By Many small businesses are opting to offer their employees a benefit called QSEHRA to reimburse employees for health insurance premiums and medical expenses. The great feature of this specially designed HRA for small businesses is that the reimbursements are tax exempt for both the employee and employer!
Many employees may wonder how to use the new benefits offered to them, and sometimes the best advice comes from those similar to us in our community. So if you find yourself googling “how I use my QSEHRA,” here’s one mom’s story of her new QSEHRA.
We interviewed one of our clients that has been using QSEHRA for the last few months, Jessica, who lives in Dallas with her husband and daughter. She enrolled in her company plan in October 2017.
How do you use your QSEHRA benefit?
My QSEHRA benefit is set up to reimburse premiums and medical expenses. Since my insurance is through my husband’s employer, our premiums are not eligible for reimbursement through the HRA. So I use the HRA to reimburse our family’s out of pocket medical expenses each month.
What type of expenses do you submit?
The expenses I submit vary each month, but my most common expenses are: office copays, prescriptions, chiropractor visits, and dental cleanings. Sometimes I hit my max HRA allowance for the month and some months I don’t. What I really like about the QSEHRA is for the months I don’t claim my full allowance, the balance is carried forward to the next month. Then when I have a big month of expenses I have extra benefit to pull from. My husband and I are both due for eye exams this year, so I know that will be an expensive month for us with either new contacts or glasses in our future. I’m glad the HRA will reimburse me for these expenses.
Is it hard to claim an expense for reimbursement?
No, Take Command Health makes it super easy to submit claims for reimbursement. After I have received a service, I log into my account to submit a claim. I enter the date of service, amount, and a brief description and then upload a copy of my receipt. Take Command Health reviews the expense and then submits a report to my employer each month that shows how much I claimed. My employer then adds the reimbursement amount to my payroll as a tax exempt line item!
Have questions?
Want to learn more about your small business HRA plan? We have a variety of articles on our blog to help answer many of your questions including: Employee Guide to QSEHRA, how to use multiple QSEHRAs in one family, W-2 reporting, filing taxes, and what to do if you do not have health insurance.
Hungry for more? Check out the setup chapter of our handy new QSEHRA Guide!
If you have a question we have not answered, please feel free to contact us!
