Health care:
H-E-B says it won’t cut workers’ hours to avoid insurance mandates in the Affordable Care Act.
SAN ANTONIO— H-E-B will not reduce employees’ work hours to avoid the health insurance mandates under the Affordable Care Act, a company vice president said this week.
About 45,000 of the grocer’s 76,000 U.S. employees qualify for health benefits, said Brooke Brownlow, San Antonio-based H-E-B’s vice president of compensation and benefits. The company already offers coverage to part-time employees who work on average at least 29 hours a week, she said.
Brownlow detailed the family-owned supermarket chain’s response to the health care reform law at an Affordable Care Act symposium hosted by the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce this
week. Some employers have cut workers’ shifts to part-time schedules of less than 30 hours a week to avoid having to provide health insurance to them. But there’s no chance H-E-B will go that route, Brownlow said during a presentation.
“You won’t see a story about us doing that,” Brownlow said. $500 payment
On Thursday, grocer Trader Joe’s Co., said it would take a different path.
According to Bloomberg News, the Monrovia, Calif.-based company said it would end health benefits for part-time workers next year, directing them instead to new insurance marketplaces created by the Affordable Care Act.
Employees with fewer than 30 hours a week will no longer be given health coverage as of Jan. 1, and instead will get a $500 payment to help them buy insurance elsewhere, Trader Joe’s told Bloomberg in a statement. It said most of the affected employees would find a better deal on the healthlaw exchanges, where buyers may be eligible for federal subsidies. Stress, innovation
H-E-B, a privately held company, is trying to educate both its workforce and its customers about the new law, Brownlow said.
The company is selfinsured, with Blue Cross Blue Shield acting as its plan administrator.
“Stress accelerates innovation,” Brownlow told business leaders in the audience. “I know we’re probably all fairly stressed about this, but if you look at it as an opportunity to accelerate innovation, I think it can be a good thing.” Shopping for coverage
Beginning Oct. 1, U.S. consumers without employer-sponsored health insurance can begin shopping for coverage plans in the health insurance marketplace.
Individuals and families will generally be required to purchase health insurance through the exchange or could potentially be forced to pay a penalty to the federal government when they file their tax return. Those not required to submit tax returns because their income is below the filing threshold will be exempt from the health insurance mandate.
Under the law, people earning between 100 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty level can qualify for federal tax credits to help pay their premiums. Could face penalty
Employers with workforces of 50 or more full-time people could be penalized under the new law if they don’t meet certain requirements. Those that don’t offer health insurance — or those that provide health benefits that fail to meet minimum coverage requirements or that are deemed unaffordable — will pay penalties if any employee purchases insurance through the exchange and qualifies for a federal premium tax credit.
However, H-E-B’s health insurance already meets the minimum coverage requirements imposed by the federal government, Brownlow said. Employees’ premiums are based on how much income they earned in the previous year, she said.
“We’re just blessed to have already been set up that way,” Brownlow said. Wait, watch, see
H-E-B employees have added more of their grown children as dependents to the supermarket chain’s health insurance plan since the Affordable Care Act bumped the maximum age of dependents up to 26 years old regardless of whether they are full-time students, she said.
“I think the big elephant in the room is — are employers going to drop coverage altogether and just pay the penalty?” Brownlow said. “My crystal ball says most people are going to wait and watch and see what happens from a large employer standpoint.”