Month: September 2015

KCKCC to hold Small Business Conference

by Kelly Rogge

Kansas City Kansas Community College is serving as a co-sponsor for an upcoming conference designed to help small business owners and entrepreneurs.

Reaching Out to You: A Small Business Conference is 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Sept. 16 at the Thomas R. Burke Technical Education Center, 6565 State Ave. There will be a light breakfast as well as a full lunch, and admission is free. Registration begins at 8 a.m.

The conference is designed to assist small business owners in connecting with local resources and networks to help start, grow their business and create jobs.

Attendees will hear from a panel of experts on “How to Access Capital.” In addition, a credit report room will be available for individuals to check credit scores (identification is required). Several breakout sessions will be offered throughout the day, and many financial institutions, resource partners and business organizations will be in the resource room.

Breakout sessions include:

• Financial Education and Credit Reporting – how to be bankable, credit worthiness and credit Report.
• Simple Steps to Starting a Business – getting started, the business plan and marketing.
• Veterans Outreach – obtaining veteran certification, entrepreneurial development services and benefits available to veterans.
• Government Contracting – SBA’s certifications and federal contracts.
• Finance Room – Representatives from local financial institutions will be on hand to discuss financial needs and lending opportunities.
• Credit Reporting Room – Attendees can check their credit report. Representatives will be on hand to help individuals understand the report and answer questions.
• Resource Tables – Talk one-on-one with a wide variety of resource organizations that can assist through the life cycle of the business operation. (Resource room available all day)

The U.S. Small Business Administration, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Urban Financial Services Coalition and KCKCC are serving as hosts of the Reaching Out to You conference.

For more information or to register, contact Joell Dickerson at [email protected] by calling 816-614-1946, ext. 6284.

Kelly Rogge is the public information supervisor at Kansas City Kansas Community College.

Health fair planned Sept. 26

A free Health Fair will be held at White Church Christian Church, 2200 N. 85th, on Saturday, Sept. 26.

The Health Well Mobile will be there at 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

It will give free bone density tests, as well as hearing, vision, blood pressure and other tests.

White Church Christian Church is sponsoring this as a community event, to increase residents’ access to health care.

There will be a free healthy lunch, and many advisers on topics from dental hygiene, Medicare plans, to anything of a spiritual nature. The public is invited.

ACA enrollment dips in Kansas and Missouri

Federal officials say enrollment remains ‘consistent’ with end-of-year estimates

by Jim McLean, KHI News Service

The number of Kansans maintaining health coverage through healthcare.gov, the federal online marketplace, has declined since spring.

As of the end of June, 84,872 Kansans were enrolled in Affordable Care Act policies, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. That’s down 0.7 percent from the nearly 85,490 enrolled at the end of March but higher than the 57,000 enrolled in the spring of 2014.

In Missouri, enrollment decreased to 212,256 in June from 219,953 in March, a decline of 3.5 percent.

Nationally, 9.9 million Americans were enrolled in marketplace plans at the end of June, compared to 10.2 million at the end of March.

Federal officials said in an HHS news release that the lower numbers were “consistent” with their end-of-year enrollment target of 9.1 million.

Officials said fluctuations in enrollment were to be expected as consumers find other coverage or experience changes in “life circumstances” that cause them to change or cancel plans.

The percentage of Kansans receiving tax credits to help pay for their coverage declined from 81.9 percent to 79.8 percent. The percentage of Missouri consumers receiving tax credits declined from 89.9 percent to 88.7 percent but remained above the national average of 84 percent.

Higher premium costs in the marketplace could affect enrollment going forward.

Kansas Insurance Commissioner Ken Selzer recently announced that he had approved rate increases ranging from 9.4 percent to 25.4 percent for policies offered during the upcoming open enrollment period, which is scheduled to run from Nov. 1 through Jan. 31, 2016.

The nonprofit KHI News Service is an editorially independent initiative of the Kansas Health Institute and a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor reporting collaboration. All stories and photos may be republished at no cost with proper attribution and a link back to KHI.org when a story is reposted online.

– See more at http://www.khi.org/news/article/aca-enrollment-dips-in-kansas-and-missouri#sthash.qApZ41c3.dpuf