Support vital supplemental staffing in hospitals and nursing homes: waive the employer mandate for per diem nurses.
Many healthcare facilities are limiting the number of hours that supplemental nursing staff can work to under 30 hours per week due to the ACA employer mandate. By waiving the employer mandate for these nurses, vital staffing levels can maintained at
Per diem and supplemental staffing nurses are an essential part of health care staffing. Since patient census in a healthcare institution can vary widely, the nature of per diem work allows that, when additional staff is needed to maintain safe patient care, there is a ready pool of qualified personnel to draw from. These situations often arise unexpectedly due to periods of high patient census and acuity, emergencies, sick calls, and other staffing fluctuations such as medical and family leave. A qualified per diem pool that is familiar and experienced within the health care institution can provide critical staffing on short notice and can also alleviate the stress on full time employees associated with mandatory overtime and being floated to units beyond their area of expertise. Typically, per diem nurses are not covered by an employer?s benefit package. Instead, these nurses generally receive health care coverage from another source and choose per diem status because of the higher wages and greater flexibility in scheduling offered. A per diem nurse?s schedule can vary widely ? s/he may work nearly 40 hours per week for several weeks during some periods while barely any at other times.
The employer mandate of the Affordable Care Act requires that benefits be offered to any employee that works 30 hours or more per week. Employers will be compelled to offer coverage to a pool of workers who previous did not seek coverage. The rules for determining which variable hour employees qualify for coverage are burdensome and complex. Consequently, many employers have chosen to limit all variable hour workers such as per diem nurses to a maximum of 29 hours per week, severely limiting these nurses? income potential and jeopardizing patient safety. A waiver of the employer mandate specifically as it applies to supplemental staffing/per diem nurses would eliminate restrictions on these essential personnel.
We therefore petition Congress and President Obama to waive the employer mandate as it applies to per diem nurses.
The employer mandate of the Affordable Care Act requires that benefits be offered to any employee that works 30 hours or more per week. Employers will be compelled to offer coverage to a pool of workers who previous did not seek coverage. The rules for determining which variable hour employees qualify for coverage are burdensome and complex. Consequently, many employers have chosen to limit all variable hour workers such as per diem nurses to a maximum of 29 hours per week, severely limiting these nurses? income potential and jeopardizing patient safety. A waiver of the employer mandate specifically as it applies to supplemental staffing/per diem nurses would eliminate restrictions on these essential personnel.
We therefore petition Congress and President Obama to waive the employer mandate as it applies to per diem nurses.
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