Whether or not you have a written estate plan, you do have an estate plan. The laws of the state in which you reside will make decisions about your estate if you do not have a written plan.
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If you don’t have a written estate plan, it is essential to know what the intestacy laws of your state are so that you know what will happen to your assets if you die.
Most people prefer to make their own choices about their assets than let the state decide for them.
Why should you have a written estate plan?
Even if you do not have significant assets, you might want documents in place to protect your wishes, in the event you are incapacitated.
Medical Powers of Attorney will allow you to select the person you want to make decisions on your behalf if you need medical care, but are not competent.
Financial Powers of Attorney allow you to select the person who can make financial decisions on your behalf, if you are incapacitated.
If you have minor children, we recommend having a written estate plan that dictates who will care for your children if something should happen to you.
Drafting these documents while you are healthy allows you to pick people who you know would act in your best interest. Appointing one person also protects your family members from potential disputes, in the event they disagree on your medical care, finances, or children.
Estate planning also allows an opportunity to memorialize your wishes for end of life care.
A well-drafted estate plan also protects the assets that you do have, such as a home, insurance policies, or a bank account. Many people have more significant assets than they realize.
You can also create a personal property memorandum to pass certain personal items to loved ones.
We help our clients pick the estate plan that works best for them, given their assets, concerns and interests. Having a written estate plan in place can help your loved ones avoid going through probate.
Contact us today to help you get the right documents in place or to update your current estate plan. We will plan so that you don’t have to worry about your future.
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The Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced a new Voluntary Self-Disclosure Policy to be used by US Attorney Offices throughout the country.
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The new policy helps to encourage early and voluntary self-disclosure of corporate criminal misconduct. It reinforces the importance of having an effective compliance plan that identifies misconduct.
To be a voluntary self-disclosure, the disclosure must be voluntary, timely and must contain all relevant facts of misconduct.
If the disclosure is all of the above, the government will not seek a guilty plea against the companyso long as the company also fully cooperates with investigators and appropriately remediates the criminal conduct.
However, even if the disclosure counts as a voluntary self-disclosure, if the misconduct:
poses a grave threat to national security, public health or the environment, or
if it is deeply pervasive throughout the company, or
involved current executive management of the company,
then there may still be a guilty plea.
As always, it is essential to be proactive about your compliance plan.
If you need help updating your compliance plan, auditing, or training staff, contact us today.
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Do you need help updating your Business Associate Agreement or negotiating contracts with third-party vendors? We can help. To contact us about your Business Associate Agreement, your vendor contracts or your other legal needs, call us today.
China’s government accused Washington on Tuesday of pursuing “technology hegemony” following news reports the United States might step up pressure on tech giant Huawei by blocking all access to American suppliers.
The possible move, reported by Bloomberg News, The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal, would tighten restrictions imposed in 2019 that limit Huawei’s access to processor chips and other technology. The company, which makes network equipment and smartphones, was allowed to buy some less advanced components.
Huawei Technologies Ltd., China’s first global tech brand, is at the center of conflict between Washington and Beijing over technology and security. US officials say Huawei is a security risk and might facilitate Chinese spying, an accusation the company denies.
“China is seriously concerned about the reports,” said a foreign ministry spokeswoman, Mao Ning. She accused Washington of “over-stretching the concept of national security and abusing state power” to suppress Chinese competitors.
“Such practices are contrary to the principles of market economy” and are “blatant technological hegemony,” Mao said.
Mao said Beijing would “defend the legitimate rights” of its companies but gave no indication of how the government might respond. Beijing has made similar declarations after past US actions against its companies but often does nothing.
The ban on sales of advanced US processor chips and music, maps and other services from Alphabet Inc.’s Google unit crippled Huawei’s smartphone business. The company sold its low-end Honor smartphone brand to revive sales by separating it from the sanctions on its corporate parent.
The Commerce Department agreed to grant export licenses to US companies to allow them to sell less-advanced chips and other technology to Huawei that was deemed not to be a security risk. That followed by complaints from suppliers would lose billions of dollars in annual sales.
The Biden administration is considering no longer granting such licenses, although no decision has been made, the news outlets reported, citing unidentified people familiar with official deliberations.
