All of the health plans surveyed offer their
HRAs over the Internet, and all but one offer paper versions.
The increased use of
HRAs in worksite settings over the past 20 years has facilitated changes in
HRA administration.
The same law also permits holders of health reimbursement arrangements to transfer
HRA assets into HSAs by 2012.
Most plans attach a health savings account (HSA) or health reimbursement account (
HRA), a cross between a flexible spending account, a 401K and an IRA.
The White House says the expansion of
HRAs is aimed at small to midsized businesses that struggle with the cost of health insurance premiums.
HRAs give workers the options to purchase coverage using tax-free dollars.
A less-publicized area of this order is its call for the Secretaries of the Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services to consider, within 120 days of the signing date, proposing regulations or revising guidance to increase the ability of employers to offer and make use of
HRAs.
Qualified small employer
HRAs must be provided to all eligible employees under the same terms, which generally prohibits the employer from providing differing benefits to its employees.
Finally, the notice states that the IRS plans to issue proposed regulations on small employer
HRAs and asks for comments to be submitted by Jan.
The small-business
HRAs provide a great opportunity to those employers with less than 50 employees who do not, or are unable to, offer group health insurance, but who want to assist their employees with rising medical costs.
By analyzing genes coexpressed with different RAS isoforms, we found significant difference between genes coexpressed with
HRAS and those with KRAS/NRAS.
In recent years, the Treasury has issued guidance that prohibits the use of most standalone
HRAs, which are vehicles that have commonly been used to reimburse employees for out-of-pocket health expenses, as well as the cost of premiums for individual health insurance coverage purchased independently by employees.