If you elect to insure qualifying volunteers, including student volunteers or unpaid students, as defined in chapter 51.12 RCW as now or hereafter amended, you must give notice in writing on a form prescribed by the department. If you do not currently have elective coverage for such volunteers, including student volunteers or unpaid students, and you would like to cover them, please contact our underwriting section at phone number 360-902-4817.

Effective June 9, 2016, a law change (see section 3, chapter 62, Laws of 2016) created an additional reporting option for employers who cover qualifying volunteers (including student volunteers and unpaid students) for medical aid only.

When filing your quarterly report in the first quarter of the calendar year in which coverage for your qualifying volunteers is effective, you must indicate your choice to report all such qualifying volunteers based on either:

• Actual hours worked; or

• One hundred hours per qualifying volunteer per calendar year (one hundred-hour cap method).

You must use the same method to report all your qualifying volunteers in the calendar year. The first time you file your quarterly report in subsequent calendar years, you may change your reporting method for that calendar year.

If you have previously chosen in a calendar year to report one hundred hours per qualifying volunteer per calendar year, for all quarterly reports for that calendar year:

• You must report one hundred hours for any new qualifying volunteers who you have not reported in previous quarters of the calendar year.

• If you have no new qualifying volunteers in the quarters after you chose to report one hundred hours per qualifying volunteer, you must report zero hours for the volunteer classification.

For calendar year 2016 only, in addition to the above requirements, since the one hundred hour reporting option may be used only after the effective date of the law change, if you choose to report one hundred hours per qualifying volunteer:

• You must still report and pay premium based on actual hours for qualifying volunteers in the second quarter of 2016; and

• Your premium payment for one hundred hours per qualifying volunteer applies only for coverage for the third and fourth quarter of 2016; and

• Hours reported in the first and second quarter of 2016 for volunteer coverage do not count toward the one hundred hours per qualifying volunteer for 2016.

See relevant rules, including WAC 296-17-925 for recordkeeping requirements for student volunteers and unpaid students, WAC 296-17-930 for recordkeeping requirements for other volunteers, and WAC 296-17-35201 for general recordkeeping and retention requirements.