Effective March 1, 2008, the State of Washington Health Care Authority (HCA) has directed state higher education institutions and state agencies to use new criteria to evaluate when temporary employees become eligible for employer provided insurance coverage. This applies to what the HCA rules refer to as "nonpermanent," "career seasonal," and "instructional year" employees.
Under the new criteria, UW temporary employees whose average employment is at least half-time over a period of six consecutive months will be eligible for the employer provided insurances. The HCA-approved definition of half-time employment is 87 hours per month. Therefore, any temporary employee working 522 hours (87 hours x 6 months) in a consecutive six month period with pay in each of the 6 months will be eligible for insurance benefits beginning the seventh month of continuous employment.
The University is applying these criteria to temporary employees who have been working for the University as well as to newly hired temporary employees. The Benefits office will inform temporary employees of their eligibility, for employer-paid insurance coverage by letter.
Insurance plan coverage and enrollment for eligible temporary employees is described on the following pages.
If you are looking for information about retirement plan participation see the PERS 2 and PERS 3 web pages.
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