February 9, 2016
All campus changes to tracking hours for Affordable Care Act for GRA and GTA employees
Submitted by Human Capital Services
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, PPACA, or Federal Health Care Reform, was signed into law on March 23, 2010. The law put in place a comprehensive reform of the health insurance system in the U.S. to make health care more affordable, accessible and of a higher quality standard.
Kansas State University has complied with all the applicable requirements of the Affordable Care Act throughout its implementation.
In May 2014, Kansas State University implemented a system of tracking hours for Affordable Care Act health insurance in the Human Resource Information System, or HRIS. Graduate Research Assistant, or GRA, and Graduate Teaching Assistant, or GTA, employees were required to track and report actual hours worked directly related to the assigned hours for their assistantship. Supervisors of these employees also were required to approve time in the ACA eTime system.
Effective Feb. 14, GRA and GTA employees will no longer be required to manually track their hours for Affordable Care Act compliance in HRIS eTime. As a result, supervisors will no longer be required to approve GRA and GTA hours for the Affordable Care Act in HRIS eTime. Going forward, hours applied to Affordable Care Act compliance will be automatically documented in HRIS and will be based on the full-time equivalency, or FTE, associated with the appointed GRA or GTA position. For example, a 0.5 FTE appointed GRA position will have 20 hours per week applied for Affordable Care Act compliance.
GRA and GTA employees should not work more than the FTE applied to their position and may not work over 20 hours per week in the assistantship positions. The GRA or GTA may be employed in a separate student employee appointment with a limit of an additional 10 hours per week. The combination may not exceed 30 hours per week when school is in session. Employees are responsible for ensuring their time worked does not exceed the FTE applied to their position. However, supervisors will be required to monitor hours worked by GRA and GTA employees to ensure hours worked do not exceed the FTE associated with the appointed position. For more information please see the Affordable Care Act policy applicable to GRAs or GTAs.
Human Capital Services is responsible for determining what work hours count toward eligibility for the Affordable Care Act ensuring compliance with the rules regarding breaks in service. Departments and units are responsible for also ensuring GTAs or GRAs do not exceed the maximum FTE for appointments, taking into consideration all active K-State appointments on all campuses and with all state of Kansas agencies.
Questions? Contact Human Capital Services at benefits@k-state.edu or 785-532-1870.