RMI is pleased to announce that Scott Layton has been hired as an HR Specialist at RMI’s Corporate Office. Scott has worked in various HR positions in the Salt Lake City area in industries varying from health and life insurance, finance, medical, and banking. Specifically, Scott has worked for a local credit union, Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators, Intermountain Healthcare, as well as some ad hoc consulting for a medical service company. Scott graduated from the University of Phoenix with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management, with emphasis in Human Resources Management. Scott is excited for this new challenge and looks forward to meeting and working with all of RMI’s clients.

RMI is also pleased to announce that Fatima Noriega was recently hired as an HR Generalist in RMI's Seattle Office. Fatima graduated from Seattle University with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology with a Business Administration minor. She grew up in Peru and spent some time in Puerto Rico before moving to Seattle. As such, Fatima is a fluent in Spanish. Prior to RMI, Fatima was the HR Assistant at a security system company that provided services for GGP Malls, Albertsons, and CVS pharmacies across the United States. She is looking forward to this challenge and is excited to be part of the RMI family.

If you are an S-Corp shareholder of 2% or more, and your company paid for all or some of your health premiums in 2010, these premiums will be shown as federal taxable wages on your 2010 Form W-2. These wages will not be subject to Social Security or Medicare (FICA) or Unemployment (FUTA) taxes. These wages will be included in Box 1 (Wages) of the Form W-2.

If your company is an S-Corporation in RMI’s system, RMI will be contacting you prior to the end of the year to confirm our list of 2%+ shareholders has not changed. Once the list of shareholders is confirmed, we will process an “Owner Health Contribution Payroll” to convert all 2010 employer paid health premiums to Box 1 of the Form W-2. This “Owner Health Contribution Payroll” will generate payroll reports detailing what we’ve done and these will be sent to your company.

If you have any questions, please contact RMI’s Payroll Director, Megan Smith, at 888-764-0200 or megan@rminc.com.

As RMI concludes another open enrollment for our self-funded health plan, many employers and employees are left wondering why their medical premiums went up this year by a larger percentage than in years past. Wasn’t health care reform supposed to save everyone money?

The legislation that was passed last March included over 2,700 pages, and this was just the framework for health care reform. Right now, there are more questions than answers and the various agencies are struggling to provide further guidance. The implementation process is just beginning and RMI’s Plan happens to renew on October 1st, just seven days after the fist wave of changes must be implemented. RMI’s Health Plan is one of the first plans to have to implement these changes.

As you know, the items contained in the first wave of health care reform will be implemented on October 1st. The actuary firm that reviews RMI’s Plan annually recommended an additional 5% increase to our premiums this plan year to cover the costs of healthcare reform. This was just an estimate on their part, as there is no data that will tell us what the actual financial cost will be. These changes include: eliminating cost-sharing for preventative services, no life-time cap on benefits, covering all dependents until age 26 and imposing the same cost-sharing structure on non-network emergency room visits.

While these changes are certainly good for our employees, they are also reforms that will most definitely increase your medical premiums. For example, even though RMI has never had an individual reach our Plan’s current $5 million life-time maximum, RMI’s reinsurance carrier (the insurer that pays claims from the RMI Plan that exceed $180,000) is now faced with an unlimited liability and increased our premiums by more than 30% this year. Insurance carriers are not going to absorb the added costs that will be incurred by the changes in health care reform, so they will have no choice but to pass these costs on to consumers.

A recent article published in the PEO Insider magazine states that the changes which are “consumer-friendly” are being implemented first and then later will come the “painful” mandates and penalties. Next year, for example, employees will no longer be able to utilize the Flexible Spending Account (FSA) for many of their over-the-counter items. In 2013, employees will be limited to a maximum of $2,500 in FSA healthcare expenses (RMI’s Plan currently allows for a maximum of $5,000 for healthcare expenses).

Coming in Phase Two of the reform are items such as penalties for employers who impose a new-hire waiting period before paying for an employee’s medical coverage and an increase in the Medicare tax for certain individuals. What’s strange is that it is not until 2015 that the government will begin looking at ways to cut costs related to Medicaid and Medicare. One thing is for certain: it will be interesting to see where this new direction in health care will take us over the next eight years. For additional information on this, please contact RMI’s Benefits Department.

If an employee is injured, please complete an Employee Injury Report and submit it to RMI within twenty-four hours of the occurrence. Delays in reporting injuries can result in problems in filing a worker’s compensation claim, increased costs on the claim, and possible delays in recovery. Please always submit an Employee Injury Report even if the employee does not initially seek medical treatment: having a report on file is important if they need to seek treatment at a later time. Be sure to indicate if the employee has missed any time from work as a result of their injury.

You may download the form from our website and send the completed Employee Injury Report to your HR Representative at your area RMI office.

