This article only applies if you've been told that your Blendable HSA is switching from HSA Classic to HSA Rollback. Consult your Plan Sponsor or Plan Admin if you have questions about what type of Blendable HSA you have.
Legislative changes are forcing us to change your Blendable Health Spending Account (HSA). We're ending contributions to your HSA Classic and starting a brand new HSA Rollback.
This article describes:
- Why this is happening;
- What it means for you; and
- How your new HSA Rollback will work.
Contact your Plan Administrator or Plan Sponsor for details about your specific transition such as:
- Transition timing;
- The benefit period for your new HSA Rollback; and
- What your HSA contributions will be.
The background
Our Blendable HSA Classic is a type of Health Spending Account (HSA) where the funds your Plan Sponsor contributes are held in trust for you in a Health and Welfare Trust (HWT). These funds are available to reimburse your eligible medical expenses until you use them up.
The Federal Government recently made changes to the types of trusts they will allow for group benefits. This means that we need to start using a new kind of trust - an Employee Life and Health Trust (ELHT) - for our HSA Classic.
What is an ELHT?
An ELHT is a type of trust that can be used for group benefits, similar to an HWT. The big difference is that the ELHT has very specific rules about what kind of members can participate and how much those members can receive for their group benefits.
Like most government rules and regulations it's all a bit complex. It boils down to this: because of the limitations of the ELHT, we can't use it to provide an HSA for your group without risking negative tax implications for everyone involved (and no one wants to get in trouble at tax time!)
Impacts to your HSA
In order to keep giving you the amazing flexible benefits you're used to, we're working with your Plan Sponsor to start up a new type HSA for you - our HSA Rollback.
Same great HSA advantages
The HSA Rollback still provides tax-free funds to use for your eligible medical expenses. There are no copays or limits on service types and providers.
Your Member Centre, including login info, how to submit a claim, and all the personal information you've inputted stays the same.
This change has no impact on any other benefits you have as part of your Blendable benefits plan.
Your HSAs and balances
For now, you'll have two HSAs with their own balances, contributions, and benefit periods. Visit your Member Centre (use your custom URL, or head to https://login.blendable.ca if you can't remember it) and click on Health Spending Account to view the details of each HSA.
HSA Classic
Any funds remaining in your HSA Classic will stay there. They are yours to use for eligible claims.
HSA Rollback
You'll receive contributions to your HSA Rollback which will be available for a limited period of time (your Benefit Period). At the end of the Benefit Period the HSA is reset and unused funds credited to the Plan Sponsor.
How the reset works depends on how your HSA Rollback is set up. It can be one of three ways (talk to your Plan Admin or Plan Sponsor if you have questions about your specific plan):
- Rolling Rollback:
- At the end of year 2 unused funds from year 1 are reset
- At the end of year 3 unused funds from year 2 are reset
- And so on
- 1-Year Rollback:
- At the end of each year unused funds are reset.
- 2-Year Rollback:
- At the end of year 1 unused funds remain in the HSA
- At the end of year 2 unused funds are reset.
How we'll pay your claims
Any new claims will be paid using your HSA Rollback balance first. If you don't have enough funds in your HSA Rollback to pay the full amount of the claim we will use HSA Classic funds to pay the difference.
Once your HSA Classic funds have all been used only your HSA Rollback balance will be available to pay claims.
As always, you can only use funds available in a current benefit period to reimburse expenses from that period. Learn more about how HSA dates affect claim reimbursements.
Still have questions?
If you've got questions, we've got answers! Say hello@blendable.ca and we'll help you out.