Monthly Archives: May 2010

by | May 20, 2010 · 7:17 am

Hospitality Industry Health Insurance: Hotel Industry Must Comply With New Health Care Law Provisions For Automatic Enrollment, Waiting Periods And Coverage For Dependents

The hotel industry has some unique work-force characteristics that make the health-care reform law of particular interest, said Ron Kramer, partner with Seyfarth Shaw.

The abundance of part-time workers, seasonal workers and independent contractors, to name a few, will have a dramatic impact on how the hotel owners and managers accommodate the act’s many provisions, he said.

  • “There’s a provision that requires automatic enrollment for employers with 200 or more employees,” Kraft said. “That means they would have to automatically enroll employees.”
  • The waiting period for enrollment is being set at 90 days, which means many employers will have to shorten their current policies.
  • The act puts a prohibition on rescissions (cancellation of contracts) by insurance companies, except in cases of fraud. In the past, some insurance companies have been accused of scouring through a participant’s medical files upon huge claims to try to find some reason to rescind coverage.
  • By 2014, there will be no pre-existing conditions exclusions for any covered individuals.
  • While group health plans are not required to provide coverage for dependents under the act, they must extend that coverage to dependent children up to age 26 if such coverage already exists. Grandfathered plans must only extend that coverage if the dependent does not have any other employment-based coverage. By 2014, all plans will be required to provide coverage for dependent children.

For more:  http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/articles.aspx?ArticleId=3359&PageType=News&ArticleType=35

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by | May 19, 2010 · 4:11 am

Hotel Industry Health And Safety: Hotel Rooms Are A Haven For Germs And Potential Illnesses

 “A lot of times the cleaning crews will clean those glasses with the very same chemicals they’re using to clean your toilet.”

"There definitely can be hidden dangers in any hotel room, so you want to be smart,"

“…It might not just be germs lurking in your room. It could be infested with bedbugs. The problem is that you really can’t see them and they don’t just hide in the bed…”

 

Hotels, with their daily housekeeping, might seem like a haven from the dust, grime and filth of home. But be warned: germs can lurk in even the cleanest-appearing rooms. And you would be shocked where.

“…there is the TV remote control, probably the most touched item in the room. Not everybody is great about washing their hands and how thorough of a cleaning do you really think the remote gets?..”

For more:  http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/hidden-hotel-room-germ-magnets-tv-remote-water/story?id=10619191&page=1

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by | May 18, 2010 · 5:24 am

Hospitality Industry Food Safety Training: Foodborne Illnesses Cause About 5000 Deaths And Over 200,000 Hospitalizations Per Year (Video)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PehFNG3qghI]

Foodborne illnesses are responsible for more than 75 million illnesses, more than 230,000 hospitalizations, and approximately 5000 deaths each year in the United States. In Part 1, we show you 3 types of contamination and how improper handling can allow them to become dangerous to your patrons.

The Central District Health Department provides a series of  Basic Food Safety videos focusing on the causes, dangers and prevention of foodborne illnesses.

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by | May 17, 2010 · 4:07 am

Hotel And Resort Spa Health Risks: Massage And Foot Treatments Can Expose Guests To Infections And Health Risks

“…While most of today’s spas promise to restore, refresh, and renew — and some offer even more explicit health claims — they generally don’t warn you of the potential risks involved. But they do exist. Certain spa treatments can worsen chronic and acute health conditions. All spas can pose risks to the general public, particularly when operated in a state of uncleanliness…”

(From a CBSNews.com article)

  •  People with diabetes need to take extra precautions when getting foot treatments. “Any break in the skin, potentially from aggressive trimming of a callous or cuticle, can increase the risk of foot infections called cellulitis,” says Sharon Horesh, MD, an internal medicine doctor with Emory University’s department of medicine.
  • When it comes to massage, experts say that the degree of risk involved depends on the type of touch applied. “The most important adaptation for chronic disease, like cancer, is touch level,” says Kathleen Clayton, a licensed massage therapist and spokeswoman for the American Massage Therapy Association. 
  • “…all potential massage-goers to receive massages only from licensed massage therapists….”
  • “In the second and third trimesters, women should specifically seek a pregnancy massage therapist and avoid massage techniques that involve long strokes along the legs or pressure between the ankle and heels,” Horesh tells WebMD.  There’s good reason to heed this advice. “There’s always a chance that it might make the baby dislodge, or induce premature labor,” explains Clayton.

