pocket costs that employees pay, to counter rising health care costs. Wal-Mart told The Associated Press that it's raising premiums for all of its full-time workers: For a basic plan, of which 40 percent of its workers are enrolled, the premiums will go up to $21.90 per pay period, up from $18.40, starting Jan. 1.

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Wal-Mart Eliminates Health Care Insurance Coverage for Most Part-Time Workers

Companies That Give Health Care to Part-Time Employees

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Walmart, the nation's largest single employer, announced today it is cutting health care benefits for 30,000 part-time workers. But it's still possible for part-time employees who work fewer than 30 hours a week to receive employer-sponsored health care elsewhere.

Following Target's lead back in January, Walmart announced today that it will no longer offer health insurance to employees who work less than an average of 30 hours a week, starting Jan. 1. The decision affects 5 percent of its total part-time work force, cutting health care for 30,000 workers.

For the unemployed or employed who hope to secure company-sponsored health care, the good news is that certain companies offer that benefit to part-timers.

Whole Foods Market "team members" regularly scheduled to work more than 20 hours but less than 30 hours per week are eligible for medical insurance upon hitting certain service hour thresholds. To be considered full-time employees, employees need to work at least 30 hours per week. Part-time employees are eligible to receive other benefits, including paid time off and a 20 percent store discount. Employees who voluntarily opt to participate in the "Team Member healthy discount incentive program" could receive up to an additional 10 percent store discount, according to a Whole Foods spokeswoman. Employees select their benefits package through a company-wide vote every three years.

Stock options are also granted to all employees once they have accumulated 6,000 service hours.

Whole Foods Market also offers "gainsharing" to part-time workers, which lets them earn monthly dividends, such as "labor surplus payouts" from the excess labor budget of their individual teams.

Last year's "gainsharing" sales incentive program total was $99 million while average team member payout per hour was $0.87. The average total team member payout was $2,418.49, according to Whole Foods.

Since 1988, Starbucks, based in Seattle, has offered "a comprehensive compensation program" that recognizes and rewards employees, or "partners," the company said.

This benefits package includes "competitive" base pay, health care for eligible full and part-time partners, with an average of 20 hours per week, and equity in the company in the form of Bean Stock.

Last year, Starbucks store and non-executive employees received over $234 million in pre-tax gains from Bean Stock, a spokeswoman told ABC News.

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Companies That Give Health Care to Part-Time Employees

Genetic Tests: With More Info Comes More Questions. NYIT Expert Available to Comment

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As Breast Cancer Awareness month continues, Dr. Bhuma Krishnamachari, an epidemiologist and genetics expert at NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine, is available to talk about the changing landscape of genetic tests and what it means for patients and doctors.

Genetic testing has changed from a single gene approach to a multiple gene approach, says Krishnamachari, who specializes in hereditary cancers.

Yet, doctors may not understand the clinical significance of the gene mutations found in these more comprehensive tests.

With more information comes more questions, says Krishnamachari.

For patients, Krishnamachari offers several tips to navigate the often confusing world of genetic tests.

Its important to find a doctor who is well-versed in hereditary factors and who involves many disciplines in patient care because the complexity of testing has increased, she says. Were moving toward more individualized treatments so the team should include genetic counselors, surgeons, oncologists, and primary care physicians.

Krishnamachi recently led NYIT research teams that published three separate studies on the need for physicians to learn more about genetic testing so they can help patients who may have a high risk of developing breast, ovarian, and colorectal cancers.

Physicians, she says, should be aware of the limitations that occurred in past, less comprehensive tests their patients may have had. Ethnicity-specific differences for mutations measured in BRCA tests, for example, must be understood since some patients may be at higher risk for certain cancers.

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Genetic Tests: With More Info Comes More Questions. NYIT Expert Available to Comment

Why do women struggling with low sexual desire not seek treatment?

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

7-Oct-2014

Contact: Kathryn Ryan kryan@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News @LiebertOnline

New Rochelle, NY, October 7, 2014Low sexual desire is common among both pre- and post-menopausal women. It can cause personal distress, harm relationships, and have a negative impact on body image and self confidence. Yet few women seek medical care for this condition, and the reasons are explored in a timely article in Journal of Women's Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Journal of Women's Health website at http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/jwh.2014.4743 until November 7, 2014.

