Turn Key Solutions Takes a “H.I.T.” for Small Business

Business owners, what’s more frustrating than your healthcare premiums going up 15% again this year? Not getting any meaningful information WHY!

Turn Key Solutions is in a unique position to help Louisiana small business owners. We are leveraging our expertise in Healthcare Information Technology (HIT) to push through House and Senate bills that would give small business owners much more control over one of our biggest expenses—healthcare insurance benefits.

Currently at annual renewal time, Louisiana small business who ask why their premiums went up so much (again) receive scant information—just a claims-to-premium ratio. As co-owner and CFO of Turn Key Solutions, I recently testified at a House Insurance Committee meeting in support of Representative Huval’s HB989. A simple ratio is not enough to go on to make business decisions about such a significant business expense! HB989 forces providers to disclose much more information so owners can make sure they are getting the coverage that best fits their employees’ needs and at the most competitive price.

Insurance providers have vigorously opposed this and similar legislation that shift some control from the powerful providers to small businesses. Often their opposition has been hidden behind misleading claims that the release of this information would either violate HIPAA and HITECH rules regarding disclosure of Protected Health Information (PHI) or put small businesses and their employees at greater risk of privacy violations.

Turn Key Solutions (www.tkshealth.com) specializes in Healthcare Information Technology—we help our clients comply with HIPAA and HITECH. I testified in front of the House Committee that this bill does not require disclosure of any of the 18 components of PHI and that similar, more expansive legislation has been on the books in Texas for 5 years without a single HIPAA violation suit.

HB989 passed through committee without objection.

In addition to serving the technology needs of our clients, we are also frequent advocates for small business on issues that affect our ability to operate effectively and profitably. I am co-chair of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber’s Small Business Council Advocacy Committee and serve on the National Federation of Independent Business (www.NFIB.com) Louisiana Leadership Council. I will testify again in support of similar legislation in the Senate, SB283, in May.

If you are a small business owner and want to support this legislation, call us and join the fight.

-- John Overton

Disaster Recovery 101

Joplin, Missouri's recent tornado devastation should be a wake-up call for every business owner.  

That is, it should be your wake-up call if you've been pressing the snooze button on your "Hurricane Gustav" alarm clock.


Which should only be buzzing still if you slept through Hurricane Katrina.......




Seriously, I can't understand how many businesses, healthcare practices, schools, and other organizations don't have any Disaster Recovery (D.R.) plan whatsoever.   Whether or not a disaster would put you out of business, if you're not prepared for it, it will certainly cause you, your employees, and your customers an unbelievable amount of grief and unnecessary work.


It's simple to get started on a good D.R. plan, and simple to lay out the basic fundamental elements.   Here's a quick guide, and some simple solution ideas:

1. Don't have a D.R. plan?   Get started now.   Get a pen & paper, your IPad, whatever.   Seriously - please do it now!
2. Start with a worst case scenario: "If I showed up at work and there was nothing but a concrete slab there, what would I do?"
3. From that scenario, let's line out some key areas that would need to be addressed (this is only a starter, not a complete list by any means...):
1. How do you communicate with...
1. Employees (idea...  ever thought about Google Voice for a D.R. hotline?)
2. Customers
3. The community (if it's relevant)
2. How do you keep doing what you do?
1. Do you need to have an alternate facility scoped out?
2. Can you temporarily run your business without an office (ie, go ?   
3. How do you keep money coming in?
1. Do you have your accounting data readily available via an offsite backup?   
2. Can you get back to billing easily?
3. In the event of a regional disaster, would your customers be able to keep paying you?
4. Do you have sufficient business continuity insurance or cash reserves to handle 1 payroll?  2 payrolls?
   
4. If your business is like mine, you don't have time to sit down & answer all these right now.   BUT GET STARTED!!!!   Somewhere, anywhere!

We've been working on our D.R. plan here @ Turn Key Solutions for 12 years.   And, as our business evolves, that plan will have to keep changing to stay relevant.

For example, we now have almost all of our servers in Tier-3 & Tier-4 data centers in Texas & Louisiana.   We've also just moved to a pure I.P. based phone system.   These two steps mean that we can really work from anywhere, even if our phone lines and/or power go out (which happens a lot in Baton Rouge).

So, don't try to make it perfect right away.   But do take time to think about what you'd need to do in a worst case scenario.   Because sooner or later, Mother Nature is probably going to visit us all, and we better be ready....

And if you need help with this, don't ever hesitate to call or email us for some more ideas!

Where has this blog been????

Turn Key Solutions LLC

Turn Key Solutions, LLC officially opened our doors on April 12, 1999.    Our founding goal was to provide the best, most accountable I.T. consulting services in the region.

Over the years (AAAGGH!!  Has it been 12+ years already???) we've grown, changed, transformed ourselves a few times, and lots of other stuff, and we've always kept that founding goal in the front of our minds.

That goal has been re-written & re-phrased a bunch of times, but it has always translated to a philosophy of basically this: we work hard, we do whatever it takes to provide the best solutions our clients can afford, and we take care of our employees.

So, in the 100+ hats we've worn in the process of taking care of our clients & our coworkers, the BLOGGING hat never got worn.  I personally suspect that we've not blogged because somewhere in the dark recesses of our minds we so many blogs seem to be written by very self-centered, shamelessly self-promoting, egocentric people, and for better or worse, that's just not who we at Turn Key Solutions are.    At our hearts, we're just hard workers armed with a lot of I.T. skills, our ethics, and a desire to serve.

So, here we are.   Blogging.   Why Blogging?    

In our constant search  for the best, most relevant & accessible way for us to get our knowledge, our experience, and our suggestions to our clients, we feel this will be a powerful tool.

And our goals here?   We're going to aim to do the following:

1. Get relevant I.T. trends & news to you in a format that they can read when and if you choose to do so.

2. Keep you informed about what we do and how we can help your business.

Simple enough.   Put in simpler terms - the goal of this blog is to let you know what's up with business technology, and what Turn Key Solutions can help you do about it.

So, thanks for reading, stay tuned, and let me know what you'd like to hear from us about!

Sincerely,

Henry D. Overton

Turn Key Solutions, LLC

(225) 751-4444