Top 10 Reasons Your HSA Does Not Match Your Deductible #9

9. Your HSA account has maintenance fees assessed

It is important to remember that although your HSA is unique in how your are allowed to spend the money it is still a bank account. Just like other bank accounts that you might have, your HSA bank may assess monthly or quarterly fees or deduct funds when you ask for paper statements or a replacement card. Should you only start with just enough funds in your account to meet you deductible but you account charges a quarterly maintenance fee, you may end up a few dollars short in your account to pay for your deductible our of your HSA.

For instance, if you have a $3000 calendar year deductible and put exactly $3000 in your HSA at the beginning of the year, you have just enough funds to cover your deductible. Let's say that you have a claim in February for $2000. This applies to your deductible, and you pay for it in full out of your HSA. You still have $1000 in your HSA and have $1000 left to meet for your deductible. Then in March, your HSA bank deducts $5 for your quarterly maintenance fee. You now have $995 in your HSA, but you still owe $1000 to meet your deductible because that $5 charge was not a medical claim. So when you have a $2000 claim in April, $1000 will apply to your deductible and the insurance provider will cover the additional $1000. You can pay for up to $995 of the $1000 applied to your deductible out of your HSA, but you will still have to pay $5 out of your pocket to meet the deductible. It is important to remember that you will also still be responsible for the $5 quarterly fee in June, September, and December. If you do not have enough funds in your account to cover these charges, you may also be responsible for overdraft fees, because at the end of the day, an HSA is still a bank account.

Want to know to rest of the top 10 reasons your HSA does not match your deductible? Check out the McGohan Brabender checklist and look for upcoming and previous articles explaining the other reasons!

Top 10 Reasons Your HSA Does Not Match Your Deductible #10

10. Your employer contributions are prorated or you have not yet received the full year’s funds.

Some employer offer to fund part or all of their employee’s HSA accounts each year. Based on this funding, employees sometimes expect that so long as they contribute enough at the beginning of the year to make up the difference between their employer contribution to their HSA and their deductible, they will have met their deductible as soon as their HSA funds have been depleted. However, some employers prorate their HSA contributions or contribute it in equal installments throughout the year creating discrepancies.

For instance, let’s say that an employee is hired July 1^st and their benefits go into effect on their date of hire. They have an HDHP with a calendar year deductible of $3000. Their employer contributes $3000 per year to each employee’s HSA account, but this amount is prorated based on the date of hire. This employee would then receive $1500 to their HSA, but they would still be responsible for an additional $1500 out-of pocket in order to meet their deductible. That member would then receive the full $3000 the next year.

Should the employer make their contributions in equal installments throughout the year, employees might also find discrepancies in their HSA. For instance, let’s say that an employee has a HDHP with a calendar year deductible of $3000 and their employer contributes $1200 in equal monthly installments throughout the year. At the beginning of the year, that employee contributes $1800 to their HSA so that they will have $3000 in their HSA by the end of the year. However, should the employer meet their deductible by June, they will be short $600 from their HSA to pay their bills since their employer has only contributed $600 year to date. Although their employer will contribute the additional $600 to their account by the end of the year, they will not have the remaining $600 in their account until December.

Want to know to rest of the top 10 reasons your HSA does not match your deductible? Check out the McGohan Brabender checklist and look for upcoming and previous articles explaining the other reasons!

Anthem Medications Moving From Tier 3 to Tier 4 7/15/2011

Anthem has recently announced that the following medications will be moving from a Tier 3 to a Tier 4 classification effective 7/15/2011:

Actemra

Acthar H.P.

Amevive

Cimzia

Egrifta

Ilaris

Incivek

Makena

Orencia

Prolia

Remicade

Simponi

Stelara

Sylatron

Thyrogen

Victrelis

Depending upon the policy of the member, this could change their out-of-pocket costs for their medications. Members impacted by this change will be receiving letters in the coming weeks which will suggest that they can:

• Continue getting their prescription from the pharmacy you’re using now, and your share of the cost will increase.
• Or speak to their doctor about the possibility of changing to another medicine that will cost you less

Top 10 Reasons Your HSA Does Not Match Your Deductible

Health Savings Accounts (or HSAs) can be a wonderful - but at times confusing - way to address costs with high deductible health plans. Often, members find themselves trying to reconcile discrepencies when their deductibles and and HSA funds do not match up.

Our team has created an HSA Tracker to help with the process of reconciling, but when discrepencies are found, the next step is trying to figure out why. In order to help make this process easier, our team will be posting shorts blogs discussing the top 10 reasons that HSAs do not match up with deductibles over the next few weeks. If you find yourself trying to reconcile your HSA and want to figure out the root cause of the issue, you can use our checklist of the Top 10 Reasons You HSA Does Not Match Your Deductible to help figure out where the issue is coming from. Think you've found the reason? Check out our blogposts explaining how each of these reasons can create uneven balances:

10. Your employer contributions are prorated or you have not yet received the full year’s funds.

9. Your HSA account has maintenance fees assessed

8. Some of your claims were adjusted after you paid the bills

7. You went to an out of network provider

6.  You paid for non-covered benefits with your funds

5. You paid for vision or dental claims with your funds.

4. You paid for prior year claims with this year's funds

3. You put a deposit down for a procedure and are owed money back.

2. Your medical claims have not been submitted to your insurance.

1. Your prescriptions have not been submitted to your insurance.

HSA Limitations Set by IRS for 2012

Recently, the IRS announced the revised limitations for health savings accounts (HSA) for the calendar year of 2012.  Under section 223, an individual with self-only coverage under a high deductible health plan may put up to $3,100 in their HSA account in 2012. Individuals with family coverage under a high deductible health plan may put up to $6,250 in their HSA accounts in 2012.

Want to know more about HSAs or how to keep track of your own? Visit our previous article on HSAs and download the HSA tracker that McGohan Brabender created to help you keep track of your account!

Aetna eEnrollments and System Outages

Now through July, Aetna will be rolling out enhancements for its eEnrollment users. This staggered rollout will impact one or more states each week, and users for those states will experience a system outage, typically from Thursday to Monday. eEnrollment users should receive email reminders during the week prior to their outage as well as a reminder on their eEnrollment website.

Enhancements to the site will include the ability to support multiple waiting periods for a group, plan and eligibility support, as well as screen screen enhancements for Small group plan sponsers.

As always, you can access Aetna's enrollments site at www.aetna.com/enroll.

Anthem EmployerAccess

Anthem's EmployerAccess will be unavailable Friday, May 20 - Monday, May 23.