Undergraduate and Graduate Student Employees

  • They are covered by student health insurance, satisfying the students’ coverage obligation under the individual mandate, but the University still needs to meet the shared responsibility requirements.
  • Student employees must be treated as any other temporary employee for this purpose under the ACA, since the ACA does NOT provide any special exemption or treatment of student employees at this time
  • Medical benefits will need to be offered within 60 days to students working an average of 130 hours per month during NSHE’s Standard Measurement Period.
  • Hours will need to be tracked starting July 1, 2014. It is legally permissible to indicate via a job description that hours are not to exceed some amount below 30 hours per week, but the hours would still need to be tracked.

Resident Assistants (RAs)

  • This rule is a work in progress and may be amended at a later date; for now, though, we must consider RAs as full-time employees under ACA rules.
  • Work is not easily translated into a set number of hours per day or week, but availability is required for about 12 hours, four days a week.
  • They may be required to return to their halls even when they are off duty for special emergency messages.
  • They are given an in kind wage for their room and board, a cash stipend based on years of service, and the opportunity for compensated work for up to 12 hours a week anywhere on campus. RAs are expected to invest 20 hours a week in position related activities but there may be times when the work exceeds 20 hours per week. This position is not benefits eligible under University policy; however, if they were tracking all the hours they were “on duty” they could be working more than 30 hours a week.

Temporary Employees

(includes Thousand Hour Employees, Casual employees, temporary, and seasonal employees)

  • Temporary employees who work 80 hours or more per month (50% fte or greater) are currently considered benefits eligible and are enrolled in the University's health insurance plan through the Public Employees Benefits Program (PEBP) on the first of the month concurrent with or following their hire date.
  • For Temporary employees who work less than 80 hours per month (49.9% fte or less) their hours will need to be tracked and if the intent at their date of hire is to have them work 130 hours per month, they need to be offered medical benefits within 60 days.
  • Hours are tracked using the initial measurement period (IMP) of 10 months from July 1 through April 30 of each year, with medical benefits effective July 1. 
  • An employer can exclude a variable hour or seasonal employee from coverage during the IMP with no penalty.
  • If the variable hour or seasonal employee completes an average of 130 hours of service or more per month during the IMP, the employee would be treated as a full-time employee beginning with the subsequent stability period.
  • If they work less than 130 hours per month on average during the IMP, they would not be considered full-time employees and would not have to be offered health benefits during the IMP or the subsequent stability period.

Letter of Appointments (LOA)

  • Letter of Appointments will be credited with 2.25 hours of service for each hour of class time, plus an additional 1 hour of service for each hour spent for office hours or meetings.
  • Currently, LOAs whose contract or combination of contracts total a FTE of at least 50% are considered benefits eligible and are enrolled in the University’s health insurance plan through the Public Employees Benefits Program (PEBP) on the first of the month concurrent with or following their hire date.

Classified Employees

  • Classified employees who work 80 hours or more per month are currently considered benefits eligible and are enrolled in the University’s health insurance plan through the Public Employees Benefits Program (PEBP) on the first of the month concurrent with or following their hire date.

Academic and Administrative Faculty

  • Academic and Administrative Faculty with at least 50% FTE are considered benefits eligible and are enrolled in the University’s health insurance plan through the Public Employees Benefits Program (PEBP) on the first of the month concurrent with or following their hire date.