At Palomar Health, benefits are a significant portion of a compensation package and can equal up to an additional 40% of pay. Benefit needs may vary from individual to individual so the benefits package has flexibility to accommodate everyone’s requirements. Below are many of the benefits offered to employees of Palomar Health.

• On the first of the month following the date of hire, employees are eligible to participate in the healthcare benefits program.
  • Medical Insurance – Employees have a choice of three health insurance plans – an EPO, PPO and an HSA.
  • Vision Plan – This plan covers routine eye exams and vision hardware (i.e., frames, lenses and contact lenses).
  • Dental Insurance – The dental plan features a network of more than 500 San Diego County dentists. However, the plan allows the option of seeing a network dentist or obtaining care through another dental provider.

Employees are eligible to participate in the income protection plans on the first of the month following 60 days of employment.

• Basic Employee Life Insurance and AD&D – Palomar Health recognizes the importance of life insurance protection and provides employees with basic life and AD&D coverage of 1x their annual salary. This coverage is free to the employee.
• Supplemental Life Insurance – In addition to the 1x annual salary in basic life insurance provided to employees, you may purchase up to an additional 4x your annual salary in life insurance (for a total of 5x annual salary).
• Spouse & Child Life Insurance – Employees may also purchase spouse life insurance that protects you in the event of your spouse’s death. Spouse coverage may be up to 50% of the employee’s total life insurance. In addition to spouse life, employees may also purchase life insurance on their dependents. Options for child life insurance coverage include a $5,000 or $10,000 policy for each dependent child.
• Short-Term Disability – Short-term disability provides for a weekly benefit of up to 70% of pre-disability income (when combined with income from all other sources). Payments begin after 7 days of disability and end after 25 weeks. Palomar Health subsidizes 50% of the cost of short-term disability coverage.
• Long Term Disability – The financial consequences of a long-term illness or injury could be disastrous. Palomar Health protects employees by providing long-term disability coverage equal to 50% of the employee’s monthly base pay free of charge. Employees have the ability to purchase additional coverage to 60% or 66 2/3%. This benefit begins after a total elimination period of six months and continues until you recover, return to work, become rehabilitated or reach the maximum benefit period (generally age 65).

Palomar Health offers generous paid time off opportunities.

• Generous Paid Time Off (PTO) – Personal time off is designed to provide employees with time away from work in order to ensure your physical and mental well-being. PTO is used for scheduled time off (vacations), unscheduled time off (sick leave), and holidays. PTO begins accruing on your first day of employment and accrues based on the eligible hours worked in a pay period. Full-time employees generally accrue 219 hours/year (over 27 eight-hour days per year) with increases in the accrual rate at 5 years and again at 10 years.
• Paid Bereavement Leave – Palomar Health provides up to 3 days of paid time for employees to attend services and to attend to the affairs of a deceased family member.
• Paid Jury Duty Leave – Palomar Health provides up to 15 days of paid jury duty leave to allow employees to fulfill their civic responsibilities.

These accounts allow employees to put money aside to pay for certain types of eligible expenses with pre-tax dollars. By anticipating your expense and arranging for deductions to be made from each paycheck, you can lower your taxable income. There are two types of flexible spending accounts – Health Care Spending Account and Dependent Care Spending Account.

• Health Care Spending Account – This account allows you to use pre-tax dollars to pay health care expenses not reimbursed by the medical, dental or vision plans.
• Dependent Care Spending Account – This account allows you to use pre-tax dollars to pay for dependent care expenses for either dependent children or elder adults in adult care arrangements.

Palomar Health provides one of the most generous retirement plans in the market.

• Money Purchase Pension Plan – After one year of service with 1,000 hours worked in that year, Palomar Health will begin contributing an amount equal to 6.0% of your per pay period gross earnings. After 15 years of participation in the plan, the contribution will increase an additional .5% of your per pay period gross earnings over the established contribution level in effect at the time. Employees have the discretion to direct their investments in a variety of funds available through Fidelity.
• Deferred Compensation Plan – This pre-tax retirement savings plan is administered by Fidelity Investments. Employees choose the amount they wish to defer/save each pay period. Palomar Health also matches up to 2% of the employee’s contribution, based on years of service. For the first 1-9 years of service, the match is up to 1% for each $1.00 contributed. For 10-15 years of service, the match is up to 2% for each $1.00 contributed and at 16 years of service the contribution increases to up to 3% for each $1.00 contributed.

