A continuing series. Join us this week in Houston to learn about how the Affordable Care Act affects you and your company.

Trainwreck or Bullet Train – Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)

Business owners/entrepreneurs are you ready for the wild ride?

Featuring Travis Middleton of Trademark Insurance Agency

A business media event. We will be at the meet-up with our video camera, photography camera(s), and podcast capabilities to interview you about your company. The presentation is provided by Trademark Insurance Agency on a very timely subject that affects your short-term and long-term business interests

Media sponsors: “Price of Business” with Kevin Price and KBRZ Sports Radio with Russell Johns watch?v=OTbPgf_EDFU

Reserve your tickets (limited seating): http://ebcmeetup.eventbrite.com/

What is legal status of the law?

– as the President pointed out the Affordable Care Act was passed by Congress, signed by the President and ruled a constitutionally authorized tax by the Supreme Court.

Which plans must comply?

What are your responsibilities as an employer?

• Reforms currently in place
• – which reforms/provisions are effecting us currently
• 2013/2014 compliance deadlines – taxes and or penalties/reporting

Future compliance deadlines – overview of the Individual Mandate/Health Insurance Exchanges

Why should you attend?

• Event focused on helping you achieve your market goals with broadcast media
• Dynamic Networking – our focus is live, active introductions and recommendations to help you on your trajectory to success
• Legacy Media – podcast interviews, video, photography, social media – you are the star! Invest the time and leave a media trail long after the event.
• Updates from our last meet-ups. We want to know what is going on in your business and how we can help.
• High-impact, high octane odometer needle-moving focus.
• Our news makes news. We write blog posts and release your story to our social media, the mainstream media, and give you the tools to do the same on your own. It takes a team!

We will have our camera with lights and mic on location to interview you about your business and will also conduct podcast interviews for the web.

Visit: www.YouTube.com/EBCbroadcast for past web productions (on-going content being created weekly).

Date: Wed., October 30th
Time: 11am to 1:30PM
Location:
Hosted by Epic Business Brokers (Mary Kamp) and Marketing Dynamics
2500 E. TC Jester (conference room 1st Floor, near on-premises deli)
Houston, Texas 77008
* you may order your lunch at the deli prior to attending or during the meeting.
* Cost to attend: $20 (limited seating). Reserve your tickets here: http://ebcmeetup.eventbrite.com/
* covered parking

IMPORTANT: We are recording video interviews and updates about your business and will allocate blocks of time to capture your interview on-camera. The time for recording is from 11AM to 11:30 AM sharp. Time slots available are 2 to 3 minutes each (a $500 value, free to our attendees – first come first serve).

General agenda:

• Interviews on camera, via podcasts, and photography of your interview and networking (dynamic content)
• Round-table introductions and updates on your business :60 seconds or a bit more (video taping)
• Featured Business: Trademark Insurance Agency
• Leadership Development – “Launching a Leadership Revolution with Ben Harrison
• EBC Broadcast Updates: EBC Radio, Retail Video, EBC Broadcast News (at events), Video Syndication, New Web Series Schedules, and more!

Contact: Andy Valadez, CMO for more information. E-mail: andy@ebcbroadcast.com or call 713.560.3348

SPONSORED BY EBC.

Big businesses may spend enormous sums to purchase political favors—such as laws or regulation to mandate purchase of their products or to hamstring their competition, writes G. Keith Smith, M.D., cofounder of the Surgery Center of Oklahoma, in the fall 2013 issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons.

“Creating almost impenetrable webs of lies to cover their true purpose is part of the political game, a game usually played in the name of our ‘well-being’ or ‘safety,'” he states. So how does one know what to look for?

Smith suggests that industry consolidation is the “smoking gun.” He notes that rural hospitals are disappearing, while big city corporate hospitals are bringing in record revenues. One nonprofit (“not show a profit”) system is planning to spend $4.2 billion on a building campaign.

