{"id":21,"date":"2015-08-06T16:37:43","date_gmt":"2015-08-06T16:37:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.winwoodinsurance.com\/blog\/?p=21"},"modified":"2015-08-10T20:18:00","modified_gmt":"2015-08-10T20:18:00","slug":"seasonal-and-temporary-workers-variable-hour-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.winwoodinsurance.com\/blog\/healthcare-reform\/seasonal-and-temporary-workers-variable-hour-employees\/","title":{"rendered":"Seasonal and Temporary Workers (Variable hour employees)\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Since I love to keep things simple, the following is the short version of a complex answer.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How does an Employer determine which variable hour employees are considered full time working an average of 30 hours per week and therefore eligible for medical insurance?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Employees are considered \u201cvariable\u201d employee\u2019s if it is unclear whether the employee is expected to work an average of 30 hours per week for the measurement period (as discussed below).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In 2015: Employers with 100+ FTE (full time equivalent) employees will be required to provide up to 70% of their full time employees with affordable health care coverage that meets minimum requirements, or pay a penalty.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>How do you know who qualifies? <\/strong>\u00a0I\u2019m glad you asked.\u00a0 This is the fun part:<\/p>\n<p><strong>You may use the \u201cSafe Harbor\u201d method:\u00a0 <\/strong>This is guidance that discusses a voluntary \u201csafe harbor\u201d method for determining whether these employees should be classified as full or part time and when health insurance coverage for those deemed full time must begin to avoid the penalty.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Variable and seasonal workers start out in an initial <strong>\u201cmeasurement period\u201d<\/strong> during which the hours they actually work are recorded (Standard measurement periods range from 3-12 months; employer\u2019s choice).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Then there is an <strong>\u201cadministrative period\u201d<\/strong> where the employer determines if the employee worked full or part time during the \u201cmeasurement period\u201d and enrolls the employee into the health plan if he or she is deemed eligible.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Finally, there is the <strong>\u201cstability period\u201d<\/strong> during which the employee is considered and treated as full time or part time, as determined during the \u201cmeasurement period\u201d, even if their hours worked during the \u201cstability period\u201d change. The stability period is at least 6 months long however, no shorter than the measurement period which can be up to 12 months.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Hours during the \u201cstability period\u201d are averaged into the <strong>next<\/strong> measurement period which means the variable employee must re-qualify as full time based on the prior year\u2019s hours worked.<\/p>\n<p>We too hope for simpler regulations but for now, this is ours to keep.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since I love to keep things simple, the following is the short version of a complex answer. How does an Employer determine which variable hour employees are considered full time working an average of 30 hours per week and therefore eligible for medical insurance? Employees are considered \u201cvariable\u201d employee\u2019s if it is unclear whether the &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.winwoodinsurance.com\/blog\/healthcare-reform\/seasonal-and-temporary-workers-variable-hour-employees\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Seasonal and Temporary Workers (Variable hour employees)\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.winwoodinsurance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.winwoodinsurance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.winwoodinsurance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.winwoodinsurance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.winwoodinsurance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.winwoodinsurance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22,"href":"http:\/\/www.winwoodinsurance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions\/22"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.winwoodinsurance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.winwoodinsurance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.winwoodinsurance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}