Sunday, February 22, 2015

White House extends Obamacare deadline, admits subsidy snafu - Yahoo Finance

 

Bowing to pressure, the Obama administration is extending Obamacare enrollment for those who learn they owe a penalty for being uninsured in 2014.

Officials also acknowledged that some 800,000 Obamacare enrollees received incorrect subsidy information on the 1095-A tax forms sent by the federal exchange, healthcare.gov. Some enrollees were mistakenly told they received too large a subsidy, while others were told their subsidy was too small.

The special enrollment period, which runs from March 15 to April 30, is open to those who remain uninsured now and who learned they owe the penalty after open enrollment ended on Feb. 15. It applies to those in the 37 states using the federal exchange, though Washington, Minnesota and Vermont have already extended enrollment for penalty payers. Other states, including California, are considering similar moves.

Some 44% likely to be penalized for not having coverage had heard nothing or only a little about the fee, according to a new survey from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Urban Institute.

Many of the uninsured are learning they owe the penalty for 2014 when they file their taxes. This is prompting some to want to enroll for this year, when the penalty is even larger. But since enrollment closed on Sunday, they were out of luck.

White House extends Obamacare deadline, admits subsidy snafu - Yahoo Finance

On what basis did Boone County pay $28k in accrued leave to the retiring Public Defender?

THIS IS A POSTING IN Progress-----------------

Stories about this large accrued annual leave payout have been published in the Boone County Journal, February 13, 2015, Page 2 and 4 . (http://boonecountywatchdog.blogspot.com/2015/02/retiring-public-defender-demands-large.html OR http://www.boonecountyjournal.com/news/2015/Boone-County-News-02-13-15.pdf#page=1)

The retiring Mr.Minhas claimed $50,000 for past years annual leave;  Boone County paid $28,000.   The Boone County Board appeared to be unaware of this large sum owed.  Was there was a sufficient paper trail that this claim should be paid?   Why the large difference in amount claimed and the amount paid? 

Based upon these and other questions the following Freedom of Information Request(Item #1) was submitted.

Item #1

Minhas FOIA 1 of 10

The request was partially granted.  Very interestingly some basic records do not exist.  See letter, Item #2 shown below

FOIA Question Number #3, for example,  there is no record that Mr. Minhas’ leave carryover for each year was actually approved each year by the Department Head. This is an apparent requirement of the county’s personnel policy and Mr. Minhas (who was the Department Head) was possibly one who would approve his own leave accrual but no such record exists.  Absent this information should any accrual of prior year’s leave occurred?

Item #2

Minhas FOIA 2 of 10

 

Minhas FOIA 3 of 10

Item #3

 

 

 

 

 

Minhas FOIA 4 of 10

 

Minhas FOIA 5 of 10

Item #5

Minhas FOIA 6 of 10

 

Item #6

Minhas FOIA 7 of 10

Minhas FOIA 8 of 10

Item #7  Minhas’ application for payment of 837 hours of annual leave

Minhas FOIA 9 of 10

Item #8  Computer generated accrued sick and annual leave for Mr. Minhas.  Apparently generated in November 2014

Minhas FOIA 10 of 10

Item #9 Accrued Unused Vacation Days as of November 30, 2013.  Apparently generated by Excel Spreadsheet possibly submitted to auditors for year end 2013 accounting.

Minhas FOIA 11 of 10

Item #10  County Board closed session minutes regarding Minhas payment.  See Collective Bargaining section.

Minhas FOIA 12 of 10