Medical benefits for part time employees

[Guest Kelly McCarthy]

Do you provide medical benefits for part- time employees? If so, what is the criteria for being eligible (i.e. minimum number of hours worked, etc.) and what premiums are charged (i.e. same as full-time employees). Lastly, what was the incentive to offer these benefits (i.e. competitive reasons, large part-time population,etc.)

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[Sheila K]

Kelly:

We do offer benefits to our part-time staff. There are no qualifications regarding hours worked. The employees are offered the benefit after 90 days (like FT). We do not pay any of the premium for PT staff. Each person is individually underwritten and premiums paid from their checking account. If they do not enroll at the time they are eligible, there are 2 open enrollment periods per year for them.

We pay a 12.5% salary premium to PT employees since we do not cover benefits, so if a FT person makes $10/hour, the PT equivalent will make $11.24/hour for the same job. This helps to compensate for the lack of benefits.

We added this to our total benefits package because almost half of our employees are PT and requested some type of plan. Only about 10% of the eligible employees use the plan, but they are glad to have it.

Good luck...Sheila K 8^)

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[KIP KRAUS]

Kelly:

We do not offer part-timers medical benefits.

However, where I worked before we offered part-timers medical coverage. They had to work at least 30 hour per week on a regular basis and they paid 50% of the cost of coverage. Full-time employees paid only 20%.

We had a relatively medium sized permanent part-time group of employees, so to keep them employed we offered them medical coverage. We also had to include them in our DB pension plan and 401(k) plans because they worked over 1,000 hrs. during the plan years. They were not eligible for any other benefits except the mandated New York State disability coverage.

Unless you have a significant part-time group that is permanent, and critical to your business, I would not recommend offering medical coverage to them.

[Larry M]

Sheila,

does your plan meet the HIPAA standards? I was under the impression you can not exclude or charge a different premium for individuals based upon their health status. Yet, you seem to be be determinig eligibility for medical coverage on the basis of individual medical underwriting.

[Sheila K]

Larry: I'm sorry if I didn't make this more clear. We do not offer a GROUP plan to our part-time employees. It is an individual plan offered through our insurance broker. Since it is an individual plan, HIPAA does not apply...

Sheila K

[Larry M]

Sheila K,

although it may be issued through individual policies, it is possible the whole arrangement will be considered an employer sponsored "group" plan.

As an example of such a stretch, look at what happens to employee pay all group life plans where some employees pay less than the Table costs and others pay more. The result of this is to impute income to those who pay less.

You should consider having your approach reviewed by your legal counsel and getting your insurance broker (and the insurance carrier) to provide you with a "hold harmless" letter.

[Guest nb]

We offer full benefits to part time employees, with the criteria of a minimum 20 hrs per week or 40 hrs in bi weekly pay period. Part time receive the same level of benefits as full time with no proration.