The International Association of Fire Chiefs has asked the Internal Revenue Service... to clarify if current IRS treatment of volunteer firefighters as employees means their hose companies or towns must offer health insurance coverage or pay a penalty if they don’t.
...
‘‘It could be a huge deal,’’ said U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta [R-PA]..., who is seeking clarification from the IRS.  ‘‘In Pennsylvania, 97 percent of fire departments are fully or mostly volunteer firefighters.  It’s the fourth highest amount in the country.’’
...
The health care reform law, known officially as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act..., requires employers with 50 or more full-time employees to offer health insurance...[or] pay fines.

The requirement is complicated by differing interpretations about the status of volunteer firefighters within the federal government.  The Department of Labor... classifies most volunteers as non-employees, but the IRS considers all volunteer firefighters and emergency medical personnel to be employees of their departments.
...
...The problem could be even more complicated if the IRS counts volunteer hose companies as one department in towns with more than one hose company, or as part of a town’s workforce.  Definitions like that could bump the total numbers beyond the 50-employee threshold and require offering coverage that towns or hose companies cannot afford...

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 21:53:59 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 237 words, total size 3 kb.

Two inches already on the ground at bedtime...

Yes, that’s a 10% chance of 12" or more by the time it’s over... right there in the center!

LATER:  Came the dawn: Not much additional accumulation here, but the forecasters warn of a possible 5" more this afternoon.

From the archives:

Posted by: Old Grouch in Dear Diary... at 06:07:33 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 63 words, total size 1 kb.

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 17:59:23 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 41 words, total size 1 kb.

The article goes on to list every insurance company that offers plans in the Washington exchange as well as the hospitals that are in-network for those companies.  Pivoting off of that list, Steve Roth points out that two of Washington’s biggest insurers—Primera and Lifewise— don’t have any of the state’s four top specialty hospitals in their networks.  If you want the best cancer, trauma, ER, or pediatric care, and your plan is with one of the two biggest carriers in your state, you’re out of luck.

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 17:25:45 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 139 words, total size 3 kb.