by admin | Nov 2, 2021 | Hot Topics
Many of us have heard of Alzheimer’s disease but may not know much more than it is a disease that causes memory loss. Experts suggest that more than 6 million Americans, most of them age 65 or older, may have dementia caused by Alzheimer’s. This disease is currently ranked as the sixth leading cause of death in the United States, but recent estimates indicate the disorder may rank third, just behind heart disease and cancer as a cause of death for older people.
Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills, and eventually, the ability to carry out the simplest tasks. Changes in the brain may begin a decade or more before symptoms appear. During this very early stage of Alzheimer’s, toxic changes are taking place in the brain. Previously healthy neurons stop functioning, lose connections with other neurons, and die.
Signs and symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease
Memory problems are typically one of the first signs of cognitive impairment related to Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s disease progresses in several stages: early, mild (sometimes called mild cognitive impairment), moderate, and severe.
In the Early stage, a person begins to experience memory loss and other cognitive difficulties, though the symptoms appear gradual to the person and their family.
During the Mild Cognitive Impairment(MCI), stage damage occurs in areas of the brain that control language, reasoning, sensory processing, and conscious thought. Conditions such as diabetes, depression, and stroke may increase a person’s risk for MCI.
Some of the signs of MCI include:
- Losing things often
- Forgetting to go to events or appointments
- Having more trouble coming up with words than other people of the same age
MCI can be managed by seeing a doctor or specialist every 6 to 12 months. A doctor can help track any changes in memory and thinking skills over time. People with MCI might also consider participating in clinical trials or studies.
The Moderate stage of Alzheimer’s disease requires more intensive supervision and care becomes necessary.
Symptoms may include:
- Increased memory loss and confusion
- Inability to learn new things
- Difficulty with speech and problems reading, writing and working with numbers
- Difficulty organizing thoughts and logical thinking
- Shorted attention span
- Problems coping with new situations
- Difficulty carrying out multistep tasks, such as getting dressed
- Problems recognizing family and friends
- Hallucinations, delusions, and paranoia
- Impulsive behavior
- Inappropriate outbursts of anger
- Restlessness, agitation, anxiety, wandering in the late afternoon or evening
- Repetitive statements or movement
People with Severe Alzheimer’s cannot communicate and are completely dependent on others for care. The person may also be in the bed most or all the time as the body shuts down.
Symptoms often include:
- Inability to communicate
- Weight loss
- Seizures
- Skin infections
- Difficulty swallowing
- Groaning, moaning, or grunting
- Increased sleeping
- Loss of bowel and bladder control
How is Alzheimer’s disease treated?
Currently, there is no cure for Alzheimer’s, though there are medicines that can help treat the symptoms of the disease. Most medicines work best for people in the early or middle stages of Alzheimer’s. Researchers are exploring other drug therapies and other interventions to delay or prevent the disease as well as treat its symptoms. Some of those include physical activity, diet, cognitive training, and a combination of these.
Alzheimer’s is complex and it is therefore unlikely that any one drug or other intervention will successfully treat it in all people living with the disease. It is important to talk to your doctor if you experience any signs or symptoms of the disease so that appropriate medical tests can be conducted. This will not only give you peace of mind but will help you and your family prepare for the future.
The journey typically lasts for years and for most of that time, people living with Alzheimer’s can still enjoy the same things they always have. Instead of focusing on what is lost, focus on what remains. People still enjoy beauty and feel emotions long after losing the ability to store short-term memories. Recognize each moment as an opportunity to help your loved one experience the joys of life.
by admin | Sep 7, 2021 | Hot Topics, Human Resources, IRS
Employers, have you reminded your employees to check that they are having the right amount of tax withheld from their paychecks? It’s a good idea for everyone to check their payroll withholding every year, but it is particularly important this year due to the many proposed tax changes.
The law’s changes do not affect every taxpayer the same way. Some workers may need to increase their withholding so they will not face a tax bill —and possible penalties — next April when their 2021 tax return is due. Many other workers, however, benefit from the law’s changes and can take home more pay because the withholding amounts are less.
Help your employees avoid being surprised next spring when they prepare their 2021 returns. Remind them now to check their year-to-date withholding so they can make adjustments, if appropriate, on their paychecks for the rest of this year. It’s easy and convenient using tools provided by the IRS.
Here is a sample message to employees:
The IRS encourages everyone to use the Withholding Calculator to perform a quick “paycheck checkup.” This is even more important this year because of recent changes to the tax law for 2021.