In addition to insurance, paid time off and retirement benefits, Palomar Health offers a variety of voluntary benefits to meet your needs.

• Legal – The legal plan gives you access to a nationwide network of more than 9,000 attorneys who can provide you with a wide range of legal services for a fraction of the regular price.
• College Savings Plan – A college savings plan is a flexible program that helps make saving for higher education easier. The plan allows you to save today to meet the cost of a child’s future education. This plan is offered through Fidelity Investments.
• Auto & Home – Through this program, you will have the opportunity to apply to purchase discounted auto, home, and other property and liability insurance.
• Pet Insurance – A Veterinary Pet Insurance (VPI) policy covers a multitude of medical problems and conditions related to accidental injuries, emergencies, poisoning and illnesses, including cancer. This policy also covers diagnostic tests, prescriptions, office visits, X-rays, treatments, hospitalization, lab fees and surgeries. With a VPI policy, you can visit any licensed veterinarian worldwide.
• Personal Accident Expense Plan (Non-Work Related) – This plan is designed to help cover the expenses associated with an accidental injury. The plan is offered through UNUM and deductions are taken on a pre-tax basis.
• Cancer Protection Plan – When a covered individual is diagnosed with cancer, this plan provides benefits for hospital confinement, radiation and chemotherapy and surgery, among others. The plan is offered through UNUM and deductions are taken on a pre-tax basis.
• Hospital Confinement Indemnity – This policy provides a benefit when you are charged for required hospital confinement of 14 or more hours for a covered sickness or injury. This plan is also offered through UNUM with deductions taken on a pre-tax basis.

Palomar Health offers opportunities to assist in continued education.

• Tuition Reimbursement – Furthering your career is a goal of Palomar Health. To help support your efforts, Palomar Health provides tuition reimbursement of up to $2,000 per year for full-time employees. Part-time employees are eligible for up to $800 per year.
• Conference/Seminars – All employees may apply to the conference/seminar fund for up to $300 per year. This fund is available to help offset the cost of on-going continuing education needs/desires.
• Certifications/Re-certifications – Palomar Health provides opportunities in-house for certification and/or re-certification in CPR, ACLS, etc.
• E-Learning – Employee continuing education and growth are important at Palomar Health. Employees have access to a wide variety of e-learning and/or instructor-led classes to help broaden their knowledge base and improve their skills. E-learning classes are web-based and are self-paced to accommodate everyone’s learning style.

Palomar Health is a Public Healthcare district and our full-time employees may be eligible for certain government programs such as the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF).

The PSLF Program is intended to encourage individuals to enter and continue to work full-time in public service jobs. Under this program, you may qualify for forgiveness of the remaining balance due on your eligible Program loans after you have made a certain number of qualifying payments on those loans while employed full-time by certain public service employers.

Because our employees’ health and wellness are important at Palomar Health, a variety of programs are offered.

• Employee Assistance Plan – From time to time the pressures in life can build to the point that some professional assistance and/or guidance may be helpful to employees. This plan provides up to six free visits with a professional counselor.
• Smoke-Free at Last Group Program
• Education Classes – These classes range from healthy eating to exercise programs.

At Palomar Health, we realize the value of activities outside of the workplace that incorporate family and friends. We offer employees the ability to purchase discounted tickets to movies and attractions across the country through TicketsAtWork.com. As a Palomar Health employee, you will be eligible for discounts from numerous vendors.

At Palomar Health we believe in a culture of reward and recognition. As such we offer a variety of programs and activities, including:

• An annual event for all employees
• Hospital week celebrations, including free meals and gifts
• Free holiday meals and gifts
• Recognition for outstanding innovation and cost savings
• Cause for Applause (peer-to-peer recognition)
• Service Awards