Big pharmaceutical companies are another example. Using problems at the New England Compounding Center, Inc., as a rationale, the Food and Drug Administration is proposing legislation to vastly expand its powers to regulate (read “close,” says Smith) compounding pharmacies. This means his surgical center will have to pay eight times as much for a brand name version of the anesthesia enhancing hyaluronidase product that compounders have supplied without difficulty for years.

Small hospitals or pharmacies simply cannot afford to comply with costly though clinically unnecessary government requirements demanded by mega-corporations, Smith points out.

Government policy is responsible for enabling ruinous hospital bills that bankrupt uninsured patients, Smith explains. The answer, he says, is not to “make sure everyone has insurance so these companies can make even more money.”

Rather, we need open discussion about prices—and an end to collusion of big business and big government that eliminates competition.

Pennsylvania General Counsel James D. Schultz issued the following statement today concerning distortions surrounding the same-sex marriage case:

“We are deeply disturbed and disappointed by recent coverage of the same-sex marriage case which misrepresents the commonwealth’s position in this matter.

“This case is a clear matter of law: Does a public official have the authority to disregard state law based on his own personal legal opinion about the constitutionality of a statute?

“Contrary to recent headlines, the administration does NOT equate same-sex marriage to the marriage of minors. Instead, the Commonwealth’s legal brief, which totals 25 pages of detailed legal arguments, responds to an elected official in Montgomery County ignoring the law of the commonwealth. In one passing reference, the legal brief notes other individuals whose marriages are excluded by Pennsylvania law, would have no standing to intervene in this type of case – and in any other circumstance the court would never entertain that type of effort to expand the scope of a case.

“The facts are clear:

• Pennsylvania law defines marriage as a ‘civil contract by which one man and one woman take each other for husband and wife.’
• The actions of Montgomery County Register of Wills D. Bruce Haines are contrary to state law.
• Mr. Haines, and every other public official, has a duty to comply with the law.
• The Pennsylvania Department of Health is responsible for uniform enforcement of the registration of marriages across the commonwealth.
• The actions of Mr. Haines have not changed that law, nor has the fact that he has issued licenses to same sex-couples, contrary to state law.
• Counterclaims and constitutional debates play no role in the mandamus actions – the only question the court should consider is whether Mr. Haines is in violation of his duties.
• Other parties, including same-sex couples who have been issued licenses in Montgomery County, have other more appropriate legal avenues to pursue their claims.

“To distort the legal position of the commonwealth, either because of personal bias or as a gratuitous effort to draw a larger audience of readers or viewers is intellectually dishonest and disingenuous.”

Barack Obama’s new strategy for attacking gun owners specifically targets collectors and competitors by blocking returns of surplus military rifles over six decades old, and reveals his extremist anti-gun attitude, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

The president’s new gun control measures, announced today by Vice President Joe Biden, will prevent the recovery of thousands of military-surplus M-1 Garand rifles that are valued by collectors, competitors and historic reenactors. These firearms were loaned or donated to South Korea decades ago.

“This is an outrage,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “and the only people being hurt are law-abiding citizens. If there were any doubt about the level of anti-gun extremism in the Obama administration, this announcement just put those doubts to rest.”

There is pending legislation, H.R. 2247, the “Collectible Firearms Protection Act” sponsored by Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) that would prevent this, he noted.

This new prohibition will have far-reaching effects on all kinds of curio and relic firearms. Such firearms have considerable historic significance and value to American firearms aficionados, and there is no evidence that such firearms have ever been favored by criminals.

“American gun owners can kiss goodbye any notions that they might see some moderate, reasonable movement on gun issues from this administration,” Gottlieb stated. “And Joe Biden is likely to have real trouble pandering himself as a reasonable gun owner when he decides to run for president in 2016, because gun owners will not forget his involvement in this prohibition.

“This ruling also sends a message to the firearms industry, and particularly importers, that this administration cannot be trusted,” he added. “The president is taking out his frustration for being unable to pass his gun control agenda, and the only people who will suffer are citizens who would never break the law with any of these firearms. Punishing innocent people may be the Chicago way, but it’s not the American way, or the way an American president ought to lead.”