     http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/12/15/health/webmd/main1128859.shtml

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by | May 16, 2010 · 5:19 am

Hotel Industry Insurance: “Business Interruption Insurance” Benefits Are Dependent On Comprehensive Documentation Of Revenues And Profits

“…to recoup business interruption benefits from their insurance companies, we have found certain pieces of hotel data and documents to be extremely useful in our calculations of lost revenues and profits. The following is a partial list of reports (effective the day of the catastrophic event) that should be gathered and preserved by management:…”

  • Five-year history of competitive position reports (i.e. STR report), including current year-to-date.
  • Five-year history of your annual hotel financial statements, including current year-to-date.
  • Budgeted performance for the remainder of the current year.
  • Budgeted performance for the upcoming year.
  • Marketing plan for the current year
  • Marketing plan for the upcoming year
  • Capital improvement plan – current and future years
  • Guaranteed reservations and advance deposit activity.
  • Group contracts
  • Group booking pace for the next 10 years

(From a Hospitality.net article)   Once the historical performance data is gathered from the documents listed above, the next step is to estimate how the hotel would have performed if the catastrophic event had not occurred. To prepare this forecast, we utilize budget, marketing plan, reservation, and group booking information contained in the secured documents. In addition, we rely on the most recent forecast developed prior to the catastrophic event for the subject property’s market.

Using the market forecast as a baseline for future hotel supply, demand, and revenue conditions within the market for the projection period, we then estimate the market penetration of the subject property based on historical correlations to market performance. This provides us with estimates of the potential rooms revenue the subject property would have earned had the catastrophic event not occurred. From these estimates of hotel rooms revenue, we then prepare projections of net operating income (NOI) using historical hotel financial statements from the subject property, as well as data from our firm’s Trends® in the Hotel Industry database.

The calculation of lost business is derived from the difference between the performance of the subject property estimated under the “no catastrophic event” scenario, and the data from the actual performance of the hotel during the projection period. Estimates can be made for lost room nights, revenue, and hotel NOI.

http://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/154000320/4046598.search?query=hotel+insurance

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by | May 15, 2010 · 4:33 am

Hotel Pool Spa Health Risks: Legionaires Disease And Pontiac Fever Outbreaks Associated With “Poorly Maintained” Pools And Spas

“…a combined outbreak of Pontiac fever and legionnaires disease at a hotel in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, associated with exposure to a poorly maintained hot tub. Ninety‐five percent of the mostly adolescent 107 ill people had Pontiac fever, and the remainder had legionnaires disease.”

Most aerosolized sources of bacterial‐contaminated warm water, including whirlpool spas, warm spring pools, decorative fountains, cooling towers, and industrial cleaning systems that use high‐pressure water, have been linked to outbreaks of Pontiac fever.

Because the hot tub had been heavily disinfected before analysis by investigators, the results of hot tub water cultures were negative, but the results of PCR for L. pneumophila were positive. As in many outbreaks, a minority (46%) of persons with Pontiac fever had elevated L. pneumophila antibodies.

http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/510394

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by | May 14, 2010 · 2:35 am

Hotel Industry Employee Injury Risks: Hotel Housekeepers Have “Higher Rates Of On-The-Job Injuries” According To Medical Journal

“…hotel employees — and especially housekeepers — have higher rates of on-the-job injuries, according to a report last year in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine…”

"...hotel employees — and especially housekeepers — have higher rates of on-the-job injuries, according to a report last year in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine..."

Housekeepers are prone to repetitive stress injuries from such continual work as changing sheets, washing bathroom floors and vacuuming, according to nine researchers who studied three years of government-required accident logs at five union-represented hotels.

(From a Chron.com article)    More surprising, however, is that Hispanic housekeepers had a proportionally higher rate of injuries than non-Hispanic cleaners, according to the study. The research didn’t address possible explanations for that.

The research was funded by the union Unite Here, which represents hospitality employees, but the problem also has captured the attention of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

It recently hosted a conference in Houston on health and safety issues facing Latino workers.

