Steps to Take Now That Your Personal Information Has
Been Distributed
Today, many were awakening to learn that the City of Akron’s
internal computer system was hacked by a group of Turkish
radicals. According to Ohio.com, 47,452 entries of personal
information associated with income tax filings including names,
addresses, social security numbers and even credit card information
has been compromised. The hackers have even gone so far as to
post some of this “stolen” personal and private...
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The end of Quantitative Easing is coming one day; the Fed put
everyone on notice with four Fed officials discussing the ‘taper’
of open market security purchases. [i] Many people believe
the money printing from the Fed went directly into the
stock market and that these dollars are what is propelling the
equity markets to new all-time highs. While they are somewhat
right in form, they are wrong in substance. The Fed is not
buying equities, but it is shrinking the supply of Treasuries...
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Merging
entities together is nothing new. Companies merge all of the
time. Government offices even merge every so often, with
local governments having been known to share services or annex one
another. What about merging credentialed professionals into
one? That’s a little more unusual.
It’s not very often that you see credentialing bodies
consolidate or merge certifications, but this is just what the
National Association of Certified
Valuators and Analysts (“NACVA”) is doing with two of...
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Discussion continues on the impact of the Affordable Care Act
(ACA), and American Taxpayer Relief Act (ATRA), and their impact on
small and mid-sized businesses.
According to a White House study, small businesses tend to pay
insurance premiums that are 18 percent higher on average than large
businesses pay for the same coverage. The ACA addresses this cost
disparity in a variety of ways.
Click here to read more about what's new with the
Affordable Care Act and the American Taxpayer Relief
Act.
For...
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In case you missed part 1 (Setting
online marketing goals and objectives) part 2 (Making
a website search engine friendly), or part 3 (Navigation)
check out those past articles before you start part 4 below.
A sitemap is essential to any well-organized web design process.
A sitemap outlines your site’s main content “buckets” and the pages
that will live underneath them. This helps you get a 20,000 foot
overview of how your site will be organized and where each piece of
content belongs.
You can...
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The
quarterback of a football team must know the responsibility of
every player on the field. Although the quarterback may not
have the required skills to block a blitzing linebacker or run a
pass route, he needs to have a deep understanding of the roles of
each of his teammates to ensure everyone is working together to
execute the play effectively. This can be quite a challenge
with the increasing complexity of football schemes today.
Similarly, a valuation analyst, whose primary role is to...
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Most medical practices are aware of the HIPAA HITECH
requirements that affect their organizations, and the fines that
they face if they are not compliant in the ways they handle patient
health information (PHI).
What a lot of professionals don’t know is that HIPAA HITECH
regulations also hold business associates, (i.e. other
professionals from other companies who could also have access to
PHI) just as responsible for protecting the data as the medical
practices who own that information.
After
read...
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This month's Strategic Connection includes the following:
State of Inbound Marketing Report
HubSpot recently conducted a survey of 3,339 marketing
professionals to gauge the current state of inbound marketing.
They've put together a handy slideshow that covers the top 10 revelations in...
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This month's Special Delivery includes the following:
Golden Opportunity for Small-Business
Owners
Are you contemplating purchasing new equipment or assets for
your small business? It’s a good time for many...
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Ohio has one of the most complicated municipal tax systems in
the country. Each year at tax time, it’s a costly burden for
taxpayers across the state, especially business owners who operate
in multiple municipalities. The Municipal Tax Reform Coalition, a
group of 25 organizations across the state, is working to change
that.
The group is supporting HB 5, sponsored by Rep. Cheryl Grossman
(R-Grove City) and Rep. Michael Henne (R-Clayton). The legislation
will achieve the goals of any good tax...
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In case you missed part 2 (Making
a website search engine friendly) or part 1 (Setting
online marketing goals and objectives), check out those past
articles before you start part 3 below.
In this installment, we’ll be covering some things to consider
when you are looking to create a navigation structure for your new
website. A great place to start is on your current website. Using a
program like Google Analytics, you can determine which pages should
be the “stars” of your new website:
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If you haven’t looked into 3D printing yet, maybe you should.
