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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Who has experience with HSA/HRA health insurance?
I've got some questions but I can't remember who has one of these types of plans. Can we chat?
Re: Who has experience with HSA/HRA health insurance?
Sounds like it's probably the same as the HRA option.
So, how does it work exactly? Are you still contributing an amount per paycheck? That's one of the things I don't get - if you are contributing per paycheck is that all the money you have available in your account? Because the amount per paycheck varies based on salary and health factors (you get points for not smoking and having a good metabolic index).
It sounds like you have to shell out more money per office visit or for prescriptions and until you meet your high deductible you are responsible for the full amount. How has that been for you so far?
The cost of the insurance that comes out of MH's paycheck which for us is also based on smoking and other things is just that, the cost of the insurance. We don't get to use that money for anything down the road.
MH's company has given us some "seed" money to put into our MRA account based on what his annual salary is. The higher the salary the less seed money to start your MRA account. We can also earn money in our MRA throughout the year for completing health assessments, registering on our health insurance website, utilizing nutrition, weight management and condition management services that are offered. If I happen to get pregnant this year, they will also put extra money into the MRA for us for that since we will be responsible for 10% of the hospital bill. We also have the option of putting money into our MRA just like our HSA on a pre-tax basis if we wanted. We did not opt to do this.
The way the insurance works for us is that we have a deductible (for the two of us no kids it is $1,750) and then we have an out of pocket maximum amount which is the maximum amount of money we would be required to spend after our deductible has been met (ours is another $1,750), which means the most we will have to pay in any given year is $3,500. We pay more per paycheck in costs to have this lower deductible. We could have chosen to have a higher deductible and pay less but that made us nervous.
For us we can go to any doctor we want without a referral. Just make the appointment and go. The doctor will not take a copay from you when you go. They will bill our insurance company the full amount and then bill us for whatever the insurance company doesn't pay. We were given a Mastercard debit card which is tied to our MRA which we can use to pay our portion of the bills if we want.
Preventative care with your primary care physician is covered 100% for us according to their schedule. As an adult we get one visit a year for preventative care which will cost us nothing. If we are sick and we go to our primary care doctor they will cover 90% of the cost of the visit and we will be responsible for 10%. For MH's doctor this is about $6 per visit. This does not apply to our deductible.
The deductible comes into play when we need to go see a specialist. Then the same procedure applies, the doctor will bill the health insurance company but the health insurance company will not pay any of these bills until your deductible is met. They will tell the doctor what they can charge you though according to their schedule of payment. This is where you can choose to pay for what you owe from your MRA/HRA or from where ever you want.
We have only used it once so far for a primary care visit and it worked great. We got a bill for $6 which is the 10% of the visit from the doctor. Much lower than the $20 copay we had last year.
I am sure it will be different when and if we have to go see any specialist and have to deal with their bills but I have been doing every extra little thing they let me to get the free money in the MRA so that it won't be as hard on us if that does happen.
Sorry this was so long, hopefully it was helpful!
Yes, it's per paycheck so if you're contributing 2k a year and your company 2k a year, you do not have 4k available at the start of the year.
Sarah, i just checked back here.... to answer your questions - yes you pay a premium out of your paycheck. That's like what you'd pay for any health plan - just for the privilege of coverage.
Money down the toilet. On top of that, there's an HRA or HSA.... that's like a savings account, that you can pull from only to pay for medical expenses. Doctor's visits, blood work, etc. So you pay for all medical expenses throughout the year until you meet your high deductible. Once you reach that, your plan starts paying at some percentage (80% being common), and you pay the remainder of all bills.
So in practice, there might be two amounts coming from your paycheck: the premium (which you must contribute to be in the plan), AND the amount that you choose to put into your HSA. The HSA money sits there until you pull from it, like a savings account. The premiums that you've paid are gone, baby, gone.
Got it?
Thank you! OK, so that amount in the document I showed you is what you pay just for the privilege of being in the plan. Makes perfect sense.