Benefaction Insurance was recently quoted in a Northbay Business Journal Article:
Finally, probably of greatest discussion in specific product trends today is the huge number of employers switching to high-deductible, “consumer-driven” plans. For more than a year, brokers have reported a huge shift in interest, but many have mistakenly lumped health savings account-based versions with health reimbursement models.
“There is no doubt that the greatest trend in health benefits right now is employers switching to high-deductible offerings,” said San Rafael-based Benefaction Insurance Agency President Samantha Ehlen.
“At the same time, there is still a great deal of misunderstanding in the plans.”
She said the main difference between HSAs and HRAs is the unused money in the account. If the employee is generally healthy and does not use any of the money in an HSA account, those dollars stay with the employee. With a reimbursement account, the funds go back to the employer. Brokers more recently have said both versions experienced large premium increases in recent months, but generally HRA cost surges are less severe than savings accounts.
The article was short and did not include all the information we provided about the differences between an HRA and an HSA plan. The HRA has some advantages for employers: (1) it is flexible and the employer can choose how to fund and structure the HRA; (2) as mentioned, any unused funding is retained by the employer and the employer decides if they will allow unused funds to roll-over to the next year; (3) premium increases on the approved HRA plans have been less than the premium increases on HSA plans across all carriers; and (4) for a healthy, stable employee population a HRA plan offers employers real cost savings.
If you want full information and quotes on how an HRA plan may save your company money, just give us a call at 415-329-4299.
Tags: Health Care Reform, HRA, HSA, Press
Leave a Reply