In recognition of the 39^th annual National Suicide Prevention Week, ValueOptions®, Inc., a health improvement company specializing in mental and emotional wellbeing and recovery, is sharing the powerful story of one of its own.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, more than 90 percent of those who die by suicide are facing a mental or substance abuse disorder.  To encourage awareness and the connection between self-harm and untreated mental disorders, ValueOptions employee Lisa shared how suicide impacted her life in a compelling video for Stamp Out Stigma, a company-wide initiative to address the prevalence of mental illness and its surrounding stigma.

After defense cuts forced him to leave a job he loved with the Navy, Lisa’s husband began displaying symptoms of depression: he became increasingly withdrawn, irritable and argumentative. Lisa’s husband initially declined to seek help, which exacerbated his depression, and he eventually took his own life.

Though devastated, Lisa quickly made the decision to talk openly about her husband’s experience with mental illness and suicide to encourage others to seek help. “I decided the day after he died that I wasn’t going to be ashamed,” says Lisa during her interview. “And I wasn’t going to let anybody denigrate him and his illness, and how his illness culminated in his death, his suicide. I was going to talk about it.”

In addition to sharing her personal experience, Lisa stresses the effects of mental illness stigma, and the importance of approaching mental health issues with compassion. To hear Lisa’s story, as well as the stories of others impacted by mental illness, visit www.stampoutstigma.com.

“Generally people who act on suicidal thoughts do not actually want to die; they are seeking relief from suffering,” said Dr. Tracey Smithey, ValueOptions, Medical Director from Tampa, FL. “If the underlying issues which are causing the suffering are addressed, then later, people are relieved that they did not act on their suicidal thoughts. Many acts of suicide and self-harm are unreported due to feelings of shame, isolation and stigma. There is tremendous relief when the burden of shame, stigma and isolation is lifted. We are social creatures who respond to support.”

As the 2013 legislative session draws to a close, local hospital leaders are urging lawmakers to protect access to hospital-based skilled-nursing care by reversing draconian Medi-Cal cuts.  Earlier this month, the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) exempted rural hospitals from deep payment cuts and reduced reimbursement rates.  Hospital leaders said that seniors throughout California deserve access to the most effective and efficient care, so the exemption should be expanded to include all hospitals.

“It’s time to find a similar resolution for urban skilled-nursing facilities,” said Marty Gallegos, Senior Vice President of Health Policy and Communications for HASC. “Implementation of Medi-Cal cuts for these facilities will have devastating consequences for patients, communities and access to essential medical care.”

Medi-Cal beneficiaries make up nearly 80 percent of the patients receiving hospital-based skilled-nursing care in California. These patients often require specialized or medically complex care that freestanding nursing facilities and other health care providers do not provide. In the last five years, approximately 40 hospital-based skilled-nursing facilities in California (about one-third) have closed due to financial issues.

In Southern California, there is a profound shortage of hospital-based skilled nursing beds.  That means virtually no options for medically fragile patients who become displaced because of the Medi-Cal cuts. The limited number of hospitals that provide acute care services in urban areas will be especially impacted at a time when we are working to provide greater access to health care services through the Affordable Care Act.

HASC is part of a statewide bipartisan coalition supporting Assembly Bill (AB) 900, authored by Assemblymember Luis Alejo, (D – Salinas), which represents a partial solution to reverse some of the cuts.  The coalition includes labor, business, local government, non-profits and health care leaders including: the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, Valley Industry and Commerce Association, Los Angeles Business Federation (BizFed) and the Inland Empire Economic Partnership.

AB 900, which is currently in the Senate Appropriations Committee Suspense File, may be considered on Friday August 30.  The bill has received unanimous bipartisan support. Not a single lawmaker has cast a ‘no’ vote on the bill during roll calls in both the Assembly and the Senate. “Hopefully, lawmakers, led by Senator Kevin De Leon, will follow suit with the action taken in rural communities and allow this bill to advance to a vote of the full Senate. The upper house can then express their support for continuing the critical skilled-nursing services for patients in urban settings,” added Gallegos. AB 900 also protects quality jobs. Cuts to urban skilled-nursing facilities threaten patients and thousands of jobs of highly skilled care givers.

