Joe, I don't believe I've ever heard of an arrangement like you describe. While I think about how I would handle it, could you open a new discussion for your question? There are some very bright people on this board, and I'd like to make your question more visible to them; in addition to making it and the answers more visible to anyone else in your situation. Hopefully I'll be ready with a somewhat helpful response early next week.

-Tony

I went ahead and moved this to a new discussion as Tony suggested (ah, the power of moderator tools! ;-))

This is an interesting wrinkle. I think QMEM should be as helpful in tracking actual expenses for this unusual type of plan as it is for most others, but I'd love to hear the thoughts of the expert users in the forum. Looking forward to that...

- Lisa

Lisa, thanks for moving it!

This is a relatively new type of insurance program (within last 2 years) and it is great for those people who don't frequent the doctor's very often since any money left over in the HRA account rolls over to the following plan year. As of now, there is no limit to how much can roll over. Just as an example, for my son and myself the company deposits $1500 into that account. A pretty sizeable sum for two people who are in relatively good health.

I finally got the program today and have already begun to enter expenses beginning from the last plan year (Jul 2004). Additionally I've already submitted about 1/2 doz or so feedback items via the web so I'm anxious to see them incorporated into future versions.

Lisa,

he's describing a version of the Consumer Directed Health Plans that companies like WellPoint/Lumenos, United/Definity, Aetna and Cigna offer.

There are two primary flavors. A health reimbursement account (HRA) which is a notional employer funded account matched with a PPO-like traditional health coverage product. A health savings account (HSA) is the same thing but is real money sitting in a real account.

Chad.

I have a heath savings account with Fortis, so I was checking this forum. For the Fortis plan, my employer paid $x,000. Fortis actually provides a debit card and access to a web site to help keep track. It was not clear from the posts whether this Quicken product able to handle this type of acount yet. Or should I wait for the next release?

Actually there is yet another variation of such a 'reimbursement' account. My former employer (of nearly 40 years) went to the cafeteria style of benefits back in the early '80s. At that time they offered a voluntary HCR (Health Care Reimbursement) that could be used to pay towards any non-covered health related expenses (medical, dental, eye/vision, prescription, etc).

This could be applied to totally non-covered charges If you did not select the offered Eye/Vision coverage, then any such expense could be paid out of the HCR. Also, normal out-of-pocket expenses (co-pays, office visits, deductibles, non-covered services, out-of-network, non-generic, non-mailorder, non-formulary, etc) could be reimbursed from the HCR. For example, if the Dental plan only paid for 'gold' crowns, the HCR could be used for the incremental difference of a 'porcelain' crown.

There is a major difference from the description above --<snip> any money left over .... rolls over to the following plan year <snip>--. In our HCR the money could not roll over. Any money left at the end of the year was forfeited. Typically, in the middle of the following year, all forfeited moneies would be distributed back to all current participants. Therefore, including a reimbursement account would have to allow rollover/non-rollover, once yearly funding and multiple fundings. A program that would properly handle these situations would be a great improvement over the Excel spread sheet I used for years. It is extremely important to be aware of the HCR available amount to ensure that there is never a surplus at the end of the plan year --final submissions could be made up to 60 days after the end of the plan year.

Message was edited by retiree at Sep 21, 2005 12:00 PM

Message was edited by retiree at Sep 21, 2005 12:00 PM

Retiree's description of his/her company's HCR sounds like what is often called an FSA or Flexible Spending Account. Either you or your employer (or both) puts money into this account on a pre-tax basis. You can use it to pay for covered expenses. Anything left at the end of the year is forfeited, "use it or lose it".

QMEM Version 1 does handle this type of account, which it calls by the common name FSA. You can designate a given expense as submitted for FSA reimbursement, or reimbursement received. (Use the Details screen.) You can view those expenses on the FSA report (last tab on the right). Thus, you can see how much has been reimbursed during the year, and figure how much you have left to go.

Note, once an expense has been designated FSA-reimbursable, it will no longer appear on the Tax Deduction report. That's because the IRS doesn't let you count the same expense against both your FSA and your tax deduction.

I believe the FSA tracking should also work for those with HSAs and HRAs (where funds not used this year roll over to next), though I haven't tried that myself. QMEM just keeps track of what's been submitted and reimbursed -- which isn't affected by the possibility of roll-over. I'd be interested to hear whether anyone with an HSA or HRA has tried this?

Thanks,

Lisa

I thought 'retiree' was talking about an FSA until he/she mentioned that the money was returned. In my FSA, any unused money is "lost". I'm not sure if my employer, the FSA administrator, or Uncle Sam gets it, but I certainly don't get it back. If we're getting scammed, someone PLEASE let me know! :D

The one thing that 'retiree' didn't address is whether the money was put into the HCR pre- or post-tax. If the answer is pre-tax, then it certainly can be handled by the current FSA functionality... keeping in mind of course that MEM isn't Quicken and doesn't keep track of how much money is in the FSA account.

-Tony

To clarify:

The money put into the HCR was indeed pre-tax --hence the use it or lose it.

The money returned was not based specifically on anyone's specific unused/forfeited balance. It was a combined pool of all employee's unused money, and distributed to the then currently participants (in the succeeding plan year) --not necessarily those that had forfeited the money (eg new participants in the new plan year could get a portion equal to those participants in both plan years; while those no longer participating would not get a portion.)

OK.......I also have the Cigna HRA coverage.

we have $1500.00 deductable for my wife & me.

HRA pays the first $750.00 & I pay the next $750.00

then the Cigna medical plan kicks in w/ 90%/10% (in network) & 60%/40% (out of network - then max out of pocket for family of $2250.00

can anyone help with detailed instructions of how to enter this