Benefits Offered
ACR Homes offers the following medical and financial benefits to all eligible full-time employees:
- NEW! Higher rates of pay for official full-time direct care employees
- Paid time off (PTO) and Earned Sick & Safe Time
- Traditional Health Plan with UnitedHealthcare (FREE NICE Healthcare!)
- Dental
- Vision
- Pet insurance
- Long-term disability and life insurance benefits
- Voluntary short-term disability and supplemental life insurance
- 401(k)**
Eligibility: New employees hired at full-time status (38 hours/5 days per week) as indicated on a Conditional Offer of Employment are eligible for these benefits, subject to a 60-day waiting period. Current employees whose classification changes from part-time to full-time via a Change of Status Form are eligible for these benefits as well, subject to a required 4 week waiting period. Benefits and eligibility requirements are subject to change.
Part-time employees who are hired, or have a Change of Status, for the Weekend Direct Care Professional position working 30-32 hours per weekend are also eligible for these benefits.
ACR has a qualified 401(k) retirement plan for eligible part-time AND full-time employees. ACR employees can participate in the 401(k) plan if they are at least 21 years old. See below for more information on specific 401(k) eligibility requirements.
USI Compliance Update - Transparency in Coverage and Machine Readable Files
Medical Benefits
ACR offers a traditional health plan with United HealthCare. This plan has been very market competitive, with no increase in employee premium co-pays or deductibles in the past three years. In fact, in 2018 employees actually saw a decrease in employee premiums—it is extremely rare for an employer to offer a reduction in premium expenses!
FREE!!! Video and In-Home Visits Through NICE
Employees who are on ACR’s traditional health plan also have access to Nice Healthcare at no cost. This is a new primary care option that can be accessed via online video, with follow-up exams, labs and X-rays as needed at your home or workplace.
Being a Wise Consumer of Health Care
ACR encourages employees to be wise consumers of health care. This enables participants to manage their own health care expenses and helps keep medical costs down for the whole group.
- Use most appropriate ‘place of service’ when possible. For example, avoid the ER and other higher cost options for common conditions that can be treated by Nice Healthcare or in retail clinics.
- Use generic drugs when available.
- Ask your doctor and/or pharmacist if there is a less costly alternative available.
- Eat well, exercise, and get your annual physical.
- Shop around and be a good consumer.
Accessing Your Benefits Information
To access your medical, dental and other benefits information click here. You can complete open enrollment, add a dependent and update your personal information online!
401(k) Plan
ACR Homes offers a qualified 401(k) retirement plan for eligible part-time and full-time employees. A 401(k) allows you to save money for retirement in an account that you manage through Fidelity’s website, www.401k.com . There are two main parts to ACR’s 401(k) plan:
1. Employee Deferrals: Employees who are at least 21 years old can choose to save between 0%-60% of their pay into a 401(k) by setting up regular paycheck deferrals. Deferral percentages are initiated and managed by the employee through www.401k.com and can be changed at any time. Being at least 21 years old is the only requirement to participate in this portion of the plan. Need investment advice relating to your 401(k)? ACR offers access to 401(k) advisors through Christensen Group for FREE!
2. ACR Profit Sharing: Each calendar year, management determines whether there are profit sharing dollars to distribute amongst ACR employees. If profit sharing is available for the year, ACR will contribute money to 401(k) accounts belonging to employees who meet the following criteria: Employee is at least 21 years old, has worked for ACR for a full year (based on hire date) with at least 1000 hours worked during that year, worked at least 1000 hours during the calendar year (about 20 hours per week), and are still employed on December 31st of that year. If a profit sharing contribution is made, it usually occurs in mid-September the following year. Eligible employees do not need to sign up for this portion of the plan as ACR automatically determines eligibility each year.
In addition, employees can choose to rollover other retirement accounts into their ACR 401(k), such as retirement funds from a previous employer.