Getting a “flu” vaccine during pregnancy is safe for both the mother and her unborn baby and can protect both of them from the influenza virus infection and its possible health consequences.

Health complications resulting from influenza infection, such as pneumonia, can be serious and even deadly, according to the March of Dimes, which recommends that pregnant women, and women who expect to become pregnant, get an annual “flu” shot.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that everyone six months or older, including pregnant women, be vaccinated against the influenza virus.

“Early fall is not too early for pregnant women, and women who expect to become pregnant, to get their flu shot. The influenza virus poses a serious risk of illness and even death,” said Siobhan Dolan, MD, MPH, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Montefiore Medical Center in Bronx, N.Y., medical advisor to the March of Dimes and author of Healthy Mom, Healthy Baby. “Babies born to mothers who got their flu shot while pregnant were protected from serious illness with influenza during their first six months of life.”

Studies, which looked at thousands of pregnant women who received the seasonal “flu” vaccine, found that their babies did not have a higher risk of being born too soon or developing a birth defect when compared with babies born to women who did not get a vaccine. Also, researchers found that women who were vaccinated were less likely to experience a stillbirth.

In addition to getting their annual “flu” shot, pregnant women can lower the risk of catching influenza by limiting contact with others who are sick, coughing or sneezing into a tissue or an arm, not touching the eyes, nose and mouth, washing hands with soap and water before touching others, using sanitizers, using hot, soapy water or a dishwasher to wash the dishes and utensils, not sharing the dishes, glasses, utensils or toothbrush. Also, those who live with pregnant women, or are in close contact with them, should be immunized.

Unimmunized pregnant women who develop influenza infection symptoms such as fever, muscle aches, and cough should contact their health providers as soon as possible to begin the treatment.

In 2013, the March of Dimes celebrates its 75th Anniversary and its ongoing work to help babies get a healthy start in life. Early research led to the Salk and Sabin polio vaccines that all babies still receive. Other breakthroughs include new treatments for premature infants and children with birth defects. About 4 million babies are born each year in the United States, and all have benefitted from the March of Dimes funded life saving research and education.

American Humane Association’s famed Red Star™ Animal Emergency team is deploying immediately to assist with what is being called the second largest dog fighting raid in U.S. history. The abused, malnourished animals have been transported to undisclosed temporary emergency shelters where American Humane Association’s highly-trained Red Star responders will help to provide critical daily care to the rescued dogs.

After a three-year investigation initiated by the Auburn Police, 13 search warrants were executed Friday morning, Aug. 23, throughout Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and Texas. Ten suspects were arrested and indicted on felony dog fighting charges.  Federal and local officials also seized firearms and drugs, as well as more than $500,000 in cash from dog fighting gambling activities that took place over the course of the investigation. If convicted, defendants could face up to five years in prison, as well as fines and restitution.

“It is our duty to do all we can to support and assist these animals and we give our sincere gratitude to the Auburn Police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Attorney’s Office who vigorously pursued this investigation and shut down this long-term cruelty,” said Dr. Robin Ganzert, president and CEO of American Humane Association. “The collaboration amongst the numerous humane organizations is also commendable. We’re proud to be participating in this effort to help these animal victims.”

The remains of dead animals were also discovered on some properties where dogs were housed and allegedly fought. The 367 dogs that were rescued ranged in age from just a few days to 12 years. The dogs were found in the sweltering heat with only makeshift, filthy housing for shelter. Some dogs appeared to have no access to water at all. A large number of the dogs were emaciated and many exhibited wounds, scars and other conditions consistent with dog fighting.

