February 02, 2006
HSA - we're cutting edge!
the day after the prez talked up Healthcare Savings Accounts ("We will strengthen Health Savings Accounts – by making sure individuals and small business employees can buy insurance with the same advantages that people working for big businesses now get"), we started our very own HSA here at work. one of the many great things about working here is that the guys put a premium on good health coverage (pun only somewhat intended) and I dont pay anything monthly for it.
but of course traditional high-end coverage is getting dang expensive these days, especially considering all the kids we've all been cranking out. so the HSA thing seems like a good idea, and with the good folks at Huffaker on our side, it's hard to go wrong. at the very least, it'll save the company a ton of money, which is good for everyone. if you dont know much about HSAs, there's a pretty good rundown here.
the coolest part of the HSA for us right now is that we can use it to pay bills from previous medical stuff. we can use it for pretty much anything somewhat medical, which is cool, but the down side is that not everything counts toward the deductable for the high-deductable backup account. so the trick is using it toward stuff that counts toward the deductable, or otherwise hoping for the best down the road if we use it for other stuff.
so we'll see how this goes for us. ideally, it will be a big score, as we now have an asset that's in our name to use as we see fit. hopefully we wont have to use it much at all, being relatively young. but as a whole, we're not relatively healthy, as the wife has fibromyalgia, so I'm a little nervous about how it will all work out. if we can hold off having another baby or getting in a car wreck for a while, we'll hopefully have our account built up for whatever we need.
Posted by bobw at February 2, 2006 01:16 PM
Hey, that's neat to see smaller companies getting into Consumer Driven Health Plans (CDHP's). My employer is making a big push in the market with its CDHP products and I hope to see it continue to grow.
We were offered a choice between an HSA and an HRA (Healthcare Reimbursement Account). It's a little different than an HSA, but the concept is similar. The problem with how the HSA was marketed to us is that it is only reasonable for executive level employees and/or people wanting to use it as a tax shelter (the premiums were low but the underlying base plan had an astronomical deductable).
The cool part about the HRA is that the employer establishes a fund up front to help you meet your deductable (e.g., $500 toward a $1000 deductable).
My only complaint comes when you visit a provider, because the fund is primary (the bill is paid automatically when the claim is filed and processed). So they're always trying to collect coinsurance and I have to go into a lengthy explanation of how an HRA works. Even if the fund has been used up, the network discount needs to be applied before they can bill me for anything anyway. It's all very confusing to the providers.
yeah we'll see how it goes when we start using it. we've been told to insist on the network discount even though we'll be paying with our HSA debit card. I'm sure there will be a learning curve ahead.
We just started ours too... and I love the fact that pregnancy tests are covered eexpenses, cough drops, and bandaids are too! However, ours is structured in a way that we cannot use the HSA for previous bills, so that may be a special feature that Huffaker worked out for you.
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