Vesting
ACR Homes' 401(k) plan rewards longevity through vesting (gaining ownership of profit sharing contributions). The number of years employees are employed at ACR determines the amount they are "vested". After two years of employment employees become 20% vested, and the vested amount increases 20% a year. After six years employees become 100% vested. (Vesting doesn't apply to employee deferrals or rollovers. Any employee deferrals or rollovers in your account are always 100% yours.)
Disclaimer
This is not intended as legal or tax advice, but it's a good start to help you take responsibility. For further details, see the summary plan description and the plan document (available on your account portal www.401k.com or by emailing finance@acrhomes.com). If there are any discrepancies between the information above and the summary plan description and plan document, the summary plan description and plan document control
NICE Healthcare
Save Time & Money with Nice Healthcare
The Nice Healthcare concept can save you the time and stress of getting to an appointment to treat common conditions like cold, flu, strep, rashes, insect bites, pink eye, ear infections, and chronic conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure. Busy parents will appreciate that they can even do sports physicals, well child, and baby exams. Employees can also cover dependents (spouse and children) at no cost, even if they are not covered on ACR’s group health plan!
We anticipate this will deliver the rare combination of both time savings and cost savings for employees. Strep tests can cost a fee for a clinic visit and another fee for a lab test. Both of these can be done by Nice Healthcare at your desk or in your living room and won’t cost a dime. If you need an X-ray to rule out broken bones, they will send out a mobile X-ray unit, and if a bone needs to be set they can give you a copy of the X-ray and save you the cost of getting one at a clinic.
In-Home Pharmacy Delivery
In-home pharmacy delivery is a new feature that will allow NICE Helathcare's practitioners to not only prescribe medications when they feel it's appropriate to do so, but to also provide the actual medication if it's a medication that NICE Healthcare has in its service. This new service currently includes common allergy/sinus, antibiotic and asthma medications, as well as medications for chronic conditions, cold/cough, ear/eye drops, mental health and more.
This new pharmacy component will remove the need for an ACR member to go to a pharmacy and pick up the medication. ACR members will have NO COST if they are receiving a medication that NICE Healthcare has available with this service, so you'll save on co-pays, too!
How to Set Up an Account with Nice Healthcare
ACR employees who have medical benefits should set up an online account with Nice Healthcare by following the steps laid out in this tutorial from Nice:
You can also go to the Nice Healthcare website and click the "login/sign-up" button, or visit: my.nice.healthcare
NOTE: This version of the Nice Healthcare app is NOT using the "Carbon" app, as previous. If you created an account using Carbon, you must create a new account using the above steps.
Nice Healthcare is usable on any device - a smartphone, tablet, or computer. If you use a computer, make sure to have a camera and microphone so that your provider can see and hear you. It is optimized for the Safari browser on iPhone, Google Chrome for Android, and either on a computer.
If you have any questions, contact the Nice Healthcare team using the chat bubble on their website, or call the ACR office at 651-415-9991.
Feedback from ACR Employees
ACR employees have been enthusiastic about the addition of Nice Healthcare as a healthcare benefit in 2018. The convenience of having Nice Healthcare practitioners do video calls and meet you at home or office is wonderful. Our staff have really liked Nice’s professional staff, too--they are personable and easy to access.
One employee had an annual physical right in his office—it took about 15 minutes total, with no driving, parking or waiting in a waiting room. Another busy mom with a child showing symptoms of strep was thrilled that she not only didn’t have to get the sick child to Urgent Care, but Nice did a video call and then stopped by her home and did the strep test, wrote a prescription and filled it, and even checked out the rest of the family while they were there.
Our employees appreciate the cost savings, too, since Nice Healthcare doesn’t incur a deductible or other out of pocket expense. So far the cost to the company for providing Nice has been easily offset by a reduction in costs in our group health plan benefits. The pharmacy component was added mid-year and has also been a winner—when Nice Healthcare practitioners do house calls, they can prescribe medications when appropriate, and also provide the actual medication if it’s a common one they have in their service such as antibiotic and asthma medications, as well as basic medications for other chronic conditions. The Nice pharmacy option saves the employee both the cost and the hassle of running to a pharmacy to get a prescription filled.