February Congruity Q&A: Benefit Eligibility
If an employee's hours are reduced below 30 hours per week, would the employee need to stay in the health plan even if they longer meet the eligibility requirements?
Answer:
In accordance with the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA’s) employer shared responsibility provision (so-called “play or pay” rules), there are two measurement methods to determine health coverage eligibility: the monthly method or the look-back method. Under the look-back method, employees who averaged at least 30 hours per week in the measurement period are deemed eligible for the subsequent stability period, even if their hours are reduced to fewer than 30 hours per week. In other words, if an employee chooses to enroll, their medical plan coverage will automatically continue for the entire stability period.
Further, if the coverage is part of a cafeteria plan (which allows employees to make pretax contributions), they would not be able to drop the coverage since their eligibility has not changed. Fortunately, the IRS recognized that employees in a stability period whose work hours are reduced could become stuck in a plan they no longer want or can afford. So, the IRS revised the cafeteria plan rules to give the employer the option of amending its plan to allow employees to drop coverage if certain criteria are met.
Specifically, an employee may elect to drop coverage due to the reduction in hours, provided the employee intends to enroll in another plan providing minimum essential coverage with the new coverage effective no later than the first day of the second month following the date the original coverage is dropped.
To recap, the employer’s cafeteria plan may allow an employee to drop medical coverage (but not dental/vision coverage or a health flexible spending account (HFSA) during the stability period if:
- The employee has a change in employment status and will reasonably be expected to average less than 30 hours of service per week; and
The employee intends to enroll in another medical plan (such as a spouse’s plan or a Marketplace plan) by the start of the second month after dropping this employer’s plan. - To allow this election change, the employer must amend its § 125 cafeteria plan and adopt the amendment by the end of the plan year in which the election change is allowed. The employer also must inform all cafeteria plan participants of the amendment.
