RE: Health Savings Accounts

[Guest guest]

I looked into this and it is most likely

what I will be going with for our office in the next year or so. However, with

the practice just starting up, I did not want to accept the financial risk of

having to come up with an additional $1200 or so if anything happened. So we

started with the standard HMO policy. I do think it is exciting and encourage

all reading to consider it as an option.

Health Savings Accounts

Have any of you had any luck or tried health

savings accounts for

employees or a small office staff? What has

been your experience?

Brent

[Guest guest]

We were about to go with an individual HAS policy with Fortis when we

learned that was pregnant and we couldn't even get an HSA for either

one of us until after the pregnancy. We looked at the group HSA offered by

Anthem, but the premiums were just as much as a PPO policy, and the coverage

would have been less. In addition, the group HSA's work in a " preferred

provider " list and a pharmacy benefit, which completely defeats the purpose

of putting the consumer and not the insurance company in charge of

controlling costs. Very disheartening but not unexpected that the insurance

industry will continue to want its piece of the pie. I imagine that once

there are more insurance companies offering group policies, the premiums

will be more attractive, but at this point, the only HSA that seems to make

any sense is the individual policy. We plan on enrolling in the Fortis

individual policies following 's delivery next spring.

My brother is a controller of an medium sized accounting firm and they had

looked at group HSA's but decided to hold off for now due to the

complexities of implementing a new program for the employees by Jan 1st, and

the fact that the products offered are not yet competitive with PPO or HMO

plans.

Greg

Health Savings Accounts

Have any of you had any luck or tried health savings accounts for

employees or a small office staff? What has been your experience?

Brent

[Guest guest]

I investigated using a HSA for myself and partner and found that the premiums were no lower than therough the expensive Cobra continuation plan we are continuing to use (HMO). I find it astounding to pay as much for a high deductible through companies like Fortis as for an HMO plan.

nancy

Albq

[Guest guest]

I am also looking at HSAs as a way to reduce costs. I currently pay

over $11,000 a year in premiums alone. While I do agree that the

overall monthly costs will not drop by much, at the end of the year I

will have an acount with about $5000 (depending on my medical needs

for the year which are very low) that is still my money and is not

funding some bloated insurance bureaucracy. I would certainly prefer

to buy an individual policy for my family and then partially fund one

for my one employee, unfortunately, a pre-existing condition with my

nurse would make that impossible.

Mark Newberry, MD

Holland, MI

>

> Have any of you had any luck or tried health savings accounts for

> employees or a small office staff? What has been your experience?

> Brent

[Guest guest]

Which company is it through? I was only able to find one option here in Albuquerque with the brokers I tried.