 Health Insurance Premium Relief
for Part-Timers Who Flex Up in Washington County
Brooks McBurney and his human resources colleagues at
Hagerstown’s Washington County Hospital have come up with a creative
answer to a basic complaint of part-time hospital employees: If part-timers
work more hours than they’re scheduled for—which health care
facilities often need them to do—there may not be much of a reward in it
for them. While the classic incentive for full-time staff members to work more
than their full-time hours is overtime, part-time employees’ extra work
may not trip the overtime wire.
So McBurney and his colleagues began looking for ways to
motivate part-time employees to take on more hours when the health system
needed them to. “We chewed on it,” is how McBurney describes the
process. The brainstormers did have a positive human resource benefit to build
on. “We have a history of providing health care coverage to part-time
employees,” he says. “It’s a popular benefit—two-thirds of
our part-time staff take advantage of it.” The group therefore began
focusing on the health care benefit as something that was obviously important
to part-time workers. “We asked ourselves,” says McBurney, “Is
there something we can do with the premium to reward part-timers for flexing up
when we need them to?”
It turned out there was: Although it seems complex,
beginning in 2001 the health system began adjusting the health care premium
paid by part-time employees according to their work record over the preceding
six months. (Which means hours paid for, not hours worked, so part-timers
aren’t penalized when the preceding six months includes vacation time, for
which they are paid.)
Those part-time employees who have averaged more hours than
specified by their FTE status over the preceding six months have their health
insurance premium lowered for the next six months. Those who work at the level
of hours specified as their official FTE keep the same premium. And the sliding
scale works in the other direction too: if part-time employees work less than
their official FTE, they pay a higher premium.
The incentive is working: For the first six months of 2003,
of the 344 people in the medical plan who work part time, just over
half—51 percent—were paid for more hours than their FTE status, and
thus are paying a lower health care premium for the last six months of this
year. Roughly 40 percent worked their official FTEs and are therefore paying
the same health care premium. And just over 10 percent were paid for less than
their FTE status and are paying a higher premium in the last half of 2003.
The increased number of part-time employees who are now
working more than their official FTE status is having a beneficial impact on
agency use, says McBurney. “Our agency usage is now down to 1-2 FTEs for
nursing from a high in September 2001 of 55 FTEs,” he says. The decline
has resulted in big savings for the hospital, he adds.
As far a McBurney knows, his health system is the only one
in the state that uses such a flexible premium plan. “We pretty much
latched onto the idea ourselves,” he says. “We’re proud of it as
an innovative program. I don’t believe there are many others like it, even
nationwide.”
Contact:
Brooks McBurney
Vice President, Human
Resources
Washington County Hospital Association
Phone: (301)
790-8500
E-mail: Mcbrooks@wchsys.org
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