making change in benefits

[Guest Bnorris2]

My company's part-time employees are currently eligible for health insurance benefits when they work 1000 hours in a year. Only a few actually have these benefits.

I am changing the criteria for eligibility so that the part-time employees must average 25 hrs per week for a 6 month period to be eligible for benefits for the next 6 months. This is, in effect, 1300 hours in a year.

Under Ohio law can I change the criteria for receiving benefits for the employees that already have benefits under the current rule?

Or can I only change it for the ones who don't have insurance yet or future employees?

[mroberts]

I'm not familiar with Ohio state laws, however, I have worked with groups in just about every state and I have never heard of a law that would prohibit you from changing your eligibility period immediately.

That being said, to cause the least amount of waves, I would recommend allowing your current employees to continue medical benefits based on the current eligibility requirement of 1000 hours. For any new employees the eligibility requirement should be 1300 hours.

You could always require your current part time employees who have elected medical benefits to also satisfy the 1300 hours starting with the next open enrollment period, however, this would probably be a moot point. Most companies do not pay any amount towards the cost of meidcal insurance for part-time employees and the same probably holds true with your company. Therefore, even if you were to change the required hours worked for these employees, for any employees who would be losing coverage they would still be able to elect COBRA and continue it for 18 months since this would be a qualifying event.

[jeanine]

If this is an insurance plan, the next thing you should do is contact the insurance issuer. It's the responsibility of the insurer to file any amendments with the department of insurance, and they probably have the expertise to help you accomplish this.