You've just been enrolled in an HSA for the first time huh?  You might feel like you just hooked a big nasty line pulling pike.  That sucker is and bad and feels like he's pulling you all over the place.  How in the world are you going to deal with it?

If you have the right gear to reel it in, and maybe a cold Budweiser, you might just get him in the boat.  Except for the chilly beer, that's what HSAeducator.com is all about; having the right gear.

If you feel like your line was hit hard by this new HDHP/HSA insurance plan, or maybe you are the pike on the line and your employer just rammed turned you, HSAeducator.com can definitely help you out.

As an opinion maker of uno, I recommend you look at your new insurance and savings plan you have as a gift.  I believe high deductible health plans when combined with health savings accounts can be a major part of America's solution to healthcare.  While they turn a lot of the responsibility for our health and healthcare over to us, they give us control too, and control is power.  You may not know it yet but dude (and fisherdudesses) with your HSA you've got the power.   

But you are new to the HSA fishing tournament and, I'm getting ahead of myself.  Before you can harness the power of your new HDHP and HSA, you've got to learn the language. 

It all starts right here.  HSAeducator.com starts by answering the basic HSA questions.  Things like:

• Ÿ How much can I contribute to my HSA each year?
• Ÿ What can I spend money from my HSA for?
• Ÿ Can I buy fishing lures with money from my HSA or maybe a new boat?
• Ÿ What happens if I put too much money into my HSA?
• Ÿ Do I have to use the bank my company is pushing for my HSA?
• Ÿ If I change jobs what happens to the money in my HSA?
• Ÿ What if I don't spend all the money in my HSA each year?
• Ÿ Should I try to spend the money in my HSA every year or let it pile up for something major?
• Ÿ Can I pay my HDHP premiums from my HSA?
• Ÿ Can I take my HSA contributions off my taxes?
• Ÿ Can I spend my HSA dollars on a back snapper?
• Ÿ Is an HSA the same as my FSA?

Good questions and they're all answered on HSAeducator.com.  Plus, if you have really specialized questions you can check out the health savings accounts discussion forum , ask your question and they'll give you an answer or maybe or someone else with an HSA can give you some guidance 

One more thing that makes HSAeducator.com different from say, that slick brochure your employer gave you, is that it's written in English.  Not the Queen's English, but plain old every day conversational English, not something that looks like it was written by a the U.S. Congress or some lawyer.   So while it is no your favorite "fishin' magazine," it's a damned sight closer than the Harvard Law Review.

About this time every year employers all over the nation unveil their latest, greatest insurance offerings for the coming year. They've worked over their brokers, agents, and consultants, dusted off a few old tricks and brought a couple new ones to the game.  They've frosted up this package with Betty Crocker's finest, served it up on their finest china, put it on a fork and are now playing the "airplane" game with you.

Now you're probably thinking, "what's this hillbilly talking about?"  Tell me, am I right?  You've got your enrollment package, your employer is patting him or herself on the back at what a great job they did at keeping your premium from rising, or at least rising too much and you're saying, yeh, but what about my co-pays, why do I have to pay more for drugs, what about my deductible?

Health Savings Accounts are still relatively new, having just come into law at the end of 2003.  And every year, more and more employers are beginning to offer them to their employees.  Sometimes as an option for employees and sometimes as the only option for employees.

For the past couple of years, at this very time of year my friends come to me with quizzical and dim looks on their faces and begin asking me about the high deductible health plans (HDHPs) and health savings accounts (HSAs).  My friends are fairly bright folks, but as you know, the subject of insurance is about as exciting as a flat keg of beer at a fraternity band party.

They don't mind asking me about it because

...which stands for Health Reimbursement Arrangement or an FSA (flexible spending account) and still be HSA eligible.  There are some rules around this which we are not going to cover here.

Say your back goes all wiggly and you need to go see your favorite back snapper, Dr. Flickfinger.  Unfortunately, your high deductible health plan (HDHP) does not cover chiropractic, but lucky for you, your employer contributes to an HRA (or FSA) on your behalf.  Say you rack up (bad choice of words?) $2,000 in back cracking that you are able to pay for out of your HRA.