While OSHA doesn’t have a specific ergonomic standard — it was repealed by Congress in 2001 before it was scheduled to go into effect — the agency has the “general duty clause” as an enforcement tool. It requires that employers provide a safe and healthy place to work, Jordan Barab, deputy assistant secretary of labor for OSHA, said in a telephone interview.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/sixel/7002756.html

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by | May 13, 2010 · 7:40 am

California Workers’ Compensation Insurance: Medical Provider Networks Now Account For Over 80% Of Injured Worker Medical Services

The latest data show network providers accounted for 83.1 percent of services in the first 30 days on claims for injuries from the first quarter of AY 2009, and 67.4 percent of the post-30 day services rendered on AY 2008 claims.

(From a CWCI.org release)   A new California Workers’ Compensation Institute (CWCI) study shows the percentage of medical services to injured workers delivered by network physicians jumped sharply immediately after Medical Provider Networks (MPNs) were introduced into the workers’ compensation system in 2005, and that both the network utilization rate and the percentage of workers’ compensation medical dollars paid to network providers have continued to climb over the past five years.

Using first-year medical service data from 891,918 California workers’ compensation claims with 2004-2009 injury dates, CWCI measured the percentage of injured worker outpatient medical services rendered by network providers before and after MPNs began operations in January 2005. The results show that the network utilization rate rose from less than half of first-year physician-based services for 2004 job injuries to nearly 2/3 of the services for 2005 injuries – the first claims in which treatment in the initial 12 months could have shifted to MPNs. Furthermore, the data show that the trend toward the use of networks has continued, with network providers accounting for nearly ¾ of physician-based services for 2008 injury claims.

 http://www.cwci.org/press_release.html?id=164

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by | May 12, 2010 · 6:01 am

Hospitality Industry Health Insurance: New Health Care Law Puts Restaurants, With A Higher Percentage Of Unskilled And Part-Time Workers, At A Disadvantage In Finding Cost-Effective Health Insurance

The new health care law will make it far harder for the restaurant and retail sectors, the primary employers of part-time and low-skill workers, to operate. 
 
Restaurants and drugstores that are open 24 hours a day will be disadvantaged, because they need several shifts of workers to stay open.
 
Firms with more than 50 workers will have to offer the right kind of health insurance, costing no more than 9.5% of the employee’s income, or pay a $2,000 penalty.
 
This will give small restaurants and stores a substantial cost advantage.  It will wreak havoc with franchisees, who frequently own groups of small establishments.  
 
 
(From a GLGroup.com article)   In 2009, 50% of restaurant employees and 36% of retail employees worked part-time, i.e. under 35 hours per week. A higher percentage of women, 58% in the restaurant industry and 44% in the retail industry, work part-time.  
 
With higher-skill jobs, employers can offer the required benefits and pay for them by cutting the wage. But low-wage jobs in the restaurant and retail sectors leave little room for cuts in wages.
 
So firms will have an incentive to become more automated, or machinery-intensive—and hire fewer workers.  Fast food restaurants could ship in more food and have it reheated, rather than cooking it on the premises. Department stores could have fewer sales clerks and more price-scanning stations, so that shoppers could scan labels for prices rather than asking sales assistants.
 
 

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by | May 11, 2010 · 6:17 am

Hospitality Industry Theft Risks: Hotel Surveillance Cameras And Guest “Identification” Procedures Are Best Deterrent To Property Theft

Gordon called the April 3 thefts at the Hampton Inns “very brazen, and quite frankly stupid,” given that the hotel lobbies have surveillance cameras.

In both cases, Gordon said, Cole checked in using a fake ID and paid in cash. Then he and Harrington left with flat-screens worth more than $1,000 each, Gordon said.

(From an AJC.com article)   Jonathan Cole and Brooke Harrington have been arrested by the Atlanta Police Department, Alpharetta police spokesman George Gordon said Friday.

Police were looking for Cole and Harrington after they hit two Hampton Inns in Alpharetta on a single Saturday. They also are wanted for similar thefts in Gwinnett County and the city of Norcross, Gordon told the AJC.

“We had been looking for them for a while … They hid out really well,” Gordon said. “This was a prolific crew traveling all over metro Atlanta area.”

http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/atlanta-police-nab-flat-522306.html

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