Ball State students will not see a change in their university-provided health services as a result of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Employees, however, continue to experience changes as Ball State implements the mandates.
By January 2015, a deadline extended by President Barack Obama, the university must comply with the employer shared responsibility rule, requiring employers provide health insurance to employees working 30 hours or more.
Marie Williams, Ball State associate vice president of Human Resources and Administrative Services, said the extension gives the university time to plan to deal with this mandate.
“This is our time to determine which employees, who are not eligible for health care, would become eligible for health care in 2015,” she said. “[It] also leads to uncertainty because we don’t know exactly how it will impact health care budget in short or long term or the exact number of employees that will be affected.”
Ball State already has a large pool of part-time employees who are covered with health insurance.
“The advantage is we already provide very comprehensive benefits, and in addition to health care for full-time faculty, we also provide for part-time faculty, contract faculty and part-time professional employees,” Williams said.
Cathy Janiczak, a graduate assistant in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, said she feels like graduate assistants fall through the cracks with the 30-hour rule.
She received a letter from her department that said graduate assistants can work only nine hours on campus a week in addition to their assistantship, instead of 10.
Janiczak said that will cause her to lose a few hundred dollars over the year from her extra hours at her transportation job.
“I’m annoyed,” she said. “To me, that’s a lot of money.”
Janiczak is covered by her own health insurance and would not want to purchase any from the university — she just wants to work the full 10 hours. Graduate assistants have not been given health insurance in the past.
“My frustration is toward the law,” she said. “I don’t blame the university for wanting to [mitigate costs]. If every GA was full time, that would be a lot to supply health insurance for, and Ball State can’t afford that. It’s the law that restricts them.”
Williams said it is too early to tell what the final arrangement for tracking the hours of graduate assistants will look like, or if the university will offer them health insurance in the future.
This year, in order to not exceed 20 hours a week, resident assistants have seen part of their job hours cut back — their desk hours, following previous university policy.
Alan Hargrave, director of Housing and Residence Life, said a number of factors went into the cut.
“Students employed on campus have a higher retention rate [and now we] can hire more students,” Hargrave said. “The university has gone through and looked at it; [students] should not work more than 20 hours a week. That has nothing to do with the Affordable Care Act.”
Outside of employment, the new legislation will not affect services at the Amelia T. Wood Health Center, said medical director Kent Bullis.
“At this point in time, the [Affordable Care Act] will not affect us at all,” he said.
Students taking seven or more hours of credit continue to pay $76 in fees per semester to the health center, covering doctor evaluations, diagnoses and some lab tests.
Under the Affordable Care Act, employers also are required to cover dependent children of their employees, up to 26 years old.
Bullis said this expansion allowed more students to be covered by their parent’s insurance through graduation. This made it easier for the Health Center to provide care not covered under the student fee.
Since the act was signed in 2010, the university has been in the process of implementing the mandates concerning employee health care benefits.
Employee coverage now includes dependent children up to 26 years old, free preventive care and pediatric dental insurance. In addition to these, there are no lifetime limits on insurance, along with no annual limits on insurance.
In 2013, Ball State conducted a campus-wide benefits survey for faculty.
“We are in the process of using data for survey to inform our decision making,” Williams said.
In response to the survey, Ball State separated medical and dental health care plans. In January, the benefit plan will move to a calendar year schedule, as opposed to a fiscal year schedule to meet employee preferences.
A recent Mercer consulting firm reported even with delayed implementation for some mandates, the Affordable Care Act will raise cost to employers 2 to 3 percent per year, on top of trend increases, Williams said.
To offset some of the added costs, the university conducted a health audit in fiscal year 2013 to realize savings.
“We always look for creative and viable ways to mitigate costs — not just for the university, but for employees,” she said.
Recent cost-reducing initiatives included a tobacco discount for employees quitting smoking and a smaller pharmacy network under the prescription program Ball State belongs to, which resulted in dropping Walgreens as a pharmacy in July.
Overall, Williams said while the Affordable Care Act broadens the coverage Ball State must pay for, some of the costs will save money in the future.
“[As to some of the added costs like preventative care], we see that as a benefit because it allows our employees to get access to important health care, and it will help overall in long-term to reduce our costs,” she said. “It will benefit our plan in the long term.”
