leevena

Would you mind tellling us what type of coverage you have, such as name of carrier, product name that are covered under, and whether you are a small group (under 50). THanks.

I am in California and we keep 7 years (employee benefits business). You might want to check with your state regulations.

I have not heard of the term "physical health", so I am assuming that the question is asking why MH coverage is usually limited versus other types of expenses. If my assumption is true, then I voted no to your poll. Let me start by saying that I fully recognize that MH should be a covered expense and that they do contribute to many physical conditions. However, unlike physical conditions, MH is much more difficult to diagnosis, treat, and then show a final outcome, such as a cure. The end result is that if treated the same as other physical conditions, the costs for these types of expenses could become very significant. The impact on rates could become dramatic. Just my thougts and opinions. Good luck with your poll.

Hi. HRA's funds are the property of the employer, while HSA's funds belong to the employee. Also, employees cannot deposit funds into an HRA, only the employer may. With a HSA, both employee and employer can fund. Hope this helps.

Yes, you can have both, but it is not an easy thing to do. Your question stated that many people have exhausted their fsa and now want an HSA concerns me. It apears that people believe that the two are similar, when in fact they are not. Because it is so complicated, and the penalties can be significant, I suggest you use someone who has the expertise to fully understand what you are trying to do and also have the ability to implement it properly.

There are two pieces to this request, the employer savings and the employee savings. The employer savings is relatively simple. The payroll records will give you the total amount of dollars run through the fsa plan(s). Now apply the percentages that are applicable to your client, just as LRDG speaks about in his/her response. And as LRDG says, why not do it for all dollars, not just fsa. If your supervisor wants savings on the employee side, that is next to impossible. You can assume that the average employee will save 20-25%, but that is just an assumption. To calculate this you would need to know each employees total dollars and then their actual tax rates. The employer does not have access to the employees final tax rate.

Cannnot speak for every state, but here in CA the state does not allow for HSA deductibility. When you do your taxes, the state will have a different adjusted gross income than the feds. Sorry, good thought.

Was there enough room in the office for the 26 World Championship Trophy's?

Sorry, but I still do not agree. In your scenario, the employee can steal/commit fraud and get away with it. Do you really believe that this can be done? There is no way for the employer to disenrol the ineligible person?

GBurns...let me see if I have this straight. An employer makes available a health plan to their employees. The employer is also paying for some portion of that plan. A dishonest employee enrolls an ineligible dependent in the plan, which costs the employer money. Is this not stealing or fraud? And your recommendation is to do nothing. What would stop any employee from lying/stealing/committing fraud in any employer sponsored program? I'am sorry, but I do not agree with you on this.

I don't believe there is an actual letter, rather, there are guidelines about what you need to communicate and how it needs to be communicated. Since you are no longer offering retiree's coverage, I would suggest you pay particular attention to all of the details. This has become a contentious subject over the past few years. As someone mentioned earlier, check all of you documents and communications about this subject. Additionally, check state law for anything applicable to your situation. A suggestion...you may want to make your announcement as early as possible so to give them additional time.

GBurns...unless I am mistaken, it sounds like the employee, and ineligible dependent, are already enrolled in the plan. If that is the situation, wouldn't the employer need to know that information for administrative issues? And, since the plan is self-funded, it sounds like fraud was being done to the employer? The employer is spending some dollars on this ineligible enrollee. Can you explain why the employer would not be informed?

Sorry, I don't. I do not know the law in detail.

I am not 100% confident, but you should be able to share this info. The privacy regs were developed to provide persons with privacy for their personal information. Furthermore, the information can be used by others for the completion of their jobs, i.e., staff person enrolling someone, or a claims person paying a claim. Since part of your/someone's job is to verify eligibility, then this should be ok. If it is not, this would be very disturbing. Good Luck.

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Jmor, I agree with you. I know of many bank cards that have this feature of a loan. Lee

Sorry, but could your question is somewhat confusing. What type of a reimbursement plan do you have? Your question is listed under HSA, but you mention the "well known use it or lose it" rule. HSA's do not have that rule, and since HRA's do not allow for employee contributions, I am assuming that you are asking about FSA's. Is this correct? An FSA allows you to contribute $'s up to the limit put in place by the employer. You are allowed to submit cliams for reimbursement up to the maximum amount. If you leave prior to funding the full amount from you pay, the employer is liable. For example, you are allowed to shelter $1200 per year, and you have a $100 deduction once a month. You incure a $1200 bill in first month, and quit work. You can submit the entire bill and receive all $1200. You would have had only $100 deducted, but the employer would need to make up the difference. What is missing in your example though, is the plan year dates. Check your plan year dates to make sure that your expenses/deductions are eligible. It appears that they are, but I cannot be sure.

No medical necessity for the box, therefor not eligible. Go to IRS website and look up Publication 502 for a full explanation. http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p502.pdf

NO. Go to IRS website and look at Publication 502 ( http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p502.pdf) for a full explanation.

One issue does come to mind. Employers are allowed to offer longer extension periods if they wish, and since you are self-funded it might be true of your group. Often times the life insurance agent will ask his client to bring in all important financial documents, including their health booklets. Could the agent have found it in the employee's documents from your health plan? Just a thought.

Hard to say if this action would cause problems because you did not provide the information needed to calculate. My suggestion would be to look at last years calculations and results. Then do a quick calculation based on the new employer contributions.

My suggestion would be to look to your current insured plans for some direction, they are usually the best source. I am not in NJ but usually your type of a situation is usually addressed. The state will either allow you to wait until your renewal date to implement the change, or will require it to be done on the date the law takes effect. Hope this helps.

Wow. You are asking many questions that will require more in-depth analysis and discussion than this vehicle will allow. I'll start by making some comments about each of your questions. Integration of any type of alternative plan to a self-funded is always tricky. You should first review your contracts in place for that plan to determine the key issues, one of which you have already identified, which is the stop-loss costs. The issue you may be facing is the defragmenting of the risk, and the possibility that you may be having the good risk migrating to the HSA. (I am assuming that your HSA is fully insured) Plan offerings vary from employer to employer. Depending on the employer strategy, the designs are can be all over the board. For example, if the employer strategy is to transition to all HSA plans in 5 years, they will be more aggressive with plan design and costs. If the employer simply wants to add an HSA, without a strategy like the first, they might offer a very simply plan with contribution costs to reflect. Your last question makes me believe that you work for a TPA. Loss of revenue, either to a tpa or a broker losing commission is an issue. The TPA may want to look at other sources of product/services that can not only help the client, but add revenue stream. Again, I know this only touched the surface of your questions, but I hope it helps. Good Luck. Lee

You have many issues with what you are planning to do, and can cause significant problems if not handled carefully. There are many specifics about your current benefit plan and about what you want to do that I do not know, so I will try to make some broad statements to help guide you. A change in underlying health plan is not necessarily a cause for allowing FSA changes. My guess is that you will not be able to make fsa changes. A HDHP with HSA is difficult to offer side-by-side. See rev rulings 2004-45 and 2004-1. 45 essentially says that you can offer them side-by-side, but that the fsa must be limited purpose, and 1 provides for the ordering. Part of the problem you are running into is that since these types of programs are relatively new, there is not much expertise out there yet. You may want to find someone with this kind of background to help you instead of surfing the web. Good luck.

An employer can fund the HSA in a variety of frequency's, but no matter which one choosen, all employees must be treated the same. For example, if you promise $1200 per year, with $100 per month, and in 3rd month someone wants the entire amount ($1,000), you would need to give it to all employees.