policy changes in health insurance

[Vilko]

am new here...hope this post will be of interest to others.. our hospital has changed benefit elegibility requirements to be able to get health benefits. to qualify for full time, you must be working 72 hrs./pp....now the catch!! due to low patient census, we get called off if there are no areas that need us to float to.....in the past we could either use our pto time and be paid for that day or take it as unpaid time off. now the hospital is making us use our pto time to make up any unpaid hours to bring our hours up to the scheduled number of hours/pp. due to the continuing low census, this is really ruining staff's ability to plan for vacation time, or for that matter, to have any pto time left for sick days. is this legal, fair? i don't think so! any comments, either pro or con?

thanks for letting me vent.

[Ari RN, BSN, RN]

Welcome Vilko to All Nurses!

Hope you stay here is a pleasant one!

[Dixiedi1]

am new here...hope this post will be of interest to others.. our hospital has changed benefit elegibility requirements to be able to get health benefits. to qualify for full time, you must be working 72 hrs./pp....now the catch!! due to low patient census, we get called off if there are no areas that need us to float to.....in the past we could either use our pto time and be paid for that day or take it as unpaid time off. now the hospital is making us use our pto time to make up any unpaid hours to bring our hours up to the scheduled number of hours/pp. due to the continuing low census, this is really ruining staff's ability to plan for vacation time, or for that matter, to have any pto time left for sick days. is this legal, fair? i don't think so! any comments, either pro or con?

thanks for letting me vent.

This is wild, a friend of mine sent me an email this morning telling me about the same thing where she is. As I told her, I think, not sure mind you, I think there are federal regulations the prevent employers from making you use your sick time or vacation time for anything other than that. There is very likely a huge loophole and your employer has found it. Hope it works out for you but it is very common knowledge that health insurance rates are rising and the employer must do anything they can to recoup some of it. I feel for all of us on this subject.

[elkpark]

They can't make you use your pto time when you get called off, but, on the other hand, they can put whatever qualifications/limits on providing health insurance they want ... Sounds like you're saying that they're telling you you have to use the pto in order to meet the 72-hour requirement to get the paid health insurance, right? So, you can still take the unpaid time off but you'd lose your insurance. That, I believe, is perfectly legal for them to do (another thing that's wrong with our system ... )