The Calculator helps you identify your tax withholding to make sure you have the right amount of tax withheld from your paycheck at work. Use the Calculator to see if you should give your employer a new Form W-4, Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate, to adjust your income tax withholding going forward.
To get started, gather your most recent pay stubs and a copy of your last federal tax return (2020 Form 1040). You’ll use the information to estimate your 2021 income and taxes.
The Withholding Calculator does not ask you to provide sensitive personally-identifiable information like your name, Social Security number, address, or bank account numbers. The IRS does not save or record the information you enter on the Calculator.
Ready to start? Make sure Javascript is enabled and go to: Withholding Calculator
by Kathleen Berger
Originally posted on thinkhr.com
by Johnson and Dugan | Aug 6, 2021 | Benefit Plan Tips, Tricks and Traps, Employee Benefits, Hot Topics, Human Resources, IRS
Many employees have the option to choose between their employer’s plan and another program where they meet the eligibility requirements (i.e., spouse’s, domestic partner’s, or parent’s plan). A Cash in Lieu of Benefits program, or cash-out option, offers an incentive for those employees to waive the employer coverage and instead enroll in the other plan. The incentive is in the form of a cash payment added to their paycheck. Properly implementing a Cash in Lieu of Benefits program is crucial, as unexpected tax consequences could occur otherwise.
Overview
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requires a Section 125 plan be in place to be a qualified cash-out option. If the plan is not set up under an IRC Section 125 plan, the plan will be disqualified and employees who elect coverage under the health plan will be taxed on an amount equal to the amount of cash they could have received for waiving coverage.
The IRS has ruled that when an option is available to either elect the health plan, or to receive a cash-out incentive, then the premium payment to the insurance company becomes wages. The reasoning is that when an employer makes payments to the insurance company where the employee has the option of receiving those amounts as wages, the employee is merely assigning future income (cash compensation) for consideration (health insurance coverage). Therefore, the payment is treated as a substitute for the health insurance coverage. By setting up an IRC Section 125 plan, the employer is offering a choice between cash and certain excludable employer-provided benefits, without adverse tax implications.
Plan Set-up
There must be a Plan Document in place and nondiscrimination requirements must be followed, including annual nondiscrimination testing, in order to be a qualified Section 125 plan. To meet nondiscrimination rules, Cash in Lieu of Benefits must be offered to all employees equitably. To be sure an employer is not over incentivizing employees to drop the plan, which could impact the nondiscrimination participation requirements, the monthly cash benefit should not exceed $200-$300.
When a Section 125 plan already exists (Premium Payment Plan, Health Care Spending Account, Dependent Care Spending Account), the plan can be amended to add the cash out feature. Where no Section 125 plan is in place, it is standard to have an attorney provide this service. It is important to note that, although the Section 125 plan protects the employees electing coverage from taxation, the cash-out incentive is an after-tax benefit.
As always with any IRS-qualified plan, proper documentation is essential. An employee should only be allowed to waive coverage when there is another plan available, and proof of enrollment is provided. If there is a subsequent loss of that coverage, HIPAA Special Enrollment Rights will allow entry onto the plan, and the cash-out incentive will cease.
Considerations
Cash in Lieu of Benefits funds cannot be used to purchase individual health coverage. For companies over 20 lives and Medicare is secondary coverage, the plan should not be structured to incentivize employees over 65 to opt out of the employer plan to enroll in Medicare.
Another factor to consider is the impact to employers considered Applicable Large Employers (ALE) and subject to the affordability determination and reporting under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). An ALE is an employer averaging 50 or more full-time plus full-time equivalent employees for the preceding 12 months. If a cash out option is offered without an IRS qualified Cash in Lieu of Benefits plan, the payment must be included in the affordability calculation.
There are also Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) implications. Any opt-out payments made by an employer to an employee must be included in an employee’s regular rate of pay and therefore is used in calculating overtime compensation for non-exempt employees.
These considerations should be reviewed with a tax expert and/or ERISA attorney to determine if a Cash in Lieu of Benefits program is the right option for your organization. These professionals, along with a Section 125 Plan Administrator, can provide the necessary guidance to ensure the program will satisfy compliance requirements. For further information on this topic, please contact your Johnson & Dugan team.
By Jody Lee, Johnson & Dugan
by admin | Jul 27, 2021 | Health & Wellness, Hot Topics
Heartbreaks are painful, but did you know that heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, with more than 655,000 people dying from the condition each year. This equates to one in four deaths attributed to this awful disease. The most common form of heart disease is coronary artery disease (CAD), which is what can cause heart attacks.
