Information for Employers who have Part-Time Employees, Temporary Employees, and/ or Seasonal Employees (this page was updated:12/8/08)

Many employers in the artworld have part time employees, temporary employees, and/or seasonal employees.

Some have said that under the new health care reform law, the Connector is suppose to track and enforce that part-time employers contribute to the cost of their part time employee's health insurance premium. THIS IS NOT CORRECT. The law does not require employers to provide insurance to their the part time employees. Further clarification from Health Care for All: "While employers can choose to offer health insurance to part-time employees (as defined by DCHFP regs) or allow part-time employees to buy-in to their plans, they are not required to do either. Also, while various employers can contribute to an employee's Commonwealth Choice Plan (Connector unsubsidized plans), they are also not required to."

The Connector has set up a public information unit and the phone number is 617-933-3140 or you can email connector@state.ma.us As soon as we have a contact person's name and direct phone number we will post it.

There is the Connector's website section for employers. Also you might want to check to see if your business is eligible for the Insurance Partnership, check out their website . Contact Betty Connor at the IP 1-800-399-8285 x103 bconnor@insurancepartnership.org

ALL Employers with 11 or more Full Time Equivalent Employees, due to the new law's requirements, are required to offer their full time employees the option to participate in a Section 125 Cafeteria Plan. (To find out how many Full Time Equivalent Employees, see the Connector's section "How do I know if I have more 11 or more full-time-equivalent Employees?") Please note that your part time workers who work an average of 64 hours per month are eligible under the law to participate in your Section 125 Cafeteria Plan. Those employees who decline to participate in Section 125 Plan will be required to sign a HIRD employee form that will be submitted to the Department of Revenue by their employer. The 2007 HIRD Employee Form* is now available. The Employee HIRD form is also available in Spanish* and Portuguese*. For general information on the HIRD forms see the State's general information page.

Also for an employee to be considered a seasonal employee by the state, their employer needs to register with the state that they have seasonal employees. The AF will be posting how to do that on this section and we are also researching if an employer has to fill out state paper work for temporary employees as well.

Employers may specifically exclude the following "employees" from participating in a Section 125 Cafeteria Plan: a) Employees who are less than 18 years of age, b) Temporary Employees (an individual who works on either a full or part time basis;whose employment is explicitly temporary in nature and does not exceed 12 consecutive weeks), c) Part-time Employees working on average, fewer than 64 hours per month for an Employer, d) Employees who are considered wait staff, service employees or service bartenders (as defined by in M.G.L. c. 149, section 152A) and who earn, on average, less than $400 in monthly payroll wages, e) Student Employees who are employed as interns or as cooperative students, f) Employees whose employer is required to contribute to a multi-employer Health Benefit Plan based on their employment, and g) Seasonal Employees who are international workers with either a U.S. J-1 student visa, or a a US H2B visa and who are also enrolled in travel health insurance.

SPECIAL NOTE: If you offer your employees insurance AFTER they have enrolled in Commonwealth Care and you offer to pay 33 percent or more of their individual plan or 20 percent or more of their family plan, your employees will be de-enrolled (effectively kicked off) from Commonwealth Care. This is going to be the case even if your employees can not afford the premium from the health insurance plan offered by you. BUT the Connector is reconsidering this provision. The Connector is possibly considering that the employer could pay the State the same amount they would be paying an insurance company and the Connector would allow the employee to stay on the Commonwealth Care program.

As soon as more information is available we will post it in this section will announce it via this site's list serve.