“Our team will help provide love, care and compassion to these dogs who for so long have known nothing but brutal torture, abuse and neglect,” said Justin L. Scally, national director of Red Star Emergency Services for  American Humane Association.”Animal fighting is a barbaric and cowardly form of cruelty. One that not only leads to immense animal suffering – but one that frequently also involves other crimes and violence.”

American Humane Association’s Red Star Emergency Services team is deploying at the request of the ASPCA® (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals®). Other agencies assisting the ASPCA and The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) with the operation include: Florida State Animal Response Coalition and Sumter Disaster Animal Response Team (Bushnell, Fla.); University of Florida (Gainesville); Humane Society of South Mississippi (Gulfport); International Fund for Animal Welfare (Yarmouth Port, Mass.); Asheville Humane Society (Asheville, N.C.); Charleston Humane (Charleston, S.C.); Louisiana SPCA (New Orleans); Greater Birmingham Humane Society (Birmingham, Ala.); Atlanta Humane Society (Atlanta, Ga.); PetSmart Charities (Phoenix, Ariz.); Code 3 Associates (Longmont, Colo.); and Montgomery Humane Society (Montgomery, Ala.).

Jeanne Simmons, a 96-year-old schoolteacher who has lived in her Falls Church, Virginia home for 57 years, now faces demands to leave her community while she struggles to survive without running water, according to a report by HillwoodSquare.com.

She says a local developer claims to have bought her entire community, Hillwood Square, and Simmons is the only resident left in the 160-unit housing development that sits on 19 acres.

Simmons shared her story with HillwoodSquare.com, explaining that for more than 50 years Simmons has owned her duplex home free and clear, and the developer has no right to make her move.

Simmons alleges that last Friday, the developer asked the Falls Church Department of Public Utilities to cut off water to the property. For six days, Simmons, who lives alone, has had no running water for drinking, cooking, bathing, or cleaning.

Each time she needs to flush the toilet, she carries two one-gallon jugs of water upstairs, one at a time, then fills a bucket with the two gallons and pours the water into the toilet to force a flush.

On Tuesday, Simmons received from the developer a 5-day notice to vacate. Simmons calls the action frivolous, as she does not owe rent but must go to court to fight eviction proceedings.

Such an eviction would cost Simmons over $300,000, she says.

Simmons claims that three years ago, her home was valued at $531,250 by a local real estate agent that had promised community members to obtain offers of at least that amount for their homes. However, Simmons was never interested in selling, even though her home represented her entire life savings.

According to Simmons, the developer now demands that she accept an offer of $228,000. She has always refused, she says, and will continue to refuse until a court order is issued for her eviction after she has had every opportunity to challenge the sale of her community.

“Whatever the value of the land, I am ready to put up the entire value of my home to defend my rights as a homeowner,” Simmons said.

Leading U.S. public health groups are urging newly confirmed United States Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman to move forward with a proposal that would protect nations’ authority to enact measures to reduce tobacco use under the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade agreement the U.S. is negotiating with 11 other countries.

In a letter to Froman, the health groups urged USTR to offer the proposal at the next round of negotiations, scheduled for July 15-25 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  USTR first indicated in May 2012 that it planned to propose language that would protect nations’ authority to adopt tobacco control measures under the TPP and prevent such measures from being challenged as violations of the agreement, but it has yet to do so.

The health groups involved are the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, American Heart Association, American Lung Association and American Academy of Pediatrics.

“Tobacco products are unlike any other legal consumer product in that they kill when used as intended and there is no safe level of tobacco use.  They should not be treated as other consumer goods in the course of international trade,” the letter states.

“From a public health perspective, international trade and investment rules should not result in increased tobacco consumption.  They should also not inhibit any nation from exercising its sovereign authority to protect the health of its citizens by enacting legitimate public health measures aimed at reducing tobacco use.”

The letter points out that tobacco companies increasingly have used trade agreements to challenge tobacco control measures, including measures adopted in the U.S., Australia, Canada, Ireland, Norway, Turkey and Uruguay.  The tobacco industry and its allies have waged a major campaign to prevent the U.S. proposal on tobacco from being introduced in the TPP negotiations