CAD is caused when a substance called plaque builds up in a person’s arteries. As the buildup grows, the opening of the arteries gradually closes until blood flow is blocked and the patient experiences a heart attack. While these statistics are sobering, there are several ways we can prevent heart disease. Knowing the “why” about this disease can aid in prevention. First, let’s learn about the big three risk factors of heart disease:
High Blood Pressure
High blood pressure (HBP) is the force of blood pushing against blood vessel walls. This is what your nurse checks when she puts the blood pressure cuff on your arm and pumps air into it at your check-up. She is listening for the pressure when your heart beats and the pressure for when your heart is at rest between beats. High blood pressure usually has no signs or symptoms so it is very important to keep your annual physical appointments with your doctor and to follow her recommendations if she diagnoses you with HBP.
High Cholesterol
High cholesterol is when you develop fatty deposits in your blood vessels. These deposits can lead to narrow vessels and increase your chance of a heart attack. It is determined through blood tests. While high cholesterol can be inherited, it can also be prevented through medication, diet and exercise.
Smoking
Smokers are four times more likely to develop heart disease than non-smokers. The nicotine in smoke reduces your blood flow, raises your blood pressure, and speeds up your heart. Quitting smoking will not reverse the damage done to your heart, but it greatly reduces the damage going forward to your heart and arteries.
In addition to the three key risk factors, it’s important to explore what we can do to prevent it. Prevention behaviors can take you from the danger zone of heart disease and put you on the path to a healthy heart.
Healthy Diet
According to the Mayo Clinic, simple tips to prevent heart disease by diet include tips like these: controlling portion size, eating more vegetables and fruits, selecting whole grains, limiting unhealthy fats, choosing low-fat protein, reducing sodium intake, and limiting treats.
Healthy Weight
Being overweight increases your risk for heart disease. One measure used to determine if your weight is in a healthy range is body mass index (BMI). If you know your weight and height, you can calculate your BMI at CDC’s Assessing Your Weight website. When in doubt, consult a physician who can help in calculating whether your health is at risk due to weight.
Physical Activity
Among the many benefits to getting enough physical activity can, it can help you maintain a healthy weight and lower your blood pressure, cholesterol, and sugar levels. From walking, to swimming, to cycling, adding even moderate activity to your routine can have a great impact on your heart health. Just remember, it’s always a good idea to check with your doctor before starting any new exercise regimen.
Quit Smoking
Smoking cigarettes greatly increases your risk for heart disease. If you don’t smoke, don’t start. If you do smoke, quitting will lower your risk for heart disease. Your doctor can suggest ways to help you quit, and you can find many other helpful resources, including creating a tailored plan to help you quit at SmokeFree.gov.
Limit Alcohol
There’s a good reason your doctor asks about routine alcohol consumption at each check-up. Drinking too much alcohol can drastically raise blood pressure and binge drinking can increase heart rate. For heart health, the medical guidelines state that men should have no more than two drinks per day, and women only one. Talk to your doctor if you aren’t sure whether or not you should drink alcohol or how much you should drink for optimal heart health.
Check out these great resources to better educate yourself and others on heart health:
Understand Your Risks to Prevent a Heart Attack
Heart Health Information
Strategies to Prevent Heart Disease
Heart Health Tips
by admin | May 13, 2021 | Hot Topics
As a business, you are constantly managing your sales funnel–from the first point of contact with a prospect to their purchase of your service. But it doesn’t (and shouldn’t) stop there. Perhaps the most important part of your sales funnel is the follow-up post-sale. It’s in this time of follow-up that you build the ongoing relationship that will lead to customer loyalty and, hopefully, customer referrals. Relationship marketing is the key to customer satisfaction and long-term company success.
Relationship Marketing and the Bottom Line
It makes senses that before we dive into strategies for relationship marketing, you understand WHY it’s important. Gaining a new customer in a crowded market is hard. According to Invesp, “The probability of selling to an existing customer is 60-70%, while the probability of selling to a new prospect is 5-20%.” Did you know how expensive it is to get that new sale? It’s 5-25 times more expensive to gain a new customer than to retain an existing one. WOW! And while you are focusing on gaining that new client, you are likely not spending the same amount of time nurturing the relationships you have with your current ones. That lack of attention can affect your bottom line. By just increasing customer retention rates by 5%, you can increase profits by 25-95%! Relationship building and relationship marketing must demand your attention or you’ll see lower profits because of the higher cost of acquiring that hard-to-obtain new customer.
