Questionable Date of Employment

[Susan S.]

A medical practice is hiring a new physician. They have asked if it is ok for his employment date to be July 1, even though he may not start work until August. From a TPA standpoint, I'm going to use whatever date they put on the census. However, as far as telling them it is ok to do this, I'm not so sure. It seems a little fishy. If they have a contract with him that specifies his employment date as July 1st, are they in good shape?

[QDROphile]

Is the employee getting any emoluments in July? Employment is as employment does is a good standard.

[david rigby]

Might be that the new hire was really employed in July at a different location, so it's possible that you are wrong.

More likely, it might not be any of your business.

[Susan S.]

There is only one location.

[BG5150]

Might be that the new hire was really employed in July at a different location, so it's possible that you are wrong.

More likely, it might not be any of your business.

David,

How would you handle this client? Administer it with a 7/1 hire date because it's "on the census" even though you know it's probably not the case? The latter part of that sentence makes it your business.

[RDY2RTR]

I would look to see when the eligibility computation period starts. Most of the plans I work on say it starts on the date the employee first performs an hour of service. In this case the relevant date would be the August date.

[david rigby]

What is your standing to be telling the ER how to keep employment records? If the ER tells you the DOH is X, you use it.

Apparently, the ER has asked the TPA whether the DOH should be July or August. Likely, this means the ER has some doubts about the correctness of "backdating" the DOH; a reasonable TPA response might be that the ER should record the DOH as the actual hire date. Don't get involved in the details.

However, if you are the auditor or attorney for ER, you might have reason to be a bit more "forceful".

But that's just my opinion.

[ETA Consulting LLC]

I often explain to my clients that part of my function is to protect them from themselves :-)

Good Luck!

[masteff]

Date of hire for what purpose? I can easily set a new hire's DOH to a different date for purposes like vacation accrual. It's much harder for benefits that are more regulated like service in a retirement plan. Some employers track multiple dates for multiple purposes. Maybe if you understood why they're wanting to use 7/1 then you could better advise them. You might be surprised to learn it's for seniority on parking spaces or something you don't care about like that; in which case you make a note for the file and double check every year to make sure his date is the one that matters for your purpose (ie August).

[BG5150]

Being the cynical guy that I am, I'm guessing they want to do this so the doctor can get a PS for 2015.

[Bill Presson]

We work with a ton of medical practices. The standard for almost all of them is to hire as of July 1, even when the doctor shows up in the office a bit later. That's because June 30 is almost always the date the residencies or fellowships are dated to end.

Not sure that's the case here, but I'm betting it is.

If his employment contract says July 1 is his hire date, then that's his hire date.

[K2retire]

We had a similar issue with a law firm recently. They hired a new graduate and paid him a stipend (W-2 wages) while he studied for the bar, but he didn't show up in the office until he had passed. The payroll service wanted to use the first day in the office as the hire date. As TPA, I told them that I was not in a position to offer legal advice (to a law firm of all things) and I would use whatever date they told me.