Blog Entries tagged 'finance'

Which Bank Should I Select For My HSA Deposits?

shades — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 22:00:00 +0100

This is a good question and varies based on your specific needs, which, by the way will change as you accumulate money into your HSA account.

If you would like to start a discussion on this topic, we invite you to start a thread on the HSAeducator Forum, you can click here to get there and start a conversation based on your own needs. You will need to register on this site to participate, but it only takes a few seconds, and you are already here.

As an alternative, if [...]

So What's Going On In E-Health?

shades — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 22:00:00 +0100

If you have read the last two postings ("What the Heck is E-Health" and "E-Health and Health Savings Accounts") you know what e-health is. Now the question is, where is it going?

There's a good article in the December 8th edition of Business Week on E-Health. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, Wal-Mart (who began offering Health Savings Accounts in 2006 as a means to provide health benefits to its 1MM+ employees) will offer its 1MM benefits eligib [...]

What The Heck Is E-Health?

shades — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:00:00 +0100

So if I lay down on top of my computer, is it somehow going to make me healthy? Or maybe if I spend 8 hours a day doing health related Google, Yahooo, MSN or some other search engine searches, will that make me more e-healthy? Perhaps if I stick my hand in the VCR and push play, that will give me a nice jolt of Electronic Health?

The answer is "D." None of the above.

E-health is one of those terms we hear all the time, but maybe aren't quite sure what it [...]

How The Pinch Stole Healthcare.

shades — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:00:00 +0100

Every Blue down in Blueville liked Healthcare a lot...

But the Pinch, who lived to the left of Healthcare did NOT!

The Pinch hated Healthcare, the whole Healthcare system!

Just don't ask why, only he had the wisdom.

It could be his head was screwed on to the left,

It could be his ears were plugged up and deaf.

But I think the most likely reason of all,

Was that he thought the Blues brains were much much too small.

But whatever t [...]

Goodbye Joe the Plumber. Hello Dan the Street Super.

shades — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 22:00:00 +0100

Dan Crowell represents the changing face of health and healthcare in America. Dan is the street superintendent for the city of Lafayette, Indiana. Now I don't know Dan but I read about him JConline.com, the online edition of the Journal Courier Newspapers of Lafayette and West Lafayette Indiana.

Both cities, faced with ever rising healthcare costs have joined together to save money on health insurance and to promote healthier employees. One of the keys to their st [...]

An HSA Tax Tip

shades — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 22:00:00 +0100

You are new to the world of High Deductible Health Plans, and your new plan is HSA eligible, or perhaps you have an HSA but haven't had the time to open a corresponding Health Savings Account. Or you opened an HSA but have put no money in it this year. With Christmas, Hanukkah and the general holiday season upon us, you are light on cash and thinking maybe you'll hold back on that contribution to your HSA.

You know in your mind that your healthcare [...]

Beans, Tea Parties, Witch Trials - Massachusetts Healthcare Reform 2009

shades — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:00:00 +0100

About the only things I know about Massachusetts have to do with beans (Blazing Saddles), a bunch of whiteys dressed up as Indians (wonder if they were wearing wigs?), and burning witches at the stake (now that's hot).

Being from the Deep South, my purview of the rest of the country is somewhat narrow, and I suppose for every one of us, there is enough history, news, and politics in our own states to keep up narrowly focused and narrowly minded for a lifetime. Thank God, [...]

Reading The Tea Leaves Of Obama's Healthcare Reform

shades — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 22:00:00 +0100

One thing everyone agreed on regarding the Obama presidential campaign was that he picked his messages and stuck to them. And one of the ones that stuck to me, in fact, with all the media coverage I felt like it was nailed to me with a hammer and sixteen penny nails, was the notion that if you liked the health plan your employer offered you could keep it, but if you didn't you could have the same insurance federal employees enjoy. And for employers if they didn't [...]

Politically Speaking, Is There A Middle Ground In Healthcare?

shades — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 22:00:00 +0100

Ron Klar, a guy way smarter than me when it comes to healthcare, the healthcare debate and fixing the problems related to our Nation's ills, wrote a terrific article just before the election entitled, AmericarePlans: A McCain-Obama Hybrid Proposal posted on Health Affairs, The Policy Journal of the Health Sphere. Being the last guy on the grape vine, it took awhile for me to intersect with his article.

I'm not going to regurgitate the article here as it is much bett [...]

I Heart Health Care For America Now...

shades — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 23:00:00 +0100

....NOT!

I saw a humorous YouTube video which led me down an interesting path of reflection and reinforced the extremes in thinking some people have on healthcare in America. Healthcare is a complicated social issue, and to the best of my knowledge there is only one only perfect solution. And that's perfect health.