In the article "Attitudinal Survey of Women Living with Low Sexual Desire," Sheryl A. Kingsberg, PhD, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine (Cleveland, OH), presents the results of a survey of women's attitudes toward low sexual desire and their awareness of its treatability as a medical condition. Dr. Kingsberg found that more than one-quarter of premenopausal and one-third of post-menopausal women were very dissatisfied with their current level of sexual desire. Most had not discussed their low sexual desire with their health care providers because they felt uncomfortable or embarrassed or were not aware that it is a treatable condition.

"Given the prevalence of low sexual desire in women and the important role that sexual function plays in women's lives, healthcare providers should recognize female sexual function as an integral part of health and well-being," says Susan G. Kornstein, MD, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Women's Health, Executive Director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Women's Health, Richmond, VA, and President of the Academy of Women's Health.

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About the Journal

Journal of Women's Health, published monthly, is a core multidisciplinary journal dedicated to the diseases and conditions that hold greater risk for or are more prevalent among women, as well as diseases that present differently in women. The Journal covers the latest advances and clinical applications of new diagnostic procedures and therapeutic protocols for the prevention and management of women's healthcare issues. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Journal of Women's Health website at http://www.liebertpub.com/jwh. Journal of Women's Health is the official journal of the Academy of Women's Health and the Society for Women's Health Research.

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Why do women struggling with low sexual desire not seek treatment?

Zukunft der Kulturpflege, Vermittlung: Totale Online-Offline Konferenz (Futurist Gerd Leonhard) – Video

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Zukunft der Kulturpflege, Vermittlung: Totale Online-Offline Konferenz (Futurist Gerd Leonhard)
Note: this is a GERMAN-language video) Dies ist ein kurzer Ausschnitt von meiner Keynote beim Kulturnetzwerk-Treffen des Kantons Aargau (CH), zum Thema Zuku...

By: Gerd Leonhard

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Zukunft der Kulturpflege, Vermittlung: Totale Online-Offline Konferenz (Futurist Gerd Leonhard) - Video

Die Zukunft der Kultur: Augmented Reality in Museen? Futurist Redner Gerd Leonhard in Brugg – Video

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Die Zukunft der Kultur: Augmented Reality in Museen? Futurist Redner Gerd Leonhard in Brugg
Note: this is a GERMAN-language video) Dies ist ein kurzer Ausschnitt von meiner Keynote beim Kulturnetzwerk-Treffen des Kantons Aargau (CH), zum Thema Zuku...

By: Gerd Leonhard

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Die Zukunft der Kultur: Augmented Reality in Museen? Futurist Redner Gerd Leonhard in Brugg - Video

Die Zukunft der Kultur: virtuelle versus reelle Erlebnisse? Futurist Redner Gerd Leonhard – Video

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Die Zukunft der Kultur: virtuelle versus reelle Erlebnisse? Futurist Redner Gerd Leonhard
Note: this is a GERMAN-language video) Dies ist ein kurzer Ausschnitt von meiner Keynote beim Kulturnetzwerk-Treffen des Kantons Aargau (CH), zum Thema Zuku...

By: Gerd Leonhard

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Die Zukunft der Kultur: virtuelle versus reelle Erlebnisse? Futurist Redner Gerd Leonhard - Video

Listen: Toby Gale – 'Air Bones'

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Ever off-kilter, Slugabeds sense of humour masks an ability to uncover raw but wildly unpredictable new talent.

The producers Activia Benz imprint acts as a hub for such producers, with new signing Toby Gale making ears glisten round these parts with his latest slo-mo, fluoro-enhanced synth jammer.

New cut Air Bones billed as their most twinkly lovely release yet has a gorgeous, near 16-Bit sense of nostalgia. Alongside this, though, theres a sci-fi futurism, a sense of the hyper-real to recall Night Slugs.

All slumped rhythms and choked samples, Air Bones continually billows outwards before collapsing under its own glitter-enhanced weight. Slugabed perhaps sums the track up best: [The EP] has a dreamy feel.Its a bit like when you ridethe horse around at nighttime on Ocarina of Timeand theres no one aroundand you feel very blissful.

Check out Air Bones below.

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Listen: Toby Gale - 'Air Bones'