It is very difficult to a benefit plan to suit “everyone’s” needs as well as satisfy their wants. A plan that not only appeals to the employees but is within the right price index to meet the requirements of the employer AND be sustainable over the long term.
Let’s not forget that the benefit plan should be flexible, tax effective, and above all else, easy to understand and use, because, let’s face it, if you can’t get the claims paid, what’s the use?
That sounds like a Health Care Spending Account.
Health Spending Accounts have been around and actively used for more than a quarter of a century; however, it is only the last few years that the concept has become mainstream.
Health Spending Accounts provide a cost effective way to provide coverage for Pharmaceutical, Health Services, such as professionals in Chiropractic, Physiotherapy, Massage, Acupuncture, etc. as well as Vision Care, including Laser Eye Surgery and Dental services, including implants, whereby the overall maximum is defined by user, not by service, thereby leaving the end user—the employee—able to make the decision on how they want to spend their allotted dollars according to their own needs.
Aside from the tax advantages to the employer and ease of use for the employees, Health Spending Accounts fit easily within the planning strategy of any company, of any size. The maximum benefits are defined, the benefit itself becomes a budgetable expense, easy to predict, and plan for from one year to the next; for instance (keeping the number low and round), if an employer has 10 employees and offers a Health Spending Account at $1,000 per employee, then the total exposure for the employer is the $10,000 maximum usage, plus the administration fees, which are charged on claims only. That number doesn’t change from year to year, unless the employer changes it!
A Health Spending Account is flexible enough to be used in conjunction with a traditional benefit plan, topping up for those expenses that are not covered under typical insured plans.
Health Spending Account encourages employees to be good consumers while at the same time providing them with what everyone wants at the end of the day…choice and control.
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