Bonuses for California health care workers are going out soon — but there’s a catch
When will California’s health care workers receive their promised retention bonuses from the state? It looks like the funds — roughly $1.1 billion — will arrive just in time to help pay off holiday shopping bills.
The California Department of Health Care Services said it will begin disbursing the funds to private-sector and public-sector health care workers in January 2023.
Be careful, though, not to make a costly mistake. If you quit now, you might not see a dime of the payment. Workers must be employed by a qualifying company through Nov. 28 to be eligible for the bonuses.
To qualify, companies must apply for the funds no later than 5 p.m. on Dec. 30. As part of the application process, they must list their eligible employees.
Assembly Bill 184 set guidelines on the types of companies that can qualify. They included acute-care hospitals, nursing homes and other skilled nursing facilities, acute psychiatric hospitals, federal or hospital-affiliated health clinics, primary care clinics, public hospital systems, and physician organizations affiliated with health care facilities or health systems.
The size of workers’ bonuses are being determined by how many hours they work between July 30 and Oct. 28. Full-time employees, who will see the largest retention payments, must work at least 400 hours. Part-time workers will only qualify if they work between 100 and 399 hours.
The state has said it will pay up to $1,000 in retention payments to full-time workers at covered entities, but if their employers have paid them a bonus or hazard pay, the state will match that up to $500. So, some full-time workers could receive as much as $1,500 in state retention payments.
Part-time employees would receive $750 in retention payments, plus the same offer of matching funds if they received a bonus or hazard pay from their employers. Consequently, part-timers would be eligible for $1,250 in retention payments.
Eligible physicians would receive payments of $1,000.
Contractors can get bonuses, too
Workers may qualify even if they are not directly employed by a qualifying institution. Lawmakers made contractors eligible, whether they work for an outside janitorial company or an outside physician group.
What if a worker or contractor happened to be out on an approved leave during the period? That individual may still be eligible if the employer attests that he or she would have worked enough hours to qualify for a bonus.
If workers started new jobs with a qualifying employer or contractor during the four-month period, they are eligible for a bonus if they worked more than 100 hours and keep their jobs through Nov. 28. If workers quit their jobs at a covered entity on Nov. 29 or thereafter, they are still eligible if they worked more than 100 hours.
It’s possible that health care workers may have worked for more than one qualifying employer or contractor during the period, but hours worked for different employers cannot be combined. If workers were employed at multiple facilities for the same qualifying employer, as is common among employees at skilled nursing facilities, they can combine all those hours when determining the size of the bonus they can collect.
Many California health care workers eligible
Covered employees may work in a variety of roles at the facilities, including in clerical, dietary, environmental services, laundry, security, engineering, facilities management, administrative, or billing services.
If you worked for more than one covered entity during the period, you cannot collect two checks and must return any excess payments to the Department of Health Care Services.
If the requests for retention payments exceed what the state has set aside, however, the retention payments will be reduced proportionally, state officials have said.
The Department of Health Care Services has been providing updates and guidance to employers through its website, email groups and other channels.
As part of a different budget deal, 70,000 frontline workers at California’s community health clinics would receive $1,000 in retention bonuses if the governor approves Assembly Bill 204. These workers serve Medi-Cal patients and the uninsured at so-called safety-net clinics. State leaders set aside roughly $70 million for this program, and payments would be made in spring of 2023.
This story was originally published September 23, 2022 at 5:30 AM.
