Health & Wellness Spending Accounts

A flexible approach to group benefits

Have your employees voiced the desire to choose where their benefit dollars are spent? Health spending accounts and wellness spending accounts provide that flexibility. Plus, if you already have a benefits plan in place, these two spending accounts can be offered in conjunction with your current plan design to provide your employees with enhanced coverage options and increased flexibility.

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Why Health & Wellness Spending Accounts?

Aids in cost management

A great way to manage the costs of your benefits plan while still providing value to your employees is through the allocation of your benefits. This is accomplished by moving an insured benefit to your HSA.

Flexibility for your employees

Because any CRA-approved medical expense can be claimed under an HSA, you are providing your employees with the flexibility to claim what matters most to them.

Promote employee wellness

While an HSA is for medical expenses, its wellness counterpart allows for employee reimbursement of a wide range of wellness expenses like gym memberships, fitness equipment, professional development courses and more.

Any questions?

What is the difference between a health spending account and a wellness spending account?

The main difference between these two benefits is the availability of what can be submitted as a claim. For a health spending account, only CRA-approved medical expenses can be submitted.

Conversely, eligible claims to a wellness spending account are geared more towards items that promote a healthy lifestyle like gym memberships and professional development classes.
How does a health spending account help to improve employee satisfaction?

A health spending account provides employees with the option to choose what to claim. For example, if the monetary amount for a benefit like vision coverage was moved from the traditional benefits plan and into an HSA, it would provide an employee who doesn’t wear glasses with the opportunity to put that money towards something that has significance to them.
Can health and wellness spending accounts be offered on their own?

Yes! Health and wellness plans can be offered as a standalone benefit or they can be combined with a traditional benefits plan to provide a comprehensive solution for your employees.
When offered with a traditional benefits plan, how does an HSA help to manage costs?

A health spending account can help to manage costs through what is called an allocation of benefits.

Using vision care as an example, a common benefits plan will have $150-400 every 24 months to cover vision costs that extend beyond eye exams. If you’re already paying for vision coverage within your benefits, the cost per claim ends up being around 30% on top of the claim itself depending on your firm’s target loss ratio.

By transferring vision coverage to your HSA, you're not only managing costs but providing more value and flexibility for your employees. Vision coverage is just one example to replace with an HSA.