In the most recent sign that special COVID-19 benefit plan rules are drawing to a close, last Friday, the IRS issued Notice 2023-37, which clarifies the scope of COVID-19 testing and treatment that can be provided on a pre-deductible basis under a high deductible health plan (HDHP) without impacting a participant’s ability to contribute to a health savings account (HSA).  As a reminder, if an HDHP covers medical items and services before the participant satisfies the IRS minimum deductible (self-only or family), that coverage may disqualify the participant’s HSA contributions.  Notice 2023-37 can be downloaded here.

Effective April 1, 2022, high-deductible health plans can once again offer first-dollar coverage for telehealth and other remote services without making participants ineligible for health savings account (“HSA”) contributions.  The relief runs only through the end of 2022, and the regular high-deductible health plan requirements generally apply for the months of January through March 2022. 

On March 11, 2020, the IRS issued Notice 2020-15, to address an important coronavirus issue for high-deductible health plans that are coordinated with health savings accounts (“HSAs”).  The guidance paves the way for health plans to waive or reduce deductibles for any “medical care services and items purchased relating to testing for and treatment of

In Notice 2008-59, the IRS provided certain limited exceptions to its previously stated general position that employers may not recoup any portion of the employer’s contribution to an HSA. Specifically, Notice 2008-59 provided that an employer may recover amounts that it contributes to an HSA account if: (i) the employee for whom the contribution was

In April, the IRS released the 2015 inflation adjustments for Health Savings Accounts (HSA) and HSA-qualified high deductible health plans (HDHPs). A month earlier, HHS released details on the “premium adjustment percentage,” which is used to calculate annual increases in cost sharing under the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) maximum out-of-pocket rules. These ACA rules limit participant cost-sharing under non-grandfathered group health plans for covered, in-network essential health benefits.

For plan years beginning in 2014, the ACA’s maximum out-of-pocket limits were tied to the out-of-pocket limits established for HDHPs. That caused some to assume that the ACA maximum out-of-pocket limits and the HDHP limit would always be the same. But they aren’t. Under the ACA, HHS is required to use a different methodology for calculating any annual adjustments than the IRS uses for HDHPs. Therefore, starting in 2015, the two limits will begin to differ as shown in the first table below. The second table contains other inflation adjustments for HSAs and HDHPs.  In both tables, figures are shown single/family.