Health Reimbursement Arrangement – HRA - Healthcare Debit Card

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How it Works

HELLO and WELCOME to Choice Care Card.

The Choice Care Card™—Your Company’s Ticket to a Health Reimbursement Arrangement

As more employers are discovering every day, a Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA) can be a key component of lower cost health plans. By offering employees The Choice Care Card™ – an employer sponsored healthcare debit card – employers are able to combine an HRA, an FSA (Flexible Spending Account) and any higher deductible health insurance program to create a genuinely consumer-driven health plan.

Implementing a Health Reimbursement Arrangement through The Choice Care Card™ is a win-win for everyone. Employers get to save thousands on their healthcare plans – in fact, they are able to fund The Choice Care Card™ with the savings. Meanwhile, employees enjoy the freedom of choice to make the healthcare decisions and purchases that make the most sense for them and their families.

By changing to a Choice Care Card™ HRA plan, many of our employer clients have reduced their annual premium by up to and sometimes more than 25%. Both employees and employer can share in this savings.

Employers benefit further from consistently superior service and response, administrative standards that are second to none, and point-and-click reporting.

Carry the card that safeguards your company’s health while paying attention to your bottom line. The Choice Care Card™. That’s all there is to it.

Would you like to learn more? Contact us today!

Updates & Other Important Info.

IIAS UPDATE - Implementation Has Gone Well

As we previously reported, the new Inventory Information Approval System (IIAS) went live on January 1, 2008. An organization called The Special Interest Group for IIAS Standards (SIGIS), was formed to develop this standard to meet the IRS requirements for retailers.

Under IIAS, The Choice Care Card will only work for eligible Rx and OTC purchases at participating merchants. Ineligible purchases will be denied at the cash register.

The implementation of IIAS has gone well. There has already been a marked reduction in receipt requests generated for Rx and OTC purchases.

While many merchants are set up with IIAS, there are some, most notably Wal-Mart and Kroger, that have not yet fully implemented the system.

What does this mean? If your HRA plan does not cover OTC then both RX and OTC purchases will be denied at Wal-Mart and Kroger. However, if your HRA allows OTC coverage, both types of purchases will be allowed. Also, FSA plans are not affected by this. Rx and OTC purchases made with FSA funds at Wal-Mart and Kroger are being allowed.

There may be other stores that are also experiencing the same difficulty. However, we have not been notified of any. SIGIS indicated that the participating merchant list will soon include information on stores that are fully or partially compliant with the standard.

Separately, Safeway stores have indicated that they have had an issue with pharmacists incorrectly keying prescriptions into the system. They have confirmed that they are working to address this.

What can employers do?

Recommended

Instruct your employees to use stores other than Wal-Mart and Kroger. They should consult the participating merchant list and then confirm with the particular store that they are compliant with IIAS.

However, they can use their card at Wal-Mart and Kroger for FSA only purchases.

Also Recommended

Allow OTC purchases under the HRA portion of your plan. While HRA transactions will be approved at Wal-Mart and Kroger, utilization may increase. Click turnonotc@choicecarecard.com and tell us if you would like to make OTC purchases eligible under your HRA.

Not Recommended

Instruct CCC to turn IIAS off for your HRA plan (it will stay on for your FSA). Under this scenario, card swipes will be allowed at Wal-Mart and Kroger, receipt requests will generate, and employees will be required to submit receipts for HRA purchases at Wal-Mart and Kroger as well as all other stores including those that are fully compliant.

Click turniiasoffforhra@choicecarecard.com and tell us if you would like us to turn off the coding in our system for HRA purchases on your plan.

We will keep working with the stores, SIGIS and our debit card processor to iron out the wrinkles as they arise in their systems. We will keep you posted as to the progress. Finally, it is also a good idea to instruct your employees to make their prescription and OTC purchases at the pharmacy counter in the store.