This session reminded attendees that, like businesses, school districts have one more year — until Jan. 1, 2015 — under Obamacare to provide health insurance to part-time employees who work 30 hours or more. It also stressed that transportation directors should use this extended time to calmly and effectively analyze their workforce in order to retain their services.
The Obama administration set the original deadline at Jan. 1, 2014, but made the announcement on the one-year extension July 2. This mandate applies to all entities that have 50 or more employees.
Presenter Mark Hinson, chief of HR at Adams 12 Five Star Schools near Denver, said some school districts might have been in “a world of hurt” had the deadline not been extended, as the federal government has not released instructions on how to interpret the details to this new mandate, and not all districts might be fully aware of what they have to do in order to comply with the new law. Now, he said, instead of looking at this issue as “problematic and panic,” transportation directors should take this time to “plan and prepare.”
“This gives you the opportunity to think through the operational impact, and have a voice in those organizational decisions that impact you,” he said. “Walk away with the ability to ask the right questions, the implications and some solutions you might need to wrestle with.”
He stressed the need to analyze the workforce in the transportation department and determine which part-timers will be offered healthcare benefits and which ones won’t. For each part-timer who isn’t offered benefits, the district will pay a penalty fine. So, either way, districts will end up paying something. Hinson noted that some districts will determine that paying a penalty fine will be more feasible for them than offering benefits.
Here are some main issues both Hinson and co-presenter Launi Schmutz-Harden, transportation administrator at Washington County School District in Utah, stressed that transportation directors should think about and address before the extended deadline:
- The implications when school districts contract transportation and work with contracted bus drivers, as well as ongoing, new, variable-hour and seasonal employees.
- Consider reassessing and rewriting certain policies and procedures — working with the HR director — in order to avert any major changes to the workforce after the deadline due to working time limitations.
- Test different measurement periods to determine the most advantageous “look back” period. The law gives entities the flexibility to choose their look-back period, which should coincide with a district’s plan year. Hinson also stressed that whatever measurement period the district chooses, transportation must also use that same look-back period.
- Look at the larger perspective — view these benefits as a critical recruitment and retention effort. When hiring new drivers, be clear with applicants on what the district expects from them as employees. Otherwise, if they know they aren’t going to be offered benefits, they might apply, and get a job with benefits, elsewhere.
- Partner with local businesses to retain quality employees, as most local business are also going through the same process.
To learn more about the issues and implications with the part-time healthcare mandate, read “Analyze the Workforce” in the June issue.
