New Hire vs. Ongoing Employee Dilemma
An ongoing employee is one who has completed a Standard Measurement Period, until this happens, the employee is considered a New Hire and may be in a Limited Non-Assessment Period. If an employee is hired as part-time, variable hour, or seasonal they will be placed into an Initial Measurement Period.
With the introduction of the Affordable Care Act, employers must work with their insurance providers and human resources department to ensure that they come up with a plan for tracking their employees and making offers of coverage when required. These are company or class-wide statements and decisions, generally speaking individual employees cannot be targeted and treated differently. Part of this plan is establishing certain parameters and sticking to their decision (STORI).
Some of the most pertinent decisions:
⦁ Plan Year Start
⦁ The effective date for coverage to begin on a new medical plan
⦁ Each year, the plan starts anew
⦁ Initial Measurement Period (IMP)
⦁ The measurement period which a new hire will be placed into if not declared full-time on hire; can be 3-12 months; measured in months; used to determine whether an undeclared new hire will be full-time or part-time
⦁ Administrative Period (AP)
⦁ Generally, but not always, the period during which open enrollment occurs; precedes the PYS; can be 0-90 days; measured in days; decision making time frame for both the company and the employee
⦁ Standard Measurement Period (SMP)
⦁ Period of time during which an employee’s hours are recorded and used to determine full-time or non-full-time status; continuously recurring; can be 6-12 months; measured in months
⦁ Stability Period (SP)
⦁ Period of time during which an employee is considered stable as full-time or non-full-time as determined by the results of their preceding measurement period; begins the day after the Administrative Period; continuously recurring