3D printing started in the mid-80’s but it is now
emerging as a technology that may well change the way many products
are created. Oxford University has demonstrated that a 3D
printer can make synthetic tissue, Oxford Performance Materials out
of Connecticut has “printed” a skull implant, and Cornell
University has fabricated an ear using this technology. A Dutch
architect, Janjapp Ruijssenaars, plans to build a house using...
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This month's Valuation & Litigation Advisory Insights
includes the following:
When a Purchaser Involves Both Cash and Stock, Buyer and
Seller Beware
There is risk on both sides of a transaction when a privately-held
company is issuing shares as a component of deal consideration.
There are competing interests that can...
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It’s likely you’ve heard or read the phrase
reduce, reuse, recycle – also known as The Three
Rs, it provides an easy method for
remembering how to restore and preserve the environment.
But, have you thought about it in terms of the content your
business or brand provides to its clients and contacts? Your
professionals regularly share information via your company blog – but there are
myriad innovative ways to go green and reacquaint readers with your
business expertise. Let’s take a look at The...
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The rules introduce new requirements for content of HIPAA
privacy notices and requires the redistribution of the updated
notices. This primarily applies directly to covered
entities.
In additional to the existing HIPAA privacy rule requirements,
the new rules require the HIPAA privacy notice to inform
individuals that:
- They have a right to be notified following a breach of their
unsecured PHI
- They may be contacted to raise funds and have the right to opt
out of receiving such communications
- Most...
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Three years ago, on March 23, 2010, President Obama signed the
Affordable Care Act (ACA) into law. While several substantial
provisions don't take effect until 2014, many of the Act's
requirements already have been implemented, including:
- Insurance policies must allow young adults up to age 26 to
remain covered on their parent's health insurance.
- Insurers cannot deny coverage to children due to their health
status, nor can companies exclude children's coverage for
pre-existing conditions.
- Lifetime...
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This month's Financial Services E-Advisor includes the
following:
Estate Tax After the Fiscal Cliff
After threatening to go over the fiscal cliff, the gift tax,
estate tax, and generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax...
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The new rules make business associates directly responsible for
complying with the security rule. Previously, only a covered
entity had directly responsibility for compliance, with their
business associates having responsibility only to the covered
entity via contract. This is an important distinction as this
places significantly more liability on vendors and sub-contractors
who are deemed to be business associates.
The rules require business associates to:
- Use or disclose PHI only as permitted...
Read More >>
Aurum Wealth Management Group's Second Quarter Strategy Report
includes the following topics:
- The global economy is full of the haves and the have nots.
- Japan and the U.S. propelled global equity markets higher with
regional results varying.
- Higher interest rates detracted from fixed income returns,
while credit opportunities evolve.
- REIT valuations ascend to familiar territory.
Economy
Reports in the fourth quarter from the IMF seemingly indicated
an understanding that austerity led to worse...
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In summary, the HIPAA HITECH rules cover the following areas of
compliance:
- Privacy Rule
- Security Rule
- Breach Notification Rule
- Enforcement Rule
- Unique Identifiers Rule
The primary focus for most organization’s required to comply
with HIPAA HITECH is to ensure compliance with the privacy
and security rules. The major goal of these HIPAA regulations
is to ensure that any identifiable Personal Health Information
(PHI) is kept secure, confidential, and only accessed by authorized
personnel. These...
Read More >>
Merging
entities together is nothing new. Companies merge all of the
time. Government offices even merge every so often, with
local governments having been known to share services or annex one
another. What about merging credentialed professionals into
one? That’s a little more unusual. 
The
quarterback of a football team must know the responsibility of
every player on the field. Although the quarterback may not
have the required skills to block a blitzing linebacker or run a
pass route, he needs to have a deep understanding of the roles of
each of his teammates to ensure everyone is working together to
execute the play effectively. This can be quite a challenge
with the increasing complexity of football schemes today.
Similarly, a valuation analyst, whose primary role is to...
It’s likely you’ve heard or read the phrase
reduce, reuse, recycle – also known as The Three
Rs, it provides an easy method for
remembering how to restore and preserve the environment.
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