PRN hours decreased because of the ACA

[kdhunley]

I work PRN at a hospital, usually 36-48 hours per week. We have been told that because of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) we can no longer work more than 30 hours a week. While this doesn't officially take effect until Jan. 2015, our hospital is choosing to implement this now.

Of course, you can imagine, we are all upset, particularly those of us who work full-time hours. I choose to work PRN because I get paid more per hour and don't need benefits because I have insurance through my husband's employer.

Our hospital heavily utilizes PRN nurses both dedicated to a particular floor and a float pool. We all feel this is really going to negatively affect patient care and adequate staffing. I am going to find another PRN job to get the hours I need to work each week.

Has anyone else had this experience?

[MarkWright]

Do you grasp the concept of what a PRN employee is, it is not an option to work FullTime while receiving extra pay, is a work as per need basis. If you want your full hours while keeping the extra pay; sit down with your employer and have a discussion about it, explain that you don't want any of the extra benefits so would prefer to keep your current pay scale.

Understand that the law mandated employers to offer you a health plan if you work more than 30 hours, it does not means however that you have to take it, they just have to offer it as per law, and you need to be insured in some way as per the law. You are focusing on the wrong thing , and still I do not see why is it so hard for you to sit down and talk to your employer about your concerns.

I did talk to my employer many times... and the IRS (The agency that issues and collects the fines) and what you say is just not the case. As for PRN only being "as needed" you are wrong again because I and and others were hired as full time PRN's by our own choice because we had insurance elsewhere... but the ACA as written right now makes that impossible. I am sure that will change after the first big north eastern hospital gets it's first huge fine but as it stands right now this is my life... I and millions of other are living what you say can't happen. I know, even after your hospital gets the pants fined off of it that you will still believe what you believe about the ACA. I on the other hand will continue to believe what I believe because it is happening to me. To discuss this further on those grounds is pointless and only leads us to believe the other is stupid in some way. I hope and pray you are right... but that is not what I and millions like me are living right now.

[MarkWright]

So you should be fine then if that was the condition of your employment, and you have a right to both your hours and your pay. The ACA has then nothing to do with the issue, and it is just a management/ employee conflict.

Or am I missing something?

Yes, you are missing something and will never get it because it is not happening to you and you want so desperately for he ACA to be wonderful... and it is not wonderful for most people.

[SC_RNDude]

Before the ACA I was hired as a full time PRN. I know that may be hard for some to wrap their heads around but I was hired to work a regular shift but for PRN pay and no benefits by my choice and the hospitals. It was good for me and good for the hospital. Now, under the employer mandate and 30 hr rule of the ACA i loose hours and wages. I loose hours if I stay PRN because EVEN THOUGH I HAVE INSURANCE FROM SOME PLACE ELSE, I will not be allowed go work more than 29 hr a week due to the evil ACA. (Note to the moderator: This is exactly on topic because I am one of those PRN's being screwed over by the ACA). I loose pay if I go full time with benefits I do not need or want. Either way the ACA is a total loss to me and those like me.

I am no fan of the ACA. In fact, you can find pages of my posts that would indicate the opposite.

That being said...

Most employers, healthcare and otherwise, don't pay a higher rate for those who forego signing up for their employer-sponsered health plan. Your higher PRN pay for guranteed full-time hours was not destined to be a permanent arrangement. Someone would have eventually figured out what a dumb business practice that was.

The ACA may have expedited that, but it isn't to blame.

[Not_A_Hat_Person, RN]

I don't like the ACA's employer mandate. Getting health insurance through the employer caused this mess, and we need to get away from that. No one expects to buy car insurance or homeowner's insurance through their employer.

That said, in the current political climate, making necessary tweaks to ACA is very, very risky. ACA came about because the old system had multiple serious problems. If you give an inch (remove the employer mandate), the opposition will take a hundred miles (completely overturn the ACA, leaving people with anything that could remotely be considered a pre-existing condition and no access to insurance through a job or other source with no other options).

Medicare wasn't perfect when it started. It was widely decried as socialism. It took about 2 years of tweaking to get it right. Now no mainstream politician would dare suggest overturning it.