| News from Washington |
| Sen. Manchin: Scaled-Down Bill Should Focus on Inflation, Debt Reduction Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who late last year all but killed the Biden administration’s “Build Back Better” legislation, said on April 26 that any new Democratic budget reconciliation bill should be focused on combating inflation and reducing the deficit. Read More |
| Manchin’s Moves Leave Democrats Doubting Their Agenda Will Pass Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) latest moves are fueling new doubts that he’ll agree to any sort of legislative package on President Biden’s agenda, deepening Democratic worries about what they’ll be able to deliver to voters by Election Day. Read More |
| Republicans Have Stopped Trying to Kill Obamacare. Here’s What They’re Planning Instead. For years, Republicans had an easy health care talking point: Repeal and replace Obamacare. After a decade of ACA wars, do conservatives and Republicans have anything new to offer? What’s left of the great white whale of Obamacare repeal? Do conservatives have fresh and challenging ideas? Are there break-out proposals being prepared or are they just repackaging old wine in new or old bottles? Here’s what I learned. Read More |
| HSA Compliance Corner |
| IRS Announces Spike in 2023 Limits for HSAs and High-Deductible Health Plans Health Savings Account contribution limits for 2023 are going up significantly in response to the recent inflation surge. The IRS also confirmed the minimum deductible and maximum out-of-pocket expenses for the high deductible health plans with which HSAs are paired (i.e., “HSA-qualified” plans). Read More |
| These Expenses Are Qualified for Me. But Are They Reimbursable for Thee? If a product or service diagnoses, mitigates, treats, cures, or prevents an injury, illness, or condition, it’s qualified for reimbursement through a Health Savings Account, Health FSA, or Health Reimbursement Arrangement (and deductible as a medical expense on federal tax returns). But there are some dual-purpose expenses that may or may not be qualified, depending on the circumstances. Here’s some examples. Read More |
| HSA Industry Best Practices |
| Don’t Stop at the 401(k) Match: Why Employers Should Consider Adding HSA Contributions In an increasingly competitive job market, employers looking to attract and retain talent should consider opening up 401(k) match calculations to include an HSA contribution and educate employees to the short-term and long-term benefits of doing so. Read More |
| The HSA Market |
| (How) Have HSAs Changed—Perhaps Not Enough? This week the National Association of Plan Advisers asked readers how they’re fitting HSAs in with their practice(s). The top education priority for more than 60% of survey respondents was explaining HSA tax preferences. While roughly a quarter of this week’s respondents have been working with HSAs for more than 5 years, nearly half (47%) don’t work with HSAs. Read More |
| Curbing Rising Health Care Costs For business leaders coping with a range of fast-evolving workplace issues, one concern remains constant: the rising cost of health insurance. Most employers will try to avoid passing on increased costs to employees because of the tight labor market and the desire to keep health care affordable for employees. To make that happen, they’ll need to identify and implement smart cost-management strategies. Read More |
| HealthCare.gov Notices New Class of Individual Employer Policies Federal regulators are signaling that they think ICHRAs matter, by adding an ICHRA use reporting requirements for the insurers that sell coverage through HealthCare.gov. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services put the ICHRA requirement in the HHS Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters for 2023, which shows how federal ACA programs and rules will work in 2023 and later years. Read More |
| HSAs & Retirement |
| Retiree Medical Costs Are Daunting, but Let’s Get the Facts Straight! Can you save enough in a HSA to cover your medical expenses in retirement? Yes, according to some articles in the popular press. But their models contain a major flaw. Fortunately, even correcting for this flaw, however, it’s possible to save enough with an HSA to cover these projected expenses. It takes the usual discipline critical to forego spending all your income today, but it can be done. Read More |
| Maximizing Your HSA |
| 3 Tricks for Getting the Most Out of Your HSA Plenty of workers who are eligible to contribute to HSAs don’t take full advantage of them, even though HSAs offer the best tax treatment of any savings vehicle. HSA-eligible investors are also mixed up about the difference between an FSA and an HSA, which may deter them from putting more into their HSAs. If you’re considering using your HSA as an investment vehicle, here are three strategies to help get the most mileage out of this valuable account type. Read More |
| 5 HSA Definitions You Should Know What’s not to love about Health Savings Accounts? What might be holding you back from participating in an HSA for the first time, or even getting more out of your HSA funds by investing them, could be a lack of understanding in these accounts. And you’re not alone! About half of all Americans feel knowledgeable about HSAs. We break down common HSA definitions. Read More |
| Consumer-Driven Health Care |
| 8 Easy Ways to Save on Health Care Costs Health care costs are constantly on the rise. Health care spending increased by 9.7% from 2019 to 2020, much faster than the 4.3% increase from 2018 to 2019. Taking an active role when receiving care helps educate patients to make educated decisions and save money. Saving on health care does not have to be complicated. Here are eight tips to keep more money in your pocket. Read More |
| How to Avoid Going Broke from Surprise Medical Bills Millions of Americans receive surprise medical bills each year, including insured individuals. A new federal law banning most unexpected medical charges went into effect January 1, 2022. This is a good start, but there’s still a lack of understanding about how our insurance systems work. Until our health system does a better job of educating us, it’s important to adopt our own strategies to get insurance-literate. Read More |
| High Cost of Health Care May Be Boosting Direct Primary Care Membership A new study says the rising costs of health care are dissuading patient from seeking preventive care and may be driving membership in direct primary care practices. DPC memberships are seeing an average annual growth of 36%, reaching a total growth rate of 241% from 2017-2021. 63% of private health care consumers ranking the cost of care as the most dissatisfying aspect of their current healthcare option. Read More |