COBRA Premium Subsidy Extended

On December 19, 2009 President Obama signed into law the the Department of Defense (DOD) Appropriations Act, 2010 which includes provisions extending the COBRA premium subsidy that was enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009.

Under ARRA, individuals are eligible for the 65% COBRA premium subsidy for up to 9 months if they lose group health plan coverage because because of involuntary termination of employment between September 1, 2008, and December 31, 2009, elect COBRA coverage, and pay 35% of the full COBRA monthly premiums.

The DOD Appropriations Act makes three important changes:

1. It extends the deadline for the involuntary termination of employment to February 28, 2010.
2. It clarifies that eligibility for the subsidy is based on the date of the qualifying event (i.e., employment termination), not the date the individual becomes eligible for COBRA continuation coverage.
3 It extends the maximum eligibility from 9 to 15 months, both for those who became or become eligible by December 31, 2009 and for those who become eligible by February 28, 2010.

The DOD Appropriations Act also includes transitional provisions protecting those individuals whose eligibility for the premium subsidy expired before the extension (e.g., individuals whose period of eligibility began on March 1 and ended on November 30) and requiring group health plan administrator to notify them of their retroactive eligibility for the subsidy.

For employers, the extensions of COBRA premium subsidy eligibility mean that they will be filing Forms 941 claiming the employment tax credit for the 65% past IRS's originally expected end-point of the fourth quarter of 2010.

CSA Joins New Alliance

With the mission to benefit companies doing business in the building supply channel by developing services and products that make them more effective, efficient and less prone to liability, seven leading regional building material trade associations have formed the Building Product Retailers Alliance.

Founding members of BPRA include CSA, Florida Building Material Association, Illinois Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association, Kentucky Building Material Association, Northwestern Lumber Association, Southern Building Material Association and Western Building Material Association.

“For years, the regional and state LBM associations have talked about the opportunities we’d have if we pooled our thoughts and resources,” said Bill Tucker, president of the BPRA and the Florida Building Material Association. “With this new alliance, we’ve created the structure to turn those opportunities into reality.”

The regional and state LBM associations have historically focused on providing products and services to building material dealers, and that will not change. The BPRA’s focus is on developing programs that benefit the entire building supply channel.

CSA's President, Jim Moody, serves as vice president for BPRA.

Registration Now Open for CSA/FBMA Joint Winter Education Conference

The CSA/FBMA Joint Winter Education Conference will be held February 24-26, 2010 at One Ocean Resort in Atlantic Beach, Florida. Registration is now available online with Visa, MasterCard or American Express.

Craig Webb, Editor of ProSales Magazine will be leading a industry panel discussion with experts titled What's Next? This discussion will explore the movement towards building "green"; the construction of homes in the future; whether mandates for energy savings will decrease glazing; and will builders back away from panelization? Questions and comments from the audience will be addressed and this special program will be held from 9 to 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, February 25, 2010. CSA members Tom Hall and Kevin Hamblin will participate on the panel.

Jim Mathis, CSP, will be presenting a program titled Reaching Beyond Endurance, Re-Inventing Yourself for the New World of Work. This program will be offered Thursday, February 25 from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. and will resume Friday, February 26 from 9:00 am. to noon.

CSA/FBMA registration fees include seminar programs, breakfasts, networking cocktail receptions on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, a luncheon and dinner. Rates are $250 for CSA/FBMA members; $350 for non-members; $500 for non-sponsoring associates and $125 for spouse/companions.

Should you need overnight accommodations, CSA/FBMA has secured a $145 per night rate with One Ocean Resort & Spa. To register for the CSA/FBMA Joint Winter Education Conference, download a registration form or reserve your room at One Ocean Resort & Spa, click here.

CSA thanks Pennsylvania Lumbermens Mutual Insurance Company and Plycem USA, Inc. for sponsoring this year's conference.

Analyze Your Expenses and Salaries

A couple of years ago, CSA created a state-of-the art program for analyzing business costs for our roundtable members. We know that not everyone is comfortable in the roundtable setting, so now we've adapted that program for use by individual companies. We've also enhanced it to include a salary survey.

The program is web-based and meets or exceeds all industry standards for security. Your confidential numbers remain confidential -- no one else sees your numbers or even knows you've entered numbers into the system. Once you enter your data, you can compare yourself to our regional average and the national average through nearly 90 charts and graphs for just about any ratio you can imagine for our industry.

Our counterpart associations across the country have agreed to participate in this program, so our national averages should be quite valid. This program has replaced the Cost of Doing Business Survey which previously was used in our industry.

Cost is $200 per company. For more information, contact Diane Rountree at dianerountree@gocsa.com or (678) 674-1860.