Today in Globe Business

Two insurers to resume sales with old rates

Seeking to tone down their dispute with state regulators, two Massachusetts health insurers yesterday said they will, as ordered, resume making new policies available for individuals and small businesses — using last year’s base rates, not the requested double-digit increases rejected by the state last week.

But the insurance companies said they could not guarantee that the new prices, which usually take weeks to calculate, will be ready tomorrow, as the state demanded.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts, the state’s largest health insurer, and Tufts Health Plan said they will market the revamped policies on the state’s Health Connector website and through their own networks of independent brokers.

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After the deluge

Record heavy rains that flooded basements and turned lawns into lakes in many Massachusetts communities also have dampened the crucial spring housing market, delaying closings on sales, scaring off buyers, and causing some owners to postpone plans to put their houses up for sale.

In a survey last month, nearly 40 percent of Massachusetts Association of Realtors members questioned said the record rainfall affected between one and four real estate sales. Some house purchases have been postponed and others canceled outright because of flooding that might require extensive renovations.

The new challenges come as the local housing market has been showing signs of recovery after nearly five years of falling prices. Median home sales and prices increased in February compared with the same month in 2009, and many real estate specialists are watching the spring sales season to see if advances continue.

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TECH LAB: The iPad's value? It'll depend on the apps

To hear the analysts tell it, the iPad’s first week has been something of a disappointment. Only 300,000 of Apple Inc.’s new tablet computer sold on the first day, far fewer than the predicted gazillion.

But for the more rational among us, the iPad’s doing just fine, especially when you consider that we’re still trying to decide what it’s good for. Remember the early Apple computers of the late 1970s? Nobody knew what to do with them either, until two guys in Cambridge invented VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet program and the original killer app. Thousands bought Apple IIs just so they could run VisiCalc.

Where’s the software that’ll pull the iPad’s trigger? I haven’t seen it. But it’s early yet, and there are some impressive entries in the first wave of apps.

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Jobless in Mass. will still get aid

Most Massachusetts residents collecting unemployment benefits will continue receiving assistance for several more weeks, even as tens of thousands of others nationwide began losing the federal aid because Congress left for vacation without extending the benefits.

Officials said unemployed people in Massachusetts will temporarily continue to get benefits because of a law passed by the state Legislature last summer.

However, if Congress does not extend federal unemployment benefits — which the Senate is scheduled to vote on when it reconvenes next week — as many as 50,000 Massachusetts residents could lose their weekly checks as of May 2, officials said.

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MANAGING YOUR MONEY: Don't let just anyone do your taxes

In an effort to keep track of the estimated 1.2 million people who prepare tax returns for pay, the Internal Revenue Service is proposing guidelines. Given the complexity of the tax code and the many missteps that can be made in filing a return, this is long overdue.

Currently, any individual can prepare a tax return for a fee. Though some preparers are licensed by states or enrolled to practice before the IRS, many don’t have to pass any kind of test. When the IRS issued its 2010 “dirty dozen’’ scams, tax-return-preparation fraud topped the list.

The agency has found preparers who skim a portion of their clients’ refunds, charge inflated fees, and lure customers by promising refunds — even before reviewing the tax information.

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