Huawei scrambled to remove US components from its network and other products and has launched new business lines serving factories, self-driving cars and other industrial customers. The company hopes those are less vulnerable to US pressure.
Huawei says its business is starting to rebound.
“In 2020, we successfully pulled ourselves out of crisis mode,” Eric Xu, one of three Huawei executives who took turns as chairman, said in a December letter to employees. “US restrictions are now our new normal, and we’re back to business as usual.”
Last year’s revenue was forecast to be slightly-changed from 2021 at 636.9 billion yuan ($91.6 billion), Xu said.
Matt O’Brien And Jocelyn Gecker, The Associated Press – Jan 31, 2023 / 10:48 am | Stories: 409116
Photo: The Canadian Press
The logo for OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, appears on a mobile phone, in New York, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023. OpenAI is launching a new tool in an effort to curb its reputation as a freewheeling cheating machine with a new tool Tuesday that can help teachers detect if a student or artificial intelligence wrote that homework. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
The makers of ChatGPT are trying to curb its reputation as a freewheeling cheating machine with a new tool that can help teachers detect if a student or artificial intelligence has written homework.
The new AI Text Classifier launched Tuesday by OpenAI follows a weeks-long discussion at schools and colleges over fears that ChatGPT’s ability to write just about anything on command could fuel academic dishonesty and hinder learning.
OpenAI cautions that its new tool – like others already available – is not foolproof. The method for detecting AI-written text “is imperfect and it will be wrong sometimes,” said Jan Leike, head of OpenAI’s alignment team tasked with making its systems safer.
“Because of that, it shouldn’t be solely relied upon when making decisions,” Leike said.
Teenagers and college students were among the millions of people who began experimenting with ChatGPT after it was launched Nov. 30 as a free application on OpenAI’s website. And while many found ways to use it creatively and harmlessly, the ease with which it could answer take-home test questions and assist with other assignments sparked a panic among some educators.
By the time schools opened for the new year, New York City, Los Angeles and other big public school districts began to block their use in classrooms and on school devices.
The Seattle Public Schools district initially blocked ChatGPT on all school devices in December but then opened access to educators who wanted to use it as a teaching tool, said Tim Robinson, the district spokesman.
“We can’t afford to ignore it,” Robinson said.
The district is also discussing possibly expanding the use of ChatGPT into classrooms to let teachers use it to train students to be better critical thinkers and to let students use the application as a “personal tutor” or to help generate new ideas when working on an assignment , Robinson said.
School districts around the country say they are seeing the conversation around ChatGPT evolve quickly.
“The initial reaction was ‘OMG, how are we going to stem the tide of all the cheating that will happen with ChatGPT,'” said Devin Page, a technology specialist with the Calvert County Public School District in Maryland. Now there is a growing realizing that “this is the future” and blocking it is not the solution, he said.
“I think we would be naïve if we were not aware of the dangers this tool poses, but we would also fail to serve our students if we banned them and us from using it for all its potential power,” said Page, who thinks districts like his own will eventually unblock ChatGPT, especially once the company’s detection service is in place.
OpenAI stressed the limitations of its detection tool in a blog post Tuesday, but said that in addition to deterring plagiarism, it could help detect automated disinformation campaigns and other misuses of AI to mimic humans.
The longer a passage of text, the better the tool is at detecting if an AI or human wrote something. Type in any text — a college admissions essay, or a literary analysis of Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man” — and the tool will label it as either “very unlikely, unlikely, unclear if it is, possibly, or likely” AI -generated.
But much like ChatGPT itself, which was trained on a huge trove of digitized books, newspapers and online writings but often confidently spits out falsehoods or nonsense, it’s not easy to interpret how it comes up with a result.
“We don’t fundamentally know what kind of pattern it pays attention to, or how it works internally,” Leike said. “There’s really not much we could say at this point about how the classifier actually works.”
Higher education institutions around the world have also begun debating the responsible use of AI technology. Sciences Po, one of France’s most prestigious universities, prohibited its use last week and warned that anyone found surreptitiously using ChatGPT and other AI tools to produce written or oral work could be banned from Sciences Po and other institutions.
