Superior Benefits Inc.
HSA and HRA
Superior Benefits specializes in employer Health Savings Accounts (HSA) and Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA) solutions. Employers have struggled for years with managing the increasing costs of healthcare. Consumer-driven healthcare is the single most effective tool to bring overall costs down for you and your employees.
Facts that support Consumer Driven Healthcare:
29% of employees do not utilize any of their benefits all year.
53% of employees utilize $500 or less in medical benefits.
73% of employees utilize $1000 or less in medical benefits.
15% of employees drive up 85% of the medical costs.
Health Savings Accounts
An H.S.A. takes a high deductible health insurance plan and combines it with a savings account. The employer or employee could contribute pretax dollars to the employee's health savings account. Contributions are used to pay for qualified medical expenses. On most Health Savings Accounts, once the employee reaches their deductible, the health insurance carrier covers 100% of that employee's medical expenses for the rest of the calendar year.
Employer Benefits:
- Lower health insurance premiums
- Employer HSA solutions help minimize renewal rates
- Employer and employee contributions to the Health Savings Account are pre-tax, lowering the gross payroll and reducing the amount of taxes the employer must pay.
- Encourages employees to get more involved with their healthcare decisions.
Employee Benefits:
- H.S.A contributions are employee owned
- Tax free contributions (earnings and distributions) when used for medical expenses
- Employer Contributions to an employee's HSA are excludable from the employee's gross income, the contributions are not taxable to the employee.
- Any unused HSA contribution rolls over with interest every year
- Once an employee reaches their HSA deductible any hospitalization, prescriptions and doctor copays are covered 100% until the end of the calendar year.
Jeff Orbin of Global Staffing stated, " Having traditional health insurance for 10 years, we were apprehensive about switching our employees to a health savings account, but desperately needed to lower our premiums. Superior Benefits developed an excellent group HSA solution for our business. We made fixed monthly contributions towards each employee's HSA and still saved over 12%. One of our employees was hospitalized in February and met his $2,000 deductible right away. The rest of the calendar year his medical expenses through Unitedhealthcare were covered 100%. This included a follow up outpatient surgery, prescriptions and Dr. copays. We figured that same employee would have paid over $3,500 in out of pocket expenses if we stayed with our same traditional plan. We were very pleased with the HSA solution that Joe and the team put together."
Health Reimbursement Arrangement
A Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA) is a funding mechanism offered in conjunction with a high deductible health plan. The employer funds a portion of the employee's deductible. HRA funds pay for eligible health care expenses typically covered under an employer's medical plan.
Employer Benefits:
- Lower health insurance premiums
- Employer HRA contributions used by an employee are exempt from the employers payroll and social security taxes.
- Preventative visits are typically covered 100%, these visits will not deplete the employer's HRA fund.
- Encourages employees to become more involved and use the funds conservatively for true medical issues.
- If an employee changes jobs, HRA money remains with the employer
- Most group HRA plans have prescription copays, prescriptions will not deplete the employers HRA funds.
Employee Benefits:
- Preventative visits are typically covered 100%, these visits will not deplete the employee's allocated HRA amount.
- Unused funds can be carried over to the next year to cover future health care expenses, giving employees an incentive to use their personal HRA wisely.
- Unlike an HSA, HRA's have set prescription copays found in a traditional health plan.