Insights

By Ruste Pontenberg 08/20/2019

When the government launched the Affordable Care Act in 2010, it outlined a set of preventive services that would be covered by all insurance plans—typically things like screenings and vaccinations. These are the items that you don’t need to pay for out-of-pocket when you have health insurance, no matter what kind of plan you have.

Now, guidelines issued in the IRS’s Notice 2019-45 have created an additional list of treatments that can be considered preventive care. The definition applies to 14 new items and services, covering treatment for conditions such as heart disease, asthma, diabetes, osteoporosis, liver disease and depression.

What does this mean in the HSA world?

It means that these additional features now can be covered as preventive care by a high deductible health plan (HDHP), without affecting Health Savings Account (HSA) eligibility. So if your plan covers these services, it can still be considered an HDHP, which means you can still sign up for an HSA.

This may lead to more individuals signing up for HSAs, but ideally, it also will mean more patients with chronic conditions having access to the treatments they need to stay healthy, without the expensive out-of-pocket price tag.

We also expect that insurance carriers will start to add this type of coverage into their current plans—or possibly even create new plans—to accommodate the new guidelines and the plan participants they may affect.

If you want to know more about the IRS notice, you can read it here.

And, as always, if you have any questions about HSAs and HDHPs, be sure to talk to your trusted HSA provider.