8882 / Can employment of summer interns cause an employer to become subject to the shared responsibility provisions?

Yes. However, in order to be counted as a full-time employee, an employee must be paid for his or her services—as a result, unpaid interns will not be counted as employees in determining whether an employer is subject to the shared responsibility provisions. An intern who is paid, however, will be counted in the same manner as any other employee.¹ Therefore, a paid intern who works an average of 30 hours per week must be offered health coverage within the period of time that it would be offered to any other full-time employee.

If the intern can legitimately be categorized as a seasonal employee (i.e, his or her duties are commonly only accomplished during a particular season), the employer may avoid offering health coverage to that intern. The employer can also avoid responsibility for offering health coverage to interns if the hours of those interns are capped at below 30 hours a week so that they are not treated as full-time employees under the ACA.