I've included the video here as it is humorous, but I present it with a large caveat. Health insurance in America is in [...]

It's Open Enrollment Season Out There. Are You the Hunter Or The Hunted?

shades — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 23:00:00 +0100

If you are one of those folks who dreads the open enrollment period for your health benefits, who puts their heads inside of their shell and basically runs and hides, I'm sorry to say, you are the hunted. If you simply sign up for whatever you had last year (but likely at a higher price, and possibly with reduced benefits) without doing your homework, you are the hunted. If you haven't figured out things like HSAs, HRAs, or FSAs, then you are the hunted. If you simpl [...]

Another $17 in My Health Savings Account (HSA) or is that My Hair Savings Account?

shades — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:00:00 +0100

When I was a kid, up until the age of about eleven, my Grandmother used to conduct Doctor Jekyl-like experiments on my hair with her handy scissors. I was a total toe head and when she was done they could have slapped me on the side of a paint can and called me the Little Dutch Boy.

I revolted at eleven and began a 30 plus year quest to find the perfect barber. Recently though, in my quest to save more money into my health savings account I decided to give Betty, my barber, [...]

Why Is Healthcare So Expensive? The Unscientific Top Ten Reasons Why.

shades — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 23:00:00 +0100

I have an HDHP. When I go to the Doctor to have them look at the creatures crawling around in my throat, causing me to itch all over, or making my hair fall out in clumps, I am expected to pick up the full tab until I hit my deductible. I even have a little stash of money, called an HSA to pay for it. BUT, I don't pay a nickel when the Doctor is done with me. Not immediately.

The Doctor has to put in a claim to my insurance company, the insurance company tell [...]

Are You A Savvy Health Savings Account Shopper?

shades — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 23:00:00 +0100

I came across an article in Wednesday's (10/29) edition of Workforce Management Magazine which was extracted from a presentation made by Maureen E. Sullivan, SVP Blue Cross Blue Shield Association at the National Consumer Driven Health Summit on October 20. The name of the presentation was called Health Plan Initiatives, Trends and Research in Consumer Driven Care. If you want the full download please click on either of the links above for loads of relevant statistics re [...]

Health Savings Account (HSA) Mindset And Chinese Fortune Cookies

shades — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 23:00:00 +0100

"A Thrifty Man Is A Free Man" Advice from my fortune cookie March 1982

Good advice during these strange and troubling economic times. Good advice anytime and way cheaper than a fortune teller (unless of course, the fortune teller is your crazy aunt Zelda).

The October 20th edition of Business Week offered up a timely article entitled, "The New Age of Frugality" by Steve Hamm. It discusses the tightening of spending by Americans with our contra [...]

That Health Savings Account (HSA) You Hooked Is One Big Fish

shades — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 23:00:00 +0100

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?

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKXjqsXj44Y 425x355]

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 [...]

Hatchet / Scalpel? McCain / Obama?

shades — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 23:00:00 +0100

From 1861-1865, during the War Between the States, a wounded soldier laying in a field hospital bleeding to death from a horrific injury to his arm or leg would have it amputated in a few of seconds (repeat seconds) with a draconian surgical saw, with little antiseptic, and sometimes even with no anesthesia. These were life or death moments and neither time nor tools existed to properly address the issues medically. Split second decisions were made and executed in attem [...]

HDHP Creativity - A Nugget of HSA Education

shades — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 23:00:00 +0100

If you read "High Deductible Health Plan - Rejected" you know that my family got rejected for our new HDHP plan when we tried to switch insurance providers. This is a brief update on where we stand presently. If you have found yourself in a similar situation, might find this somewhat worthwhile reading. The challenge with my current plan is that our provider seems to think that they need not provide us with any prescription coverage unless one of us is rolled into [...]

Healthcare Ain't Rocket Science....

shades — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 23:00:00 +0100

.......it's actually harder.

Remember a few years ago when this outfit called the X Prize Foundation paid $10 million for the first privately funded manned space flight? Quite a contest. Quite a feat.

Well yesterday, WellPoint and the X Prize Foundation announced a new competition offering $10 million for solutions that can impact positive change in health care cost and quality.

Nice prize. Tall order. But just damned cool.

Now if you are i [...]

HSA 'Grab Bag' 101 - Medicare Part D

shades — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:00:00 +0100

So if this is your first exposure to the Gradock Bulletin's ‘Grab Bag Series' you are kind of jumping into the middle of the game. No problem with that but you may want to go back and read the first one or two in the series that started this little snowball (and it's still fairly little right now) down the hill.

Also, if you read this on a fairly regularly basis you might be used to a bit more humor (or attempts at it anyway) than has been injected in [...]