| News from Washington |
| Prices Paid to Hospitals by Private Insurers Were 224% of What Medicare Would Pay in 2020 Prices paid to hospitals during 2020 by employers and private insurers for both inpatient and outpatient services averaged 224% of what Medicare would have paid, with substantial variation in prices among states, according to a new report. Some states had relative prices under 175% of Medicare, while other states had relative prices that were at or above 310% of Medicare. Read More |
| HSA Compliance Corner |
| Embedded or Aggregate? How Do These Concepts Relate to HSA Plans? Do you know the difference between an embedded and aggregate deductible or out-of-pocket maximum? If an HSA-qualified plan has an embedded deductible, that deductible can’t be less than the statutory minimum annual deductible on a family contract. Be sure you understand exactly how your plans deductible and out-of-pocket maximum work. Otherwise, you could be in for a rude awakening when a family member incurs very high claims. Read More |
| HSA Best Practices |
| Employers Should Encourage Planning for Health Costs in Retirement Employers can affirm to participants the importance of planning for health care costs in retirement by investing in employee education and benefits that focus on employees’ health. Focusing on one’s health today can help to hold down health care costs in retirement. If an employer offers a high-deductible health plan on its benefits menu, it should be paired with a health savings account. Read More |
| HSAs & Retirement |
| Health Care in Retirement Will Cost an Average of $315,000 For 2022, Fidelity estimates that a 65-year-old couple retiring this year can expect to spend an average of $315,000 on health care costs throughout retirement. Fidelity Investment’s 2022 Retiree Health Care Cost Estimate increased 5% from 2021, and the figure has nearly doubled since the initial $160,000 estimate in 2002. Fidelity promotes HSAs as a solution for expected health care costs in retirement. Read More |
| Americans Dangerously Out of Touch with Retirement Healthcare Costs Americans are generally out of sync with the expected total cost of healthcare in retirement. However, there is still a little good news: the number of people who feel prepared increases when the person has an HSA. In fact, nearly half (47%) of HSA holders feel prepared for their healthcare retirement expenses, compared to just 27% of people who do not have an HSA. Read More |
| Easy Ways to Handle Health Costs in Retirement if You Plan Now When estimating how much they’ll spend in retirement, most people fail to price in health care costs. And that is a potentially costly oversight. So, how can you protect against health care costs undermining your lifestyle in retirement? Here are a few tips. Read More |
| Maximizing Your HSA |
| Watch Out, 401(k)s: HSAs Are the New Retirement Sheriff in Town Your HSA and your 401(k) both serve the same broader purpose — to help you prepare financially for retirement. It’s a mistake to view them as competitive offerings, however. Your HSA and 401(k) complement each other, like any great sheriff-and-deputy team. Use them both, side-by-side, to build the retirement you want. Read More |
| 51% of Americans Are Missing This Wealth-Building Opportunity IRAs and 401(k)s aren’t your only option for socking money away for your senior years. You can also save for retirement in a Health Savings Account. Yet many people aren’t aware of the wealth-building options HSAs offer. As such, a lot of folks are truly missing out on a chance to accumulate extra funds for retirement. Read More |
| Stop Already! 93% of Owners Are NOT – Repeat, NOT – Making a “Mistake!” If you fund your HSA with barely enough money to pay your current bills, you’ll fall into the 51% of HSA owners who ended 2021 with a balance of $500 or less (including 20% with no balance). Many people infer that those owners received no benefit from their accounts because they didn’t end the year with a hefty cash balance for future expenses. At least they were receiving tax benefits along the way. Read More |
| Consumer-Driven Health Care |
| The 7 Best Places to Buy Affordable Contacts Online Using Insurance, HSA, and FSA Once you get an up-to-date prescription and go through a contact lens fitting with your eye doctor, ordering them online is usually cheaper and more convenient than placing an order with your eye doctor. Whether you’re buying a yearly supply or smaller quantities to alternate between glasses, these are the most dependable places to order from. Read More |
| How I Sought to Stop Worrying and Love a Bronze Plan Because premiums rise with age, the field tilts toward Bronze plans for older enrollees. As the premium for a benchmark Silver plan rises, so does the subsidy. As the premium rises, so does the “spread” between the benchmark premium and cheaper plans. Still another factor points us toward that cheaper Bronze plan: it’s a so-called high deductible health plan that can be linked to an HSA. Read More |