Some portions of health care reform could harm seniors 
POSTED: Friday, March 2, 2012 at 09:05 AM PTBY: Patty Hutchens
Tags: Hospice, Medicare, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is intended to increase coverage and make medical care more available to those who couldn’t afford it in the past. But it might be having the opposite effect on homebound and terminally ill seniors. One of the provisions in the act requires Medicare recipients seeking home health skilled [...]
AARP advocating to keep the lights on for seniors
POSTED: Tuesday, February 28, 2012 at 10:00 AM PTBY: Blair Koch
Tags: AARP Idaho, David Irwin, IPUC
AARP Idaho is working to create a consumer advocacy group to respond to rate hike requests filed with the Idaho Public Utilities Commission. Forty percent of Idahoans 50 and older report they have difficulty affording their utility bills, said David Irwin, AARP Idaho communications director. A consumer advocacy panel gives “the least able to afford [...]
Opportunities: More women starting their own businesses
POSTED: Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 08:26 AM PTBY: Patty Hutchens
Barb Perusse spent several years working as an investigator of child abuse in Kansas City. She needed a change. She learned about a wireless communications business that was for sale in Sandpoint, a town she had visited often. She jumped at the opportunity for a fresh start and the chance to own her own business. [...]
Cubicle walls getting lower to increase worker collaboration
POSTED: Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 02:16 PM PTBY: Gaye Bunderson
Employees might be justified in asking how they can “think outside the box” when they’re trapped in very boxlike structures called office cubicles all day long. But for many employees, there’s some good news: office cubicle walls are coming down – not entirely, but by degrees over the past years. Cubicles have been a mainstay [...]
Homebuilders come into 2012 with momentum
POSTED: Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 08:21 AM PTBY: Dani Grigg
The figures are in for Ada County homebuilding last year, and they’re leaving builders feeling optimistic. While the number of newly constructed homes sold in 2011 dropped slightly from the year before, the median sales price leaped up by 20 percent, equating to a 10 percent rise in overall dollar volume. To be more specific, the [...]
Stay ahead of the curve by being aware of tax changes
POSTED: Wednesday, February 1, 2012 at 02:52 PM PTBY: Blair Koch
Tags: Ames & Co., Cooper Norman, Deagle, Stevens Pierce & Associates
Although you won’t know your tax liability until your profits and losses are established, it’s always best to be ahead of the curve by being aware of tax rule changes for the year ahead. Knowing about the various tax law changes will help you plan for the coming year and boost your bottom line. Small [...]
Central vacuum salesman helps Idaho suck it up
POSTED: Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 03:59 PM PTBY: Gaye Bunderson
Tags: Gem State Central Vacuum Systems, Jason Miller
Jason Miller said his new, self-funded enterprise wasn’t an expensive business to launch. With just $20,000 of his own money he started Gem State Central Vacuum Systems last August. At the same time, he acknowledges a central vacuum system is, in his own words, “a luxury and not a necessity.” That may explain in part [...]
Goodbye, fine dining; hello, hot dogs
POSTED: Friday, January 27, 2012 at 10:01 AM PTBY: Gaye Bunderson
Tags: Mark Makin, North Shore Hotdog Co.
Mark Makin has been a building contractor, owner of one restaurant, co-owner of another, general manager and chef at a fine dining spot, and when he wanted to slow down from that whirlwind career, he plunked down his own money to start selling untraditional hot dogs at a downtown Boise spot that had been the [...]
Small businesses struggling with health care reform
POSTED: Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 12:21 PM PTBY: Patty Hutchens
Tags: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
Wading through the murky waters of health care reform can be overwhelming. While some of the provisions of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as health care reform, were implemented in September 2010, many of the requirements will not be fully in place until 2014. In the meantime premiums continue to rise, [...]
Misplaced trust: Businesses pay for worker malfeasance
POSTED: Friday, January 20, 2012 at 08:46 AM PTBY: Gaye Bunderson
Tags: Averti Fraud Solutions, Denise McClure
Sometimes the people you trust the most may actually be the people you should trust the least. Denise McClure, a forensic accountant and owner of Averti Fraud Solutions in Boise, warns businesspeople that, occasionally, that longtime bookkeeper may be illegally padding his or her own bank account with money that in fact belongs to the [...]
