Friday, July 22, 2005
New guide to Health Care Spending Accounts released
[Health Care Spending Accounts: What You Need to Know About HSAs, HRAs, FSAs, and MSAs, America's Health Insurance Plans, July 2005.]
The letter soup of acronyms currently associated with consumer-driven health care plans can get pretty confusing. Foruntately, America's Health Insurance Plans - a national trade association representing the health insurance industry - has come up with a handy guide:
In today's health care market, employers and consumers are looking for lower-cost health coverage, more control over their health care dollars, and broad choice among doctors and hospitals. Consumer health spending accounts are one of many product options that respond to these needs.
The major types of health care spending accounts are:
- Health savings accounts (HSAs) with high-deductible health plans (HDHPs)
- Health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs)
- Health flexible spending arrangements (FSAs)
- Archer medical savings accounts (MSAs)
All of these products have federal tax advantages, and they allow consumers to save money for health care. Each has a different design and is subject to a unique set of federal rules. This guide answers frequently asked questions about account-based health care products.
As Harvard Professor Regina Herzlinger recently commented at a Galen Institute briefing:
Buyers who don't know a piston from a valve can be effective buyers because of Consumer Reports and J.D. Power. And empowered consumers could make the same choices about their health care and health insurance purchases.
[John McClaughry, "Patient Power: A Health Care Reform Agenda for Kansas," The Flint Hills Center, May 2004.]
[Health Care Spending Accounts: What You Need to Know About HSAs, HRAs, FSAs, and MSAs, America's Health Insurance Plans, July 2005.]
The letter soup of acronyms currently associated with consumer-driven health care plans can get pretty confusing. Foruntately, America's Health Insurance Plans - a national trade association representing the health insurance industry - has come up with a handy guide:
In today's health care market, employers and consumers are looking for lower-cost health coverage, more control over their health care dollars, and broad choice among doctors and hospitals. Consumer health spending accounts are one of many product options that respond to these needs.
The major types of health care spending accounts are:
- Health savings accounts (HSAs) with high-deductible health plans (HDHPs)
- Health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs)
- Health flexible spending arrangements (FSAs)
- Archer medical savings accounts (MSAs)
All of these products have federal tax advantages, and they allow consumers to save money for health care. Each has a different design and is subject to a unique set of federal rules. This guide answers frequently asked questions about account-based health care products.
As Harvard Professor Regina Herzlinger recently commented at a Galen Institute briefing:
Buyers who don't know a piston from a valve can be effective buyers because of Consumer Reports and J.D. Power. And empowered consumers could make the same choices about their health care and health insurance purchases.
[John McClaughry, "Patient Power: A Health Care Reform Agenda for Kansas," The Flint Hills Center, May 2004.]
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