HCA Average Cost

Purpose:  Use this document as a reference for using the benefit deduction "HCA Average Cost" in ctcLink.

Audience:  Benefits Administrators, Payroll Administrators.

You must have at least one of these local college managed security roles:

  • ZD Benefits Employee Data Inq
  • ZD Payroll Inquiry
  • ZZ Payroll Processing

If you need assistance with the above security roles, please contact your local college supervisor or IT Admin to request role access.

HCA Average Cost

Navigation:  Payroll for North America > Payroll Processing USA > Produce Payroll > Review Paycheck

  1. Upon being placed in the SB1 Benefit Program (no matter if the employee is new or continuing and changing program), the Payroll department must ensure that at that time the employee is enrolled into the HCA Average Cost deduction.
    • Deduction code is 000990
    • It is a General Deduction
    • It is a Nontaxable Benefit
    • The amount changes each year on the fiscal year and is dictated to ERP by the HCA
  2. This HCA Average Cost deduction date should generally match the Deduction Begin Date in the Health Benefits Enrollment screen (typically it will look like MM/01/YYYY).
    • If the employee is waiving health benefits, then it should be entered for the 1st of the month that their Health Deduction would have begun had they not waived it.
    • If the deduction begin date is being entered at the end of a waiting period, then it’s possible payments not taken will need to be sent, and this must be adjusted manually as only one payment will be sent even if you “backdate” a deduction.
    • All adjustments should happen on the A Payroll (additions or subtractions), otherwise this can cause downstream issues in Finance.  

NOTE: If a refund is given on a B payroll it creates a negative voucher. In Accounts Payable you can’t process a negative voucher without there being a positive one to net against. Therefore, the correct way to process the negative voucher created on a B payroll would be to place it on hold until the next A payroll when the HCA Avg. cost is paid and combine all open vouchers when creating the payment).

  1. The E-188 process puts a standard set of deductions on an employee in SB1 if, by the time of running it, the Payroll department has not added a particular set of deductions to an employee.  One of the deductions it adds is the HCA Average Cost.  This was designed as a failsafe.
  2. In PeopleSoft the HCA Average Cost only comes out on the A Payroll of any given month.
    • It will never come out of the B Payroll
    • New employees are only eligible for health care in the beginning of the next month following their entry into SB1, which means the average cost ideally must come out in that month’s A Payroll.
  3. All employees who are healthcare eligible must have the HCA Average Cost paid for them by the college every month, whether they have opted to accept that coverage or not.
    • This means the college must pay the HCA Average Cost even if an employee has waived health coverage
    • HCA Average Cost is therefore being paid for all SB1 coded employees in PeopleSoft
  4. If an employee switches positions between colleges mid-month, the college who employed the employee at the beginning of the month is still responsible for paying that individual’s HCA Average Cost even if they worked fewer days there in that month.
  5. No matter what part of the month an employee is terminated in, even if they only work one day in the month, that month’s HCA Average Cost must be paid for that employee.

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