| News From Washington |
| A Record of Over 16 Million People Signed Up for Insurance Through Obamacare More than 16.3 million people enrolled in a health plan through the Affordable Care Act during the most recent open enrollment period, marking the highest number of enrollees since the program was signed into law 10 years ago. This represented nearly 2 million more people than the number that enrolled the previous year. Read More |
| 57 Percent Support Federal Government Ensuring Universal Health Care: Survey A majority of adults in a new survey said that they believe it is the job of the federal government to ensure health care coverage for all Americans, but most also prefer a private health care system over a government-run option. This is driven by a government-run system garnering just 13 percent of support from Republicans and 46 percent of support from independents. Read More |
| HSA Studies & Analysis |
| EBRI: HSA Balances Have Grown Since 2020 The Employee Benefits Research Institute released a report which found that HSA balances grew over the course of the year despite using more health care services in 2021 compared to 2020. For 2021, average year-end balances ($3,902) were higher than the average beginning-of-year balance ($2,645). The average contribution peaked at $3,258 for participants in the 55-64 age group. Read More |
| HSA Compliance Corner |
| HSA Telemedicine Relief Language Adds to the Confusion . . . Again! Congress finally acted to allow HSA-qualified plans to continue to cover telemedicine services below the deductible without being disqualified. Unfortunately, as was the case with the previous extension, the “solution” leaves gaps during which either telemedicine can’t be covered below the deductible or enrollees are disqualified from funding an HSA for certain months. Read More |
| FSA Election Changes and High Deductible Health Plan Enrollment Individuals who have a Flexible Spending Account (or are covered by one) when they enroll in an HDHP may be surprised to learn they have limited options for changing their FSA elections. Since health FSAs are incompatible with HSA eligibility, employers can offer a limited purpose FSA option to their employees as a potential work-around. Read More |
| HSAs & Retirement |
| Will Signing Up for Medicare Impact Your Health Savings Account? Since HSA funds never expire, it’s a great idea to fund an HSA during your working years, leave that money untapped, let it grow, and reserve it for retirement, when your healthcare costs might increase. But it’s important to know how HSAs work once you sign up for Medicare. If you don’t know the rules, you could end up with steep penalties on your hands. Read More |
| 9 Facts About HSAs That Might Surprise Your Clients The fact that the HSA individual contribution limit is lower than that for deductible contributions to an IRA has led to HSAs often being overlooked in financial planning. However, when best practices are used over the decades of a typical working person’s career, a sizable balance can be accumulated. Here are nine facts about HSAs that many account holders don’t know but are key to making the most of this important retirement planning tool. Read More |
| Maximizing Your HSA |
| 3 Reasons You Should Seriously Consider Making an HSA Contribution in 2023 You probably already have some idea of what you’d like to do with your extra cash in 2023. Your goals will determine the best place for your money. For example, you can use a savings account for emergency expenses and a 401(k) or IRA for retirement savings. But you can also save for these goals in an HSA. Here are three reasons you may want to stash some money here in 2023 if you’re eligible to do so. Read More |
| 23% of Workers Are Making This Big Financial Mistake Even if you’re a relatively healthy person, you never know when you might get injured or fall ill, leaving you with hundreds or thousands of dollars in medical bills to grapple with. That’s why it’s so important to have money accessible for healthcare expenses. The best options provide a tax break in the course of saving for healthcare–HSAs and FSAs. Read More |
| Consumer-Driven Healthcare |
| Out-of-Pocket Healthcare Costs Are Rising. Here’s How to Cope With Them The right tax-advantaged savings plan can make out-of-pocket healthcare expenses more manageable. Those enrolled in an HSA-qualified health insurance plan can look at opening a HSA. HSAs allow for tax-free contributions, tax-free growth and investments, and withdrawals are not taxed as long as they’re used to cover qualified healthcare expenses. Read More |
| Spot the Difference Whenever Uncle Sam offers us a place to set aside some of our pre-tax income, we take it. But Uncle Sam also confusingly gives us two healthcare account options with similar names: the FSA and the HSA. You’ve gotta be strategic when using an FSA versus an HSA because each account type comes with a very different set of perks and caveats. Read More |
| More and More Doctors Are Billing for Email Advice Email medical advice is costing patients anything from copays of $3 to charges of $100, according to recent reports. Not only has the volume of email consultations increased dramatically in recent years, but new billing rules allow healthcare providers to charge for so-called “e-visits.” As a result, some doctors now charge for the service. Read More |
| Amazon launches RxPass with Generic Medicine for $5 a Month Amazon has added a new benefit to its Prime subscription service, allowing members access to eligible prescriptions for $5 a month. The e-commerce giant says it will offer “members affordable access to commonly prescribed generic medications that treat more than 80 common health conditions,” such as high blood pressure, anxiety and acid reflux medications. RxPass is launching in “most states,” Amazon said. Read More |