Health Spending Accounts (HSAs) have a 12-month Benefit Period which lines up with your plan’s renewal date. The intent is for funds contributed during a Benefit Period to be used for the reimbursement of claims dated within the benefit period.
At each renewal (the end of each Benefit Period) there are some important considerations for claims and unused funds.
Wrapping up claims
The first thing we do at renewal is take care of any final claims. Plan Members get a grace period following the renewal date to submit any outstanding claims. This is called the Claim Submission Cut-off.
Group plan's Claim Submission Cut-off date may be 0, 30, or 90 days after the end of your plan’s Benefit Period, depending on how your plan is setup.
HSA Select plans Claim Submission Cut-off is 0 days. It is the same as the end of the Benefit Period.
After the Claim Submission Cut-off Plan Members can no longer be reimbursed for claims incurred during that Benefit Period.
You can find your plan’s Claim Submission Cut-off in the Plan Centre:
- Click on Plan Details in the header menu, then Plan Features in the dropdown
- Click on the eye next to the HSA in the feature list
- View the Claim Submission Cut-off
Resetting unused funds
Once all claims have been submitted and processed, we deal with any unused funds remaining in the HSA. Handling depends on the type of HSA your members have.
HSA Select
After every Benefit Period the Plan Member’s HSA balance is reset to $0. Unused funds are credited to the Plan Sponsor Company. They are applied as a credit against future bills.
HSA Classic
Unused HSA Classic funds remain in the Plan Member’s account. They can be used to reimburse future eligible expenses. These funds stay in the HSA until they’re exhausted through claim reimbursements.
HSA Rollback
Unused HSA Rollback funds are credited to the Plan Sponsor Company. The balance of the HSAs is reduced, and the credit is applied to future bills.
Timing of this credit depends on your plan’s rollback period. Unused funds may be rolled back:
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- After each Benefit Period;
- After two Benefit Periods; or
- On a rolling basis, so only funds from the previous Benefit Period are reset.
- After year 1, no funds are reset.
- After year 2, unused funds from year 1 are reset.
- After year 3, unused funds from year 2 are reset, and so on.
HSA Rollover
Unused funds are managed using the same options as an HSA Rollback. However, instead of a credit to the Plan Sponsor Company, Blendable facilitates the contribution of these funds to a Group RRSP on your Plan Members’ behalf.