In response to the backlash, OpenAI said it has been working for several weeks to craft new guidelines to help educators.
“Like many other technologies, it may be that one district decides that it’s inappropriate for use in their classrooms,” said OpenAI policy researcher Lama Ahmad. “We don’t really push them one way or another. We just want to give them the information they need to be able to make the right decisions for them.”
It’s an unusually public role for the research-oriented San Francisco startup, now backed by billions of dollars in investment from its partner Microsoft and facing growing interest from the public and governments.
France’s digital economy minister Jean-Noël Barrot recently met in California with OpenAI executives, including CEO Sam Altman, and a week later told an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland that he was optimistic about the technology. But the government minister — a former professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the French business school HEC in Paris — said there are also difficult ethical questions that will need to be addressed.
“So if you’re in the law faculty, there is room for concern because obviously ChatGPT, among other tools, will be able to deliver exams that are relatively impressive,” he said. “If you are in the economics faculty, then you’re fine because ChatGPT will have a hard time finding or delivering something that is expected when you are in a graduate-level economics faculty.”
He said it will be increasingly important for users to understand the basics of how these systems work so they know what biases might exist.
We often hear from clients many reasons why they waited so long to draft their estate plans.
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We often hear the same reasons over and over as to why people don’t have an estate plan or haven’t gotten around to drafting an estate plan.
Some of the most frequent reasons and why they shouldn’t stop you from having an estate plan are:
I don’t have enough money, property, etc. Estate planning is not just about assets. Estate planning is a way to protect your wishes, in the event of incapacity. If you have young children, estate planning allows you to choose their guardian, something should happen to you. Estate planning also allows you to direct medical and financial care, should you become incapacitated. Further, most people have more assets than they realize. Estate planning is for everyone, no matter the size of your estate.
I’m too young, I’ll worry about it later. We hear this often. Unfortunately, life can change in an instant. No matter how old you are, you could be involved in an accident or have an unexpected health issue. It is essential to get documents in place to protect you. While your documents may change over time, having foundational documents in place will help you later on.
I’m scared to talk about it. We understand. Talking about incapacity and death is not fun. However, once your estate planning is done, it will give you incredible peace of mind. It also allows you the ability to think about it and have documents in place before an emergency occurs. We help our clients have the difficult conversations and put their minds at ease with tailored solutions to their matters.
I did it online. Online estate planning can lead to a lot of issues. Online documents may not be the correct documents for your state or situation. They might not be legal, if they are for a different state and may fail to have the appropriate language. They are also not likely tailored enough to help best protect your interests and your assets. Online estate planning can lead to lengthy and expensive probate battles.
It’s too expensive. We know that estate planning comes with an upfront cost. However, this cost is much less than if your estate has to go through probate. It also allows you to make a plan for your assets, instead of letting the state decide where your assets go upon your death. Estate planning also provides you peace of mind by letting you decide who will get to make financial and healthcare decisions on your behalf. Good estate planning will help you protect your assets in regards to tax liability, future disputes and probate court costs. Upfront planning can save money in the long run.
None of the above reasons should keep you from completing your estate plan. It is always better to do an estate plan now, and update it in the future if need be.
We can help you determine what documents are best suited for your situation and help you get tailored language in place to protect you, your wishes, your family, and your assets.
Contact us today to help you get the right documents in place or to update your current estate plan. We will plan so that you don’t have to worry about your future.
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Apple Inc. says it’s raising the cost of its Apple Music and Apple TV Plus services in Canada.
The technology giant confirmed that prices for both services are going up in the range of $1 to $4 per month, depending on the services and the size of the package.
Apple Music’s base price for a single listener account will rise $1 to $10.99 per month, while access to the Apple TV Plus video streaming platform will jump $3 to $8.99 per month.
This is the first time Apple has hiked prices for its streaming services in Canada.
Passing on higher costs
The company says Apple Music’s price increase is tied to higher licensing costs for music.
The decision comes as many of the major streaming platforms look for ways to boost revenues amid inflation and the rising costs of film and TV production.
