| News from Washington |
| Biden Administration Appeals Texas Court Decision Striking Down Free Obamacare Coverage of Preventive Care The Biden administration appealed a Texas federal judge’s decision to strike down free Obamacare coverage of preventive health-care services ranging from screenings for certain cancers and diabetes to HIV prevention drugs. The case will now go to U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Read More |
| IRS Announces Tax Relief for Victims of Severe Storms and Tornadoes in Arkansas Arkansas storm victims now have until July 31, 2023, to file various federal individual and business tax returns and make tax payments, as a result of tornadoes and severe storms that occurred on March 31, the IRS announced. Among other things, this means that eligible taxpayers will have until July 31 to make 2022 contributions to their IRAs and HSAs. Read More |
| Marco Rubio Continues to Push Proposal to Expand Health Savings Accounts, Flexible Spending Accounts Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) showcased the “Health Savings Act” this week with the support of Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC). The bill contains a number of provisions to simplify and expand HSAs and FSAs. The bill was sent to the Senate Finance Committee. Rep. Jake LaTurner (R-KS) is championing the bill in the House of Representatives. Read More |
| Bipartisan Bill Would Ensure Continued Access to Telehealth Services Consumers enrolled in HSA-qualified plans would be able to continue to access telehealth services without having to meet their minimum deductible under legislation reintroduced in Congress last week. The Telehealth Expansion Act would make permanent a waiver created by the CARES Act, which was signed into law in March 2020. Read More |
| Rep. Adrian Smith Sponsors Bipartisan Homecare for Seniors Act Bipartisan legislation sponsored on by Rep. Adrian Smith (R-NE) would allow America’s senior citizens to use qualified distributions from their HSAs to pay for certain home care services, such as assistance with meal preparation, bathing, dressing, transferring, toileting, continence, and medication adherence, according to the text of the bill. Read More |
| HSA Compliance Corner |
| Does a Stand-Alone Telehealth Benefit Affect Your HSA Eligibility? When Congress passed the law creating HSAs in 2003, telemedicine didn’t exist. Fast forward two decades and most Americans carry a powerful personal computer, disguised as a phone, in their pocket or purse. And a global pandemic has necessitated that providers of medical care adapt to a virtual diagnose-and-treat model of care. But how does virtual care affect a patient’s eligibility to open and fund an HSA? Read More |
| Montana May Require Insurers to Cover Monitoring Devices for Diabetes Montana lawmakers are considering a bill that would require insurance companies to cover continuous glucose monitors for diabetics. House Bill 758 has broad support from lawmakers, but it faces opposition from insurance companies and some providers, in part because of concerns about cost and whether a CGM is medically necessary at all stages of diabetes. Read More |
| HSA Industry News |
| HealthEquity Partners With Microsoft to Fast-Track the Future of Health Benefits Using Cloud-First Strategy HealthEquity has announced a strategic collaboration with Microsoft to modernize healthcare benefit administration through Microsoft Azure. The company’s investment in Azure furthers the HealthEquity “cloud-first” strategy to unite, simplify and modernize its technology capabilities to support the healthcare needs of clients and members. Read More |
| The HSA Market |
| Despite Court Ruling, Insurers Say They Will Continue to Offer ACA-Mandated Free Preventive Services While a federal judge has struck down some of the preventive care mandates in the Affordable Care Act, insurers said they plan to stay the course on coverage. Leading health insurance lobbying groups said there will be no immediate disruption in care or coverage. The ruling is almost certain to be challenged in the courts, experts said. Read More |
| Smallest Businesses See the Biggest Medical Premium Increases A new report outlines some of the challenges and opportunities for small- and medium-sized businesses in the current health care and benefits market. The use of HDHPs continues to be a mixed bag, the report suggested. Although growth in enrollment (68%) was significant, HDHP enrollment remains a small segment overall at only 6%. Read More |
| HSAs & Retirement |
| Here’s 1 Retirement Account You Should Prioritize in 2023 When it comes to saving for retirement, you have plenty of options. But a good bet is to prioritize a retirement savings plan that will give you access to the maximum number of tax benefits. And that’s neither an IRA or a 401(k) plan. An HSA might not seem like a retirement plan in your mind. But here’s why it is. Read More |
| Have an HSA? Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Touch It Till Retirement Health Savings Accounts work differently than IRAs and 401(k) plans where money is either taxed when it comes out or when it goes in. With an HSA, all three tax breaks are available to you under the same roof. But if you want to really benefit from this exceptional savings account, you’ll need to pledge to leave your HSA alone through the years and let it grow. Read More |
| Medicare, Social Security Could Fall Short Over Next Decade According to the annual Social Security and Medicare trustees report released March 31, Medicare will be unable to pay full benefits for inpatient hospital visits and nursing home stays by 2031. And just two years later, Social Security won’t have enough cash on hand to pay out full benefits to its 66 million retirees. Read More |
| Maximizing Your HSA |
| The HSA Final Four Doesn’t End Until April 17 – or Later for Some Taxpayers who file their income tax returns close to the filing deadline often rob themselves of the time needed to make defensive adjustments to reduce the amount that they owe in federal and state taxes. Fortunately, it’s not too late to run some simple plays that may reduce your tax liability. But don’t wait until the last minute. Top off your HSA contribution for 2022 today. Read More |
| Is an HSA Right for You? Here’s What To Know About How a Health Savings Account Impacts Your Taxes While signing up for health insurance, you may have noticed an option to set up an HSA. An HSA can be a powerful, tax-advantaged tool to help save for medical expenses. These accounts can be an effective way to limit health care costs and save for expenses your insurance doesn’t cover. However, not everyone qualifies. Here’s how to know if you qualify and what you need to know about how HSAs work. Read More |
| Consumer-Driven Healthcare |
| Should You Ask ChatGPT for Medical Advice? We Asked an Expert — and ChatGPT. ChatGPT’s striking ability to answer people’s questions in instantly generated, easy-to-understand answers could be a game-changer for people searching for medical advice, but a new medical journal essay says it’s not quite that simple. And so does ChatGPT. Read More |
| AI Chatbots Can Diagnose Medical Conditions at Home. How Good Are They? Faced with a critical shortage of health care workers, researchers and medical professionals hope that bots can step in to help answer people’s questions. Initial tests by researchers suggest these AI programs are far more accurate than a Google search. Some researchers predict that within the year, a major medical center will announce a collaboration using LLM chatbots to interact with patients and diagnose disease. Read More |