A 35-year-old Watsonville, California man was convicted of felony embezzlement Tuesday after he skimmed money from two San Jose companies and left them delinquent on their taxes.

Jason Matthew Haas was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison and ordered to pay $550,000 in restitution, authorities said.

The trouble started in June 2011, when the owner of Bite of Wyoming restaurant on Alum Rock Avenue in San Jose contacted San Jose police about possible embezzlement from its payroll service, said Watsonville police Sgt. Eric Taylor.

The restaurant used a payroll business called Payroll Management Group, which Haas worked for. It had an office on Rio Del Pajaro Court in Watsonville.

“Haas was skimming money off the books and not paying payroll taxes, which alerted the IRS,” Taylor said.

San Jose police forwarded a report to Watsonville police detective Charles Bailey, who conducted an extensive investigation.

In October 2012, another San Jose business came forward with a similar complaint of embezzlement.

Royal Coach Tours, a charter bus company, said Haas and Payroll Management Group stole more than $520,000 from March to September 2012. The company also was delinquent on its taxes, according to police.

Police at the time said Haas used payroll software to convert Royal Coach payroll tax money into checks made out to Payroll Management Group.

In November 2012, Watsonville police arrested Haas at his Watsonville home on suspicion of grand theft.

Tuesday, Haas was convicted of two counts of felony grand theft and one count of felony embezzlement.

Obamacare has few friends, if any, and hardly anyone likes having it around. Obamacare is like an ugly, socially awkward kid who transfers into grade school at mid-year and then spends the rest of the semester eating alone in the cafeteria while being giggled about by all the other pupils.

Obamacare is now so unpopular that even the IRS?s workers have turned on it. Amid the political-profiling, lavish-expense, and undeserved-bonus scandals plaguing America?s most hated federal agency, one would think the IRS would welcome any friend it could find. But even America?s federal tax-collection bureaucracy is bailing on Obamacare.

The NTEU offered its members a sample

As employers scrambled to meet looming deadlines under the health care reform law in hopes of averting a predicted disaster, the Obama administration hit the brakes on a key provision of the law.

In a surprise announcement on July 2, the U.S. Treasury Department said on its blog that enforcement of the employer mandate requiring employers to provide their workers with affordable health insurance is postponed until 2015.

“I was somewhat surprised, but it clearly looked like we were heading toward what Sen. [Max] Baucus called a train wreck,” said Helen Darling, president of the National Business Group on Health. “When large employers institute any kind of change, even minor ones, they need at least a year’s lead time and sometimes two. We’ve been feeling a growing anxiety that this wasn’t going to happen. It’s an enormous relief.”

The employer mandate, also called the “pay or play” provision, was supposed to go into effect Jan. 1, 2014. The individual mandate requiring most Americans to purchase health insurance is still in effect for 2014.

Under the Affordable Care Act, companies with 50 or more workers face a fine of up to $3,000 per employee if they don’t offer health insurance to full-time workers. But many employers say that determining who is a full-time employee and therefore eligible and whether their plans meet the law’s affordability requirements is a complex and time-consuming process.

“There are a lot of steps to this,” said J.D. Piro, a senior vice president at Aon Hewitt in Lincolnshire, Illinois. “The law was passed in 2010, but the nuts and bolts of it have only come down in the past six to eight months.”

Indeed, the lack of guidance from the federal agencies responsible for implementing reform?namely the Treasury Department, Internal Revenue Service and Department of Health and Human Services?has been a chief complaint among employers.

“The irony is that employers don’t know what they’re grappling with because the government hasn’t really been clear,” Darling said. “They were not getting the details out of what the reporting requirements are.”

She urges human resources practitioners and benefits managers to use the extra time to review any changes they were planning to make to their benefit plans for 2014 and determine if any modifications are needed.

While the delay gives employers some breathing room, they still need to figure out what to communicate to employees and what to report to the federal government, she said.

In addition to the individual mandate, the deadline for the establishment of state health exchanges remains on track. Starting Oct. 1, the health insurance marketplaces will be open for business, and employers are required to give workers information on where to go to sign up.

Wage and Hour Claims Among Top Threats to U.S. Employers.

Tags : Aging TodayBusinessPhysical HealthEducation

By Lydia Mitts

The baby boom generation is aging, as is America?s workforce. By 2018, one in every four workers?in the nation will be at least 55 years old. Developing effective health promotion interventions?for these workers will be crucial to maintaining a healthy and productive workforce.?

Evidence-based workplace wellness programs that offer tools to support healthy aging can help?older workers maintain active lives. Research shows that offering free support and activities, such?as nutrition classes or walking clubs, can help workers make healthy lifestyle changes. One study?in the American Journal of Public Health by Hughes et al. (101: 2011) found that certain supports,?like in-person health coaching, are particularly effective for older workers.

via Workplace Wellness Programs: Who Really Benefits? | American Society on Aging.

May 10, 2013

Medicare charges vary widely at California hospitals, new data show - latimes.com.

By Chad Terhune

May 8, 2013,