Professional Employer Organization and HR Outsourcing News, Articles and Commentary

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Listing Date	Article Link	Article Review / Excerpt	Reader Comments
8/15/2010	University of Louisville Nucleus Hires a PEO Source: The Lane Report	University of Louisville Kentucky created an economic development entity called Nucleus to leverage the innovations in Life Sciences into the marketplace. Nucleus recognized the value provided by a Professional Employer Organization and has partnered with a PEO to provide their startup with a full suite of HR services. UofL Nucleus has also developed relationships with a number of entities to provide services needed by start-up companies. For instance, UofL Nucleus has entered into a contract with a professional employer organization (PEO) that can provide the full compendium of benefits to a start-up company, including healthcare benefits, as if the small company was a large employer. The PEO also offers back-of-the-office type services such as employment manuals and legal services.	Post the first comment about: University of Louisville Nucleus Hires a PEO
8/11/2010	Should You Outsource your HR? Source: Fast Casual	A tax advisor in the restaurant and hospitality industry provides some guidance for business owners about outsourcing their Human Resource tasks by engaging a Professional Employer Organization. One area of outsourcing that is becoming increasingly popular is the human resources administration function, through the use of a professional employer organization, or PEO. Sometimes referred to as an employee leasing company, a PEO enables you to outsource the human resource management functions, including payroll, employee benefits, record keeping, and workers compensation coverage. However, before deciding to outsource that important function, the restaurant owner must fully consider the benefits and risks of such an arrangement.	Post the first comment about: Should You Outsource your HR?
8/7/2010	More Profitable Than Ever Source: Architectural Record	A New York City architecture and engineering firm gets serious about cutting costs and discovers a PEO can provide cost effective solutions for reducing HR and insurance costs. We started by looking at our insurance and benefits," says Carpenter. "As a small firm, we simply didn't have enough people to get good health-insurance rates. We joined a professional employer organization (PEO). It takes care of payroll, benefits, and insurance." One of the advantages for both the firm and employees (who are technically coemployed by the Meltzer/Mandl and ADP) is that they can receive health insurance at far less cost than they could as a small group. Costs for both the employees and the firm, which pays half of the employees' health-insurance costs, have gone down by half. "Our employees are able to get much better insurance than we could offer them." The PEO also carries the firm's workers' compensation insurance, which in the past had been a major expense.	Post the first comment about: More Profitable Than Ever
8/5/2010	The Healing Game Source: Colorado Biz	A PEO executive warns against playing games with employees to circumvent health reform rules for companies with over 50 employees. And larger businesses are creating ways to reap the under-50 rewards, Regalado said. "People are getting very clever about it," he said, referring to talk of firing and hiring back staff. For instance: Maybe a 70-employee company will fire 25 staff members and hire the workers back through an employment staffing company or a Professional Employer Organization, he said. Between the fact that legitimate PEOs "don't play that game," and that the government is sure to rapidly respond to such ploys, Greg Hammond advises scheming businesses to reconsider. The hire-and-fire ploy has been played out before with COBRA, the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, which requires companies of 20 or more to offer extended health care coverage in certain circumstances. A provision was written into the Internal Revenue Code to prevent such circumvention. "That doesn't work. Those employees are still working for you," said Hammond, the chief legal officer for TriNet, a large PEO.	Post the first comment about: The Healing Game
6/21/2010	Health Insurance Renewal Decisions - Plan "grandfathering" Complicates Things Source: StaffMarket	With the new health care rules, companies that keep their existing health plans will be exempt from some of the legal requirements, such as providing yearly physical exams and other benefits that may add up to higher costs starting in 2014. Companies forfeit "grandfathered" status if they change their health plans.	Post the first comment about: Health Insurance Renewal Decisions - Plan "grandfathering" Complicates Things