The IRS recently gave guidance concerning limits for flexible spending accounts (FSAs), commuter benefits, and adoption assistance benefits. All maximum allowable amounts were updated except for dependent care FSAs.
- Qualified Transportation Fringe Benefit. For tax year 2025, the monthly limitation for the qualified transportation fringe benefit and the monthly limitation for qualified parking rises to $325, increasing from $315 in tax year 2024.
- Health Flexible Spending Cafeteria Plans. For the taxable years beginning in 2025, the dollar limitation for employee salary reductions for contributions to health flexible spending arrangements rises to $3,300, increasing from $3,200 in tax year 2024. For cafeteria plans that permit the carryover of unused amounts, the maximum carryover amount rises to $660, increasing from $640 in tax year 2024.
- Adoption assistance programs may now reimburse employees up to $17,280 in a pre-tax adoption assistance fund to help the employee cover adoption-related costs, such as court costs, legal and agency fees, and counseling fees. This amount is up from $16,810 in 2024.
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OTC Contraceptives and Male Condoms: HDHPs can now cover OTC oral contraceptives and male condoms without a deductible, regardless of prescription status. This applies to all individuals, expanding the range of preventive care benefits under HDHPs.
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Breast Cancer