Can an Adult Child’s Medical Expenses Be Reimbursed Tax-Free From a Parent’s HSA?

Can an Adult Child’s Medical Expenses Be Reimbursed Tax-Free From a Parent’s HSA?

by | Mar 21, 2023 | Blog

QUESTION: Our company sponsors a high-deductible health plan (HDHP) in conjunction with employee HSAs. Can the medical expenses of our employees’ adult children who otherwise qualify for tax-free coverage under the HDHP be reimbursed tax-free from the employees’ HSAs? 

ANSWER: Not necessarily—it depends on whether the adult children qualify as tax dependents under the HSA rules. As group health plans, HDHPs that provide dependent coverage of children must make the coverage available until a child turns age 26. (The age 26 mandate does not generally apply to HSAs because they are not group health plans.) The income exclusion for employer-provided health coverage includes employees’ children who are under age 27 as of the end of the taxable year, regardless of whether those children qualify as tax dependents. But similar provisions do not appear in the HSA tax-free reimbursement rules. Instead, whether an adult child’s medical expenses can be reimbursed tax-free from a parent’s HSA depends on whether the child qualifies as a tax dependent for HSA distribution purposes—i.e., whether the adult child is a qualifying child (for example, due to disability) or a qualifying relative (where the parent provides over one-half of the child’s support). Distributions from a parent’s HSA that reimburse a nondependent adult child’s medical expenses are taxable and may be subject to an additional 20% tax. 

Thus, the medical expenses of some adult children who are enrolled as dependents in your company’s HDHP will not qualify for tax-free reimbursement from the employee-parent’s HSA. It is possible, however, that these children may be HSA-eligible themselves. If they cannot be claimed as tax dependents and they meet the other HSA eligibility requirements, they could open HSAs of their own. 

Source: Thomson Reuters

Can an Adult Child’s Medical Expenses Be Reimbursed Tax-Free From a Parent’s HSA?

HHS Proposes HIPAA Standards for Electronic Health Care Claims Attachments 

by | Mar 9, 2023 | Blog

HHS has proposed regulations that would adopt a set of standards for the electronic exchange of clinical and administrative data to support prior authorizations and health care claims adjudication. As background, HIPAA requires that covered entities (and their business associates) comply with rules designed to standardize the format and content of specified electronic transactions. Specifically, the proposed regulations would adopt standards for “health care attachments” transactions that would support both health care claims and prior authorization transactions, along with a standard for electronic signatures. Regulations proposed in September 2005 would have adopted certain standards for health care attachments but were never finalized. 

Explaining that the prior regulations were not finalized due to comments about the standards’ “lack of technical maturity and stakeholders’ lack of readiness to implement electronic capture of clinical data,” the preamble to the new proposed regulations notes that despite the subsequent widespread deployment of electronic health records and greater industry experience with the HIPAA standards, transmitting health care attachments is still primarily a manual process. The preamble provides detailed information about the organizations responsible for developing and maintaining the transactions standards and advises that the timing for implementation is right because the industry consensus-based standards are now mature, and covered entities are ready to implement them. The regulations do not propose to adopt attachments standards for all health care transaction business needs. Instead, the approach is for covered entities to gain experience with several standard electronic attachment types so that technical and business issues can be identified to inform potential future rulemaking for other electronic attachments standards. 

Source: Thomson Reuters

Can an Adult Child’s Medical Expenses Be Reimbursed Tax-Free From a Parent’s HSA?

CMS Fact Sheet Addresses End of COV-19 Public Health Emergency

by | Mar 2, 2023 | Blog

HHS’s Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued a fact sheet addressing the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE), which (along with the COVID-19 national emergency) is anticipated to end on May 11, 2023. The fact sheet, which is addressed to individuals, confirms that HHS is expecting the PHE to expire at the end of the day on May 11 and provides information about the implications for coverage under private health insurance, as well as Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP. Here are highlights relevant to employer-sponsored group health plans: 

  • COVID-19 Vaccines, Testing, and Treatments. Most plans must continue to cover vaccines furnished by in-network providers without cost sharing but may require individuals receiving vaccines from out-of-network providers to share part of the cost. When the PHE ends, mandatory coverage for OTC and laboratory-based COVID-19 PCR and antigen tests will end. Plans may choose to cover these tests but may require cost sharing, prior authorization, or other forms of medical management. The end of the PHE will not change how COVID-19 treatments are covered; plans that require cost sharing or apply deductibles may continue to do so. 
  • Access to Telehealth Services. As is currently the case during the PHE, coverage for telehealth and other remote care services may vary from plan to plan after the PHE ends. When covered, plans may impose cost-sharing, prior authorization, or other forms of medical management. 

Source: Thomson Reuters

Can an Adult Child’s Medical Expenses Be Reimbursed Tax-Free From a Parent’s HSA?

What do all these employee benefit acronyms stand for?

by | Feb 21, 2023 | Blog

Everyone in the employee benefits field uses acronyms like COBRA, FSA, and CDHC. What do these and other employee benefit acronyms stand for? 

Here’s an explanatory list of common employee benefit acronyms used:

ACA – Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act 

AHP – Association Health Plan 

ASG – Affiliated Service Group 

ASO – Administrative-Services-Only 

ATIN – Adoption Taxpayer Identification Number 

BA – Business Associate 

CDHC – Consumer-Driven Health Care 

CE – Covered Entity 

COB – Coordination of Benefits 

COBRA – Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act 

COLA – Cost-of-Living Adjustment 

CONUS – Continental United States 

DCAP – Dependent Care Assistance Program 

DOL – Department of Labor 

EIN – Employer Identification Number 

EAP – Employee Assistance Plan 

EBHRA – Expected Benefit HRA 

EBSA – Employee Benefits Security Administration 

EEOC – Equal Employment Opportunity Commission 

EFAST2 – ERISA Filing Acceptance System II 

EOB – Explanation of Benefits 

EOI – Evidence of Insurability 

ePHI – Electronic Protected Health Information 

ERISA – Employee Retirement Income Security Act 

FICA – Federal Insurance Contributions Act 

FLSA – Federal Labor Standards Act 

FMLA – Family and Medical Leave Act 

FSA – Flexible Spending Amount 

FUTA – Federal Employment Tax Act 

GHP – Group Health Plan 

HCE – Highly Compensated Employee

HCP – Highly Compensated Participants 

HDHC – High Deductible Health Coverage 

HDHP – High Deductible Health Plan 

Health FSA – Health Flexible Spending Arrangement 

HHS – Department of Health and Human Services 

HIPPA – Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act 

HMO – Health Maintenance Organization 

HRA – Health Reimbursement Arrangement 

HSA – Health Savings Account 

ICHRA – Individual Coverage HRA 

IIAS – Inventory Information Approval System 

MCC – Merchant Category Code 

PBM – Pharmacy Benefit Manager 

PCOR Fees – Fees for Patient-Centered Outcomes Research 

PEO – Professional Employer Organization 

POP – Premium-Only Plan 

PPO Plan – Preferred Provider Organization Plan 

QB – Qualified Beneficiary 

QE – Qualifying Event 

QMCSO – Qualified Medical Child Support Order 

QSEHRA – Qualified Small Employer Health Reimbursement Arrangement 

R&C – Reasonable and Customary 

RRE – Responsible Reporting Identity 

SBC – Summary of Benefits and Coverage 

SMM – Summary of Material Modification 

SPD – Summary Plan Description 

TPA – Third Party Administrator 

UCR Rate – Usual, Customary, and Reasonable Rate 

VEBA – Voluntary Employees’ Beneficiary Association