Relationship Marketing Strategies
Cultivating your current relationships can ensure customer loyalty in the long-term. Here are some effective relationship marketing strategies to build strong, lasting connections with your satisfied clients.
- Spend the time and money on building an excellent customer service department. When your client has a service issue, they do not want to get in an endless loop of being passed off to the next computerized voice, supervisor, or department and end the call with their problem unresolved. Instead, you want to make sure that they feel heard, understood, and have had their problem resolved at the first touch-point. One bad customer service interaction can result in the loss of a repeat sale. One good customer service interaction can result in a great review and referral.
- Create a customer loyalty and/or referral rewards program.
Loyalty programs aren’t restricted to a product punch card system. You can create a loyalty program that rewards current customers with a discount on a new service or a reduced service fee for a current offering. The same goes for referral rewards. Encourage referrals from your clients and give gift cards or send a thank you gift when they respond. Lack of customer loyalty affects your bottom line. CallMiner’s Churn Index 2020 states, “US companies lose $136.8 billion per year due to avoidable consumer switching.” It’s worth the time to build into these relationships so that they result in long-term customers who don’t even think about leaving you.
- Ask for feedback and ask for it regularly.
Communication is a two-way street. You can spend countless hours sending emails and posting to social media accounts about all the things your company does, but if you never ask your clients what they think about you, you’ll stay stagnant and never grow to be better. Open up the lines of communication in your client relationships. Don’t be afraid to hear where you are lacking—it’s a chance to fix a problem and make a customer feel heard. When you get positive feedback, publish it. It’s one thing to hear about why a company thinks they are the best, it’s another thing to hear why their client thinks they are.
Relationship marketing is instrumental in creating a growing, thriving business. It builds customer satisfaction, retention, and elicits ideas for improvement while also producing opportunities for you to shout the praises from long-term customers. Take the time to cultivate these relationships and you’ll see your business is better for it.
by ckistler | Jan 12, 2021 | Hot Topics, Human Resources
There is never a better time to look towards the future than right now. Goal setting does not need to be constrained to the start of a new year. So, let’s look at three helpful tips for effective goal setting.
First, what is a goal? A goal is defined as “the object of a person’s ambition or effort; an aim or desired result.” Goals can be for the short-term or long-term. And, many times, short-term goals can be used to achieve your long-term ones. Goals are not a one-and-done activity, too. They are an active undertaking that require dedication and work.
TIPS FOR GOALS
1. Set goals with high value.
We all dream big dreams for our life. In order to make those dreams a reality, you have to put in some work. This is where goals come in. Make a list of the dreams you have and rank them by priority and feasibility. When you have made your ranked dream list, you can now set goals that relate to the things that have the highest priority in your life. When you do so, you give the goals high value. High-value goals motivate you to put in the hard work to achieve them.
2. Follow the SMART method of goal setting.
When you work on your goal setting, make sure you follow the SMART method. By doing so, you ensure that your goals are ones that are clear and well thought out. Here’s the breakdown of the SMART method:
- Specific—Make sure your goals are clear and well-defined. Don’t be vague and say “I’d like to learn how to play the guitar.” Instead, say “I will take a weekly guitar lesson.”
- Measurable—Use specific amounts, dates, etc. As you craft your goals, assign specifics to them that can be measured like “I will take weekly guitar lessons for three months.”
- Attainable—Create goals that are possible to achieve. Don’t set goals for yourself that you have no way to accomplish or you will feel defeated and reluctant to set goals in the future.
- Relevant—Set goals that line up with your life and career. In other words, set goals that align with the things that matter in your life.
- Time-bound—Your goals must have a deadline. Open-ended goals lead to unachieved goals because there is no urgency to them. Give your goals an end date so you have something to work towards.
3. Be accountable.
Find an accountability partner to keep you on track. When you have someone that is regularly checking in on you to see how you are doing with accomplishing your goals, you will work harder to stay on pace to achieve them!
BONUS TIP!
You can track your progress on accomplishing your goals through goal tracker apps. Check out these three: Strides, Repeat Habit Tracker, and Way of Life.
Setting goals not only gives you focus for the future, but it also allows you to see just how much you are capable of. When you look at where you are now compared to where you were at the initial time of your goal setting, you’ll be amazed at what you have achieved. Take the time to set SMART goals and, as Success.com says, “Make sure that the greatest pull in your life is the pull of the future.”
