I'm just curious if any of you have had an HRA or an HSA thru your company with a high deductible health plan?

Question

We are just starting an HRA for one of our divisions (free grant money from the government!) and everyone seems really excited about it. HRA-employer puts money in for them, no wonder why. If a company uses a HSA (Health Savings Account), then the employee typically puts most of the money in the account, but it can be rolled over from year to year and job to job and it earns interest (hopefully!) if you don't use it all each year for your deductible.

They say this is the new way in health insurance, but in my part of US (Northeast), it hasn't caught on too much yet. HMO's are still the way most companies around here are insuring their employees.

Bottom line-have you ever had one or both of these types of accounts, and what did you think of it? Better than an HMO or not?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

I designed an HRA plan as an option for a Fortune 500 retailer. You can roll over your balance in an HRA too. There is no advantage to the employer in offering an HSA except that you don't have to make any contributions. You have to be very careful when you also offer a medical Flexible Spending Account. To help alleviate this, I designed the plan so that reimbursable expenses under the two plans were mutually exclusive. The only way to really save $$ on these plans is to make it a full replacement, which essentially disadvantages the chronically and seriously ill. Often, preventive care is always covered at 100% regardless of the deductible. Rx drugs may also have to be handled separately. With HMOs you have virtually no design freedom and you are shackled to state insurance regulations. If you have at least 200 employees, you should self-insure with a single option and buy stop-loss coverage. You can then rent a network to get the physician discount. This is the best way to go

Answer 2

Because of my chronic health problems, we opted to stay with our HMO. From what I can figure out, if you don't use the insurance much, it's a good deal. If you have chronic or long term illnesses, I get the idea that it will cost a lot, what with the deductibles and co-insurance. That was my take on it.