Nashville Firm Helps Companies Prepare a Successful HSA Transition

As a company makes the decision to add or switch entirely to a health savings account (HSA) combined with a high deductible health plan (HDHP) from a more traditional plan (HMO/PPO), there are several steps that they can take to ease the transition and help their employees become excited, rather than fearful.

Margaret J. Smith is the president of Medical Accounts Management, which offers comprehensive, targeted services to employers, brokers, financial advisors and their clients and provides custom-tailored management of healthcare benefits, including advocacy, regulatory compliance and consulting.  Smith believes that one of the most important things a business owner can do is to think about the plan in terms of what he/she would want personally when switching to a new type of health insurance plan.  She often sees companies rush into starting an HSA in order to keep up with other companies that are offering plans or not properly planning for the transition.   

The first year is crucial and needs to be carefully prepared for by companies.   When employees learn about the upcoming change in their health coverage, there can be a great deal of fear about it costing them more money and confusion about how it’s all going to work (even after they’ve signed up).  During the first year, employees are in a “spender” mindset where they are seeing the costs of each healthcare decision that they make.  Many can feel confused about the medical and fiscal decisions that they are now responsible for making in order to maximize their account investments.  However, if this fear and confusion is handled properly, during the second year, they are typically seeing the savings begin to build up in the account and transition from fear to excitement about the long-term benefits.  Companies often see increased employee participation after the first year due to peers being able to tell others about how the plan is helping them.

Smith believes that the top two things a company can do to have a successful transition are:

Education – educating employees about the new HSA plan is absolutely critical for a successful plan, especially during the first year transition.  This includes:

• Making the information given simple without use of technical terms and acronyms
  
  
• Giving a lot of information, but in “bite-sized” pieces, so as not to overwhelm people
  
  
• Explaining how the HSA works and especially the benefits
  
  
• Doing a comparison between the current plan and the new HSA and how it will improve an employee’s situation, even when they have a chronic condition
  
  
• Giving handouts in addition to verbal discussions, so that employees can see it in black and white and refer back to information in the future

Proving Services and Assistance on the HSAs – Providing service should include the company giving their employees specific names, phone numbers, and email addresses for plan administrators that can answer questions.  Those administrators must be committed to providing quality service in a timely manner to employees when issues arise.  This quality service will serve to counteract the frustration that employees can feel when having to now deal with both insurance companies and administrators in order to receive benefits.

When a company takes the time to educate their employees and commits to providing service and assistance to those employees, the transition to an HSA culture can be a successful one for all involved and result in employees that become better healthcare consumers.

To learn more about Medical Accounts Management, please visit their website at www.yesmam.com or call 800-684-4440.

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