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July 2006
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HSA Market News July 2006; Volume 3, Number 7
25 top banks have 930,000 HSAs...Are HSA plans over-hyped?...United says HRAs cut costs...Chart: HRA, HSA accounts...Aetna has 621,000 CDHP lives...United hits 1.8 MM CDHP lives...Tufts, Destiny end alliance...HIP sees limited HSA sales...Guardian, Health Net expand...Humana offers drug calculator...Providers must collect, Smit says...BenefitFocus taps HSA Bank...Treasury comparability regs...CMS launches HSA demo...Price transparency moves ahead...Lauer calls for tax breaks...28% of employers offer CDHPs...and more...
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BANKS BREAK $1 BILLION IN HSA DEPOSITS
Twenty-five leading banks had 929,872 health savings accounts with an estimated $1.109 billion in total deposits as of June 30, 2006, according to a tally by HMN.
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HSA PLAN SAVINGS OVER-HYPED, STUDY SAYS
A study published in the July/August issue of Health Affairs concluded that the cost-savings potential of high-deductible health plans tied to HSAs doesn’t match the hype surrounding these plans.
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UNITED STUDY SAYS HRAs REDUCE COSTS
UnitedHealth Group (Minnetonka, MN) released the results of a study of 40,000 HRA plan members, which revealed a 3% to 5% reduction in per member healthcare costs over two years among individuals enrolled in an HRA plan compared to an 8% to 10% increase for members enrolled in a more traditional PPO.
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TREASURY ISSUES FINAL COMPARABILITY REGULATIONS
The Treasury Dept. (Washington) issued its final regulations concerning HSA comparability, ruling that employers can make different contributions based on certain variations in family coverage and exempting union groups from comparability requirements.
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AETNA HAS 621,000 HSA, HRA LIVES
Aetna Inc. (Hartford, CT) reported that it had 621,000 consumer-directed healthcare lives in its HealthFund family of HRA and HSA-compatible high deductible health plans as of June 30, 2006, up 37% from year-end 2005.
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UNITEDHEALTH HITS 1.8 MILLION CDHP LIVES
As expected (HMN, June 2006), UnitedHealth Group (Minnetonka, MN) announced that it had 1.8 million HRA and HSA plan lives as of June 30, up 79% from a year earlier.
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TUFTS, DESTINY END ALLIANCE; DOESN’T MEET GOALS
Tufts Health Plan (Waltham, MA) and Destiny Health (Chicago) have ended a three-year-old alliance to sell consumer-directed health plans tied to HRAs in Massachusetts after the venture fell short of enrollment expectations.
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HIP SEES LIMITED INTEREST IN CDHPs
HIP Health Plan (New York) is seeing only limited interest among its clients in consumer-directed health plans, according to John Mills, managing director.
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HUMANA Rx CALCULATOR ATTRACTS 5000 VISITORS DAILY
Humana Inc. (Louisville, KY) reported that its online drug cost calculator, designed to help members estimate potential out-of-pocket expenses for various medications, is attracting 5000 unique visitors daily, according to Bruce Goodman, chief service and information officer.
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PROVIDERS MUST GET USED TO COLLECTIONS, SMIT SAYS
With the advent of consumer-directed healthcare, physicians and other healthcare providers must offer cost transparency, improve collection capabilities, reorganize front-office workflows, and provide information to patients, among other challenges, according to Alan Smit, chief information officer, Premera Blue Cross (Spokane, WA).
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BENEFITFOCUS TO OFFER HSA BANK
BenefitFocus (Mt. Pleasant, SC) will offer through its online benefit enrollment engine access to banking services from HSA Bank (Waterbury, CT) as part of an integrated consumer-directed healthcare solution, the companies announced.
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CMS ANNOUNCED MEDICARE HSA DEMO PROJECT
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (Washington) announced the launch of a demonstration project in which managed care organization could offer health plans tied to savings accounts with features similar to HSAs beginning in 2007.
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PRICE TRANSPARENCY MOVES GINGERLY FORWARD
Price transparency—a notion that is viewed as a critical component of consumer-directed healthcare—is moving gingerly forward with organizations like Aetna (HMN, June 2006), Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Blue Cross Blue Shield Assn. and the state of Massachusetts (HMN, June 2006) requiring or making available information on the cost of medical procedures at specific healthcare providers.
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LAUER CALLS FOR PREMIUM TAX DEDUCTIONS
Gary Lauer, chief executive of eHealthInsurance.com (Mountain View, CA), told lawmakers that individuals and families should be allowed to deduct the cost of health insurance from their taxes.
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28% OF EMPLOYERS OFFER CDHPs, SURVEY SAYS
A nationwide survey of 434 employers found that 28% offered a consumer-directed health plan option to employees in 2006, up from 22% in 2005, according to Aon Consulting (Chicago).
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