Similar price increases are being rolled out in other markets where Apple has a presence, including the United States.
Meanwhile, the price of Apple One, a bundled subscription package that adds Apple Arcade and iCloud storage, as well as news and fitness options, will go up in Canada by $3 or more.
If you had concerns about your healthcare data in the hands of your vendors, what do your contracts say in regards to getting that data back?
A recent court case required a healthcare vendor to return data to the healthcare entity.
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CommonSpirit Health hired Emerge Clinical Solutions to process and archive protected health information in 2021.
However, CommonSpirit Health began experiencing issues with the data extracts and was unable to reach anyone at Emerge Clinical Solutions.
Healthcare entities need to ensure that their vendors are reliable and often, technology companies can change ownership, structuring and more very quickly.
Because of this, it is essential to learn from situations like the one CommonSpirit Health found itself in, and make sure your contracts offer as many protections as possible.
When entering a new relationship with a vendor that will have access to your protected health information (“PHI”), consider the following:
What safeguards are they contractually required to have in place? Does your contract specify appropriate privacy and security protections? If not, you may want to revisit the contract and list out stronger requirements.
How much access will they have to PHI and are you able to remotely terminate their access? The more access and control they have, the higher your standards should be for protecting your practice’s PHI.
What do their audit logs look like? Can you see a sample audit log in advance? How often will they provide audit logs? You may want to consider what you would need from an audit and make sure they are able to provide your requests.
Are they able to assign the contract to another entity? You should be aware of the assignment provisions in any contract you enter into and if they are able to assign, know what your rights are in regards to notice and termination.
What recourse do you have if you have concerns? Are there remedies built into the contract? Are you able to get an injection? Know what your contract allows as far as Remedies.
When researching vendors, make sure that you are comfortable with the vendors, your contact personnel at the vendors, and your contract.
Make sure your business associate agreements are up to date with all vendors.
If you need help with your healthcare contracts, contact us today.
If you have questions or need help with your healthcare practice’s legal needs, contact Rickard & Associates today.
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We publish vital information on health law topics and news every Wednesday and Friday. To get this important information delivered directly to your mailbox, subscribe today!
Do you need help updating your Business Associate Agreement or negotiating contracts with third-party vendors? We can help. To contact us about your Business Associate Agreement, your vendor contracts or your other legal needs, call us today.
Skyrocketing hire and meals prices have firm: Well being care prices are also hovering, and what’s worse, they in all probability will rise far more and will assist hold total inflation elevated for a while, analysts say.
Customers are solely seeing slight will increase in premiums which have lagged total inflation, however these premiums might rise considerably subsequent yr as well being care prices catch up, in line with a Kaiser Household Basis (KFF) research on Thursday.
The medical care index, a subset of the patron worth index, accelerated to 0.8% in September from 0.7% inAugust. Over the previous yr, it was up 6%, the biggest 12-month enhance since 1993 however nonetheless under the general 8.2% tempo of inflation.
That lag in well being care inflation to total shopper inflation may very well be an ominous signal for customers.
“Most of the premiums for 2022 had been finalized within the fall of 2021, earlier than the extent of rising costs grew to become clear,” mentioned KFF’s survey, which included 2,188 interviews with non-federal private and non-private corporations from February by means of July. “As inflation continues to develop at comparatively excessive ranges, we might probably observe the next enhance in common premiums for 2023 than we now have seen in recent times.”
Inflation is anticipated to spice up annual US nationwide well being bills by $370 billion by 2027 in contrast with pre-pandemic projections, consulting agency McKinsey estimated in a report in September.
What do individuals pay now for medical insurance?
Annual household premiums for employer-sponsored medical insurance common $22.463, simply up from $22.221 final yr. On common, staff this yr are contributing $6.106 towards the price of household premium, with employers paying the remaining.
Employees at small corporations with lower than 200 staff pay greater than their counterparts at bigger corporations, KFF mentioned. Employees at small corporations on common pay $7,556 out of their paychecks yearly for household protection, in contrast with $5,580 for these at bigger companies,
“Employers are already involved about what they pay for well being premiums, however this may very well be the calm earlier than the storm, as latest inflation means that bigger will increase are imminent,” KFF President and Chief Government Drew Altman mentioned. “Given the tight labor market and rising wages, will probably be powerful for employers to shift prices onto staff when prices spike.”
Why is well being care getting costlier?
Larger prices of provides and labor are contributing to the will increase.
Early within the pandemic, well being care provide costs spiked amid provide disruptions and better demand. Between 2019 and 2022, pharmaceutical costs rose 21% and provides by 18%, McKinsey mentioned. These prices are nonetheless increased than regular however are displaying indicators of slowing.
In distinction, labor prices are nonetheless rising strongly and possibly will outpace the general inflation price, analysts say.
“Labor’s very important as a result of it has the potential to be persistent,” mentioned Shubham Singhal, world chief of McKinsey’s Healthcare, Public Sector and Social Sector observe.
He expects wages will proceed to rise because the well being care labor scarcity worsens whereas demand for providers grows, partly the results of an growing older inhabitants.
Between 2019 and March 2022, a measure of hospital labor prices known as the median labor expense per adjusted discharge rose 37% to $5,494 from $4,009, Kaufman Corridor consulting agency mentioned in a report in Might.
It is vital to take the time to discover your choices relating to Medicare.
When will well being care premiums go up?
Customers who purchase their very own insurance coverage might see steep premium will increase subsequent yr.
Throughout 72 insurers in 13 states and the District of Columbia within the Reasonably priced Care Act (ACA) Marketplaces, the median proposed premium enhance subsequent yr is 10%, increased than in recent times, early estimates by Peterson-Kaiser Well being System Tracker present. Subsidies could assist some customers keep away from full worth hikes, although.
Well being care costs are set at the very least a yr forward, making a delay earlier than wage will increase and different prices associated to broader inflation are totally integrated into well being care prices.
Suppliers who’ve handled hovering prices prior to now 18 months solely just lately are getting an opportunity to renegotiate funds and move on some added prices to insurance coverage firms or authorities entities.
By 2024, all employers’ prices “will probably be crushing in full drive,” Singhal mentioned. “A lot of that may fall to customers as a result of employers have premium sharing” with staff.
“It is a slow-moving practice,” he mentioned, however it’s coming.
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How do medical care prices have an effect on inflation and Fed price selections?
As a result of well being care, like hire, usually does not see common worth surges, when its costs rise, economists take into account this “sticky” or persistent inflation. They take a very long time to rise and a very long time to say no.
Inflation might keep increased longer and result in the Fed elevating its short-term benchmark fed funds price even increased to squash inflation. Most shopper charges comply with the Fed’s benchmark price increased, which makes borrowing costlier and discouraging spending. Much less spending means much less demand, which cools inflation.
In depth providers: Worth of products could also be stabilizing, however service prices stay excessive, fueling inflation
Inflation warning: Jackson Gap speech: Jerome Powell hints at extra aggressive Fed price hikes to repair inflation
How can the price of well being care be lowered?
Layoffs and growing productiveness can minimize prices, McKinsey mentioned.
Greater than 25% of executives in a McKinsey survey imagine they could have to chop at the very least 10% of their workforce, principally nonclinical staff like private care aids, within the subsequent six to 18 months, it mentioned.
Executives (66%) additionally wish to enhance productiveness with expertise, particularly in processing paperwork.
Longer-term, Singhal mentioned, the trade can speed up value-based care, which ties funds to the standard of care supplied. This contrasts with the dominant fee-for-service reimbursement, which pays suppliers for providers delivered based mostly on invoice prices or annual payment schedules.
One other technique could be shifting some hospital care to completely different websites. “Some surgical procedures could be carried out cheaper in an ambulatory surgical procedure heart as a substitute of a hospital,” Singhal mentioned. “House care settings can be the identical or higher high quality at decrease prices.”
Medora Lee is a cash, markets, and private finance reporter at USA TODAY. You’ll be able to attain her at [email protected] and subscribe to our free Each day Cash publication for private finance suggestions and enterprise information each Monday by means of Friday morning.
This text initially appeared on USA TODAY: Why well being care prices are about to skyrocket due to inflation