One effective strategy in making your transportation safety program more effective and limiting risk exposure from vehicle crashes is to develop and implement a policy regarding employees’ personal use of company vehicles. Many companies find this to be a delicate subject since employees whose job responsibilities warrant the assignment of a company vehicle can come to view the company vehicle as a benefit. Some employees may even come to believe that the company vehicle is an entitlement or a “perk” and take advantage of it.

A company policy on the personal use of company vehicles can effectively manage this issue from both the company’s viewpoint and the employee driver viewpoint while helping to preserve company assets through effective risk management. Over the past several years, many companies have taken the position that company vehicles are limited to strictly business use and no personal use. Yet other companies will extend personal use to not only the employee, but also the spouse. Some companies will even allow children of the employee who have reached a certain age to operate the company vehicle for personal use.

An effective “Personal Use of Company Vehicle” policy should be documented and a company “Vehicle Use” agreement should outline both business use and personal use policies and procedures. A typical use agreement covering company vehicles should include guidelines similar to the following:

• The employee assigned the vehicle should be properly licensed to operate the vehicle and should have been qualified according to company standards.



• The Motor Vehicle Record (MVR) of the assigned employee should have been obtained and reviewed against company MVR standards prior to vehicle assignment. Additionally, the MVR should be reviewed on at least an annual basis to verify that the employee driver still meets company MVR standards.



• The vehicle will be maintained according to company policies and the manufacturer’s recommended maintenance schedule.



• If personal use is extended to spouses and/or children, consideration should be given to running each individual’s MVR initially and on an annual basis.



• Policies should specify the use of seat belts by all persons riding in the vehicle, no texting while driving, and no programming of GPS devices or music/video devices.



• Use of cell phones while driving should be prohibited unless an emergency situation exists. It is preferable that cell phone calls are made while stopped in a safe location. If a cell phone call is placed, the driver should notify the other party that he or she may have to end the call at any point to deal with traffic. The call should also be kept as short as possible. Recent research shows there is no difference in crash rate involvement between drivers who hold the phone and drivers who utilize hands-free devices to make and receive calls while driving.



• The personal use policy should also include a statement that personal use does not extend to parents, in-laws, brothers and sisters, or any other persons.



• No hitchhikers are allowed at any time.



• Any crash, no matter how minor, should be reported per company policy. It is the responsibility of the employee driver to verify that any additional authorized drivers understand and comply with this policy.



• Larger company trucks (bigger than a pickup truck or SUV) should not be allowed to be utilized for any personal use.



• The vehicle will be operated in compliance with all federal, state, and local laws and regulations at all times.



• Employees should understand that a condition of remaining in a company vehicle is that the company reserves the right to limit or revoke the driving privilege of any driver, spouse or child (of driving age) at any time.

By establishing effective written guidelines and communicating the guidelines via a company vehicle use agreement, your company can help to limit exposure from personal use of company vehicles. For assistance in drafting such an agreement, or for additional information, please contact your RMI HR Representative.

Do you have a plan in place to determine how your organization will respond in an emergency? Emergencies can happen suddenly, disrupt the routine of an organization, and place personnel and property at risk. Organizations must prepare for any potential emergency from any source, including the following:

Natural Hazards

• Floods
• Hurricanes
• Tornadoes/Severe Storms
• Winter Storms
• Earthquakes
• Landslides
• Fire

Technological Hazards

• Hazardous Materials Incidents
• Nuclear Power Plants

Terrorism

• Kidnapping
• Biological Threats
• Chemical Threats
• Bomb Threats

Unless an organization is able to quickly identify the hazard, respond and react to the hazard, and recover, the organization could suffer catastrophic losses from the event. Establishing an emergency response plan can help mitigate the effects of an emergency on your operations, employees, and community. Some of the benefits and/or goals of your emergency management plan should include:

• Protecting employees, the community, and the environment
• Meeting requirements of federal, state, and local agencies
• Mitigating financial loss
• Continuity of operations
• Reducing exposure to civil and criminal liability
• Enhancing image and credibility with employees, customers, suppliers, and the community

The Four Step Development Process
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has developed a four-step continuous process for developing a plan:

1. Establish a Planning Team – Include members from several departments in your organization to provide diverse representation.
2. Analyze Capabilities and Hazards – Determine what hazards could affect your organization and what procedures you have in place to respond. Identify those business processes that need to remain operational.
3. Create the Plan – Prepare policies and procedures to spell out how employees will respond and how the organization will recover.
4. Implement the Plan – Communicate the published plan to all employees, conduct training drills and exercises at least annually, evaluate the plan on a scheduled basis, and update it.

As stated above, once the plan is implemented, it must be continually tested and updated as operations change and new hazards arise. Formal audits of the plan should be completed at least annually. For assistance in developing an emergency plan or more information on this topic, please contact your RMI HR Representative.