Do the dollars you spent getting "the treatment" count toward satisfying the deductible on your HDHP?

Nope.  The rule is that only medical expenses covered by the HDHP can count against the deductible. 

If you have funded your HSA, it is worth noting that it may be more flexible than your insurance policy in terms of what it will pay for.  You have more control over it, plus you get the tax and interest earnings benefits it offers.  For a more comprehensive list of things you can spend your health savings account dollars on there is a pretty good laundry list located on the "Resources" page of HSAeducator.com.   

 It's "T" minus two days and counting; then my kids go back to school.  My son is doing that "I'm sooooooo bored, there's nothing to doooooooooo" routine that I am pretty sure all kids under the age of about 15 perpetrate for the sole purpose of driving their parents nuts.  The "go read a book," recommendation went over about as well as his sister pulling his hair or him twisting his ankle on his way to the pantry for the eighth time today, and the 4,623^rd time this summer to see if there is anything "good" in there for him to graze upon.  Amazingly, there are still no Snickers, Hershey Bars, anything from the Keebler Elves, or from the chocolate fairy, staring out him.  As you might imagine, these really are the only items in the pantry that would meet his needs and qualify as "good."

I kind of know how he feels as honestly, this whole HSA  ‘Grab Bag‘ series has been fairly mind numbing for me too.   And why isn't there a chocolate Fairy?

While seeking inspiration for this article I had my TV on mute with the Olympics on.  I had one eye fixed on the set and the other staring absently at my computer screen when my son landed on the couch next to me.  In a fleeting moment of "inspiration" the following words spouted from my mouth,

"You are welcome to watch the Games with me,

But there's one thing you can not do;

 that's sit here and complain.

‘Cause if you do,

you're going

to drive me

out of my mind insane."

Now I wouldn't go so far as to call that poetry, but I humored myself and seemed a bit less dry than the Health Savings Account Grab Bag.

But alas (is that Shakespearian?), I suppose, a nugget from the Grab Bag is in order so let's grab another.  How about eligibility of individuals receiving benefits from the VA?

No doubt, the burning question on the tip of thousands of readers' tongues, or at least one somewhere.  Otherwise the ‘Grab Bag' folks wouldn't have come up with an answer to the question....or maybe they would have.

Here's the scoop, generally individuals receiving VA benefits in the past three months are not HSA eligible.  However, if the covered individual's medical benefits consisted only of preventative care or disregarded coverage then the individual is in luck.

So if you have an HDHP through work and your employer is paying you back before you meet the deductible, you may NOT be qualified to contribute to a health savings account (HSA). 

Now that pretty much smells like skunk but here's the deal. There are some things that your employer may be able to pay for like preventative care or what is called "disregarded coverage" (things your health plan wouldn't pay for anyway). 

Of course it's ok for your employer to contribute to your HSA and you can pay for those expenses under the deductible with those funds, but when they start reimbursing you outside of the HSA, that's when things get squirrely.

For sure, if you have a high deductible health plan (HDHP), by all means, you want to be sure you are able to have an HSA too.  If you have any questions about things that might disqualify you from being able to open or contribute to an HSA be sure to consult with a good insurance agent or your company's benefits department.

Here's one from the grab bag that if it sounds like something that applies to you, we recommend you go do a little bit of research (talk to your insurance agent).

One pretty smart way to give yourself some added coverage for specific health issues is to look at supplemental plans that will pay for things regardless of if you have hit your HDHP deductible. One form of these are Mini Med Plans, which can cover a range of things from help with hospital stays, to ambulance rides, to doctor's visits.

For certain types of events, these plans can live harmoniously with HDHPS and HSAs, but there are some plans that could actually disqualify your ability to contribute to your HSA. That would be a wicked bad day and should be avoided.

If your insurance agent is well informed about Health Savings Accounts, they can steer you toward the good stuff and away from the bad.

This might be a good forum topic for the forum on this site. Feel free to get some discussion going. Click here for the shortcut.

If you're really tuned into the world of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and High Deductible Health Plans this whole ‘Grab Bag' concept is yesterday's news to you.  That said, most folks reading this have probably never heard of it and I, while I have heard of it and perused it, have been avoiding it like the plague.

Despite of its thought provoking and generally stimulating name, ‘Grab Bag,' the thing is what it is.  It is also known as IRS Notice 2008-59.  I know the mention of the IRS causes many to break out in a cold sweat. 

For me, anything over about a page long causes me to break out in a cold sweat.  And this little baby is 28 pages of Q&A including a table of contents 3 pages long. 

The purpose of the document, issued by the Department of the Treasury and the IRS jointly is to clarify some outstanding questions regarding Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and in some cases, throw a few new rules at us.  Generally speaking, clarification is good.   Next time they get around to issuing guidance on Health Savings Accounts, we will have a new administration, so this will be it under Bushy's watch.

Now the reason I've been avoiding this sucker like the plague is because anything over a page long is hard.  So you can imagine the general clinching that took place when I saw the table of contents.  It has taken me nearly a month to begin making an attempt to wrassle this monkey to the ground.

Rather than draft a 100 page article, it probably makes sense to break this puppy down into kibble sized bits and serve up the tastiest morsels one at a time.  If you'd like to study ahead, feel free to click on the link above.  If not, and I can hardly blame you.  Come back and read the next installment of The Gradock Bulletin.  We'll try to pick the most relevant parts of it to discuss and if possible we'll "put a little pepper on it slightly. "

Is that an oxymoron?  George Carlin would probably argue yes, but it is a serious subject, not to be taken (too) lightly.

I recently have been through the miserable process of trying to purchase an iPod Nano over the internet through a little auction site called eBay.  You might have heard of it.  After almost two months, several hundred bids on dozens of items I have nothing to show for my efforts.

I actually "won" 6 different Nanos, paid for them and they evaporated into thin air.  Now there are a lot of reasons for this evaporation.  As best I can tell, there is a huge amount of fraud and deceit involved in the buying and selling of these things and eBay has no clue how to first screen and then sift the good sellers from the bad sellers.  It has been an exercise in frustration, exasperation, exhilaration, obsession, depression and rejection.  It has just driven me nuts.     

When I started writing the above, I thought it would be a clever way to use my own experience to make the point that mental health issues can be paid for out of ones health savings account (HSA) and to say that some HDHPs (high deductible health plans) have provisions in them to assist with mental health.   Me "going nutty" and everything.  But as worked through, what was intended to be mildly humorous, it struck me how serious mental health issues are to people who face its, well, many faces.  So rather than try to tie this one up in a nice colorful bow we'll just give a little bit of thought, respect and prayer to any of our family, friends, colleagues, or other associates we know who have ever had to  battle mental health issues for even one day in their lives.

We wrote a blog a few months back on the pros and cons of Medical Tourism, but when we went to link back to it from this blog, it was nowhere to be found.  If we find it we'll stick a link in here and you can go read it if you like.  It focused on the pros and cons of medical tourism.

If you are not familiar with it, it is essentially the process of getting healthcare abroad.

Typically individuals engage in the process when

I know is like the Star Spangled Banner of Canada and sung when the Maple Leafs (or is it Leaves??) are in town.  But it's also the little ditty that comes to mind as I begin to think about Canadian Pharmaceuticals/Drugs/ Meds or whatever you want to call them.

Right now, I know very little about the history of how some drugs got to be cheaper in Canada, so I will spread this rumor which sounds plausible.  At some point I may try corroborate it, correct it, or replace it, but now is not the time.  Someone told me that the Canadian Government, prior to Al Gore giving birth to the internet, cut a deal with American Pharma to purchase drugs on the cheap. 

Since the Canadian Government offers universal coverage it purchases pharmaceuticals in bulk on behalf of their citizens.  Savvy online pharmacies then buy drugs from the government and send it back to the U.S., often at prices lower than what we are able to purchase the same drugs, from the same producers here at home.

Once again, I don't know if this is true or a load, but we do know, that there are certain prescriptions we can purchase from Canada through the mail with a prescription that cost less.  Sometimes a lot less. 

So what does this have to do with Health Savings Accounts?  Well, according to our Government, who set the rules surrounding HSAs, unless the FDA has given their blessing for drugs being shipped in from Canada, we are not allowed to pay for them using the funds from our HSAs.