Oak Hills Living Center
Healthcare Scholarship Program Guidelines
Policy
The legislature passed funds to be used for scholarships for employees. Educational scholarships will be available to qualified employees of Oak Hills Living Center to continue their educational goals within the long-term care career field.
Purpose
To allow Oak Hills Living Center’s employees the opportunity for advanced education. The goal is for this education to further an employee’s career within the facility or the long-term care field in general. This may be evidenced in a recognized certification, title, licensure or degree program or an enhanced wage rate.
Eligible Fields of Education
BSN • RN • LPN • TMA • CNA • Therapeutic Recreational Director • Dietitian • Licensed Social Worker • Health Unit Coordinator • Physical Therapy • Occupational Therapy • Speech Therapy • Health Care Administration
Opportunities for advancement within the organization may be eligible (ex: Marketing, Culinary, HVAC) with facility and State of Minnesota approval.
Guidelines
- To be eligible, employees must have worked at Oak Hills for a minimum of 3 months.
- To be eligible, employees must work an average of 10 hours per week at Oak Hills Living Center. (The Administrator is NOT eligible). If 10 hour average is not met, the next tuition bill or any other expense turned in will be the applicant’s responsibility. When you resume working an average of 10 hours per week, OHLC will resume payments.
- During the course of the class/program, all employees must have a block/set schedule to maintain the 10 hour per week requirement (casual employees are not eligible).
- Applicants will be required to provide an itemized tuition bill, class schedule and copy of their grades each quarter/semester. If unable to provide these items, the bills will be the applicant’s responsibility.
- Employee must maintain a GPA of 2.50. Failure of a class results in disqualification of the program.
- Any employee put on a Performance Improvement Plan, been given a final warning or other disciplinary actions will no longer be eligible for the scholarship program.
- Allowable Expenditures include: Tuition, books, fees and other required expenses. Other costs incurred as a direct result of participation are also eligible.
- OHLC pays tuition after any scholarships/grants or other financial aid.
- Non-Allowable Expenditures:
- Mandatory LPN continuing education credits (CEU’s)
- Mandatory annual Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) in-service training
- Any other expenses related to continuing education provided for the purpose of maintaining a current licensure or certification
- Educational expenses for which an employee has been or will be reimbursed by a 3rd party or covered by financial aid
- There will be a maximum paid out of $5000/bill for tuition and fees.
- Out of state college tuition is allowed; employee must be working in MN facility.
Eligible Expenses
The scholarship program has been expanded to cover reasonable costs (as determined by the Department), for childcare and transportation. To be eligible for coverage under the scholarship program, transportation costs must:
- relate directly to the education and/or training covered by the scholarship awarded (e.g. costs related to transportation to/from training, education or testing sites on days that the individual is engaged in these activities). Reimbursable transportation costs do not include costs of automobile maintenance (i.e. oil, fluids, car repairs or other maintenance costs).
- be documented by the employee (i.e. a mileage log, receipts for bus fare, etc.)
- not exceed a reasonable amount (as determined by the Department). Transportation costs include, but are not necessarily limited to; mileage, bus fare, and parking fees.
Mileage costs are capped at the annual IRS mileage rate for business related travel (this changes annually).
To be eligible for coverage under the scholarship program, child care expenses must:
- relate directly to the education and/or training covered by the scholarship (e.g. child care costs incurred during the period of time that the individual pursues training, education or testing covered by the scholarship award). Child care costs are not covered for any period of time that the employee is receiving wages. Child care costs that are unreasonable may be disallowed by the Department.
- be documented by the employee, and should include a detail statement of costs incurred (signed by the child care provider).
- cover only children the employee is legally responsible for (i.e. child, adopted child, stepchild, etc.)
- not exceed a reasonable amount (as determined by the Department). Child care costs include, but are not necessarily limited to; the hourly, daily or weekly rate charged by a child care provider.
The Department has set a ceiling for child care costs that can be reimbursed under the scholarship program. Child care costs reimbursed cannot exceed the lower of actual documented costs or the prevailing hourly wage for a commercial child care provider in the local area.
Child care costs exclude those items that would normally be provided to a child whether or not the child was in day care (e.g. no separate reimbursement will be made for items such as diapers, food, etc.).
For facility convenience, sample transportation and child care logs have been posted on our website. Nursing facilities are not obligated to utilize these particular forms, but should use some form of documentation that clearly provides all the required information. This information should be retained as part of each scholarship file, in case of audit.
Procedures
- An employee interested in applying for scholarship funds will pick up and complete an application from the Human Resource Director.
- The application will be reviewed by the employee’s supervisor and the Administrator; an interview may be required prior to acceptance.
- The facility reserves the right to limit the scholarships if there are several applicants and the amount allocated by the legislature is exceeded by a large amount. The facility also reserves the right to limit the amount reimbursed for each applicant.
- Upon receiving a bill for their educational expenses, the facility will reimburse the educational intuition directly. In case of mileage or other related expenses, OHLC will reimburse the individual.
- The Administrator will approve the bill and forward it to the business office for payment.
- The business office will track the following requirements:
- Employee’s name, age, gender and hire date
- Employee’s current position or title
- The scholarship amount awarded
- The breakdown of allowable expenditures (e.g. books, tuition, fees)
- The name of the institution, person or entity providing the training
- The nature of the educational program (e.g. ESL, social work, TMA)
- All forms of career advancement attained as a result of participation in the training or program (e.g. LPN degree $3/hour pay raise)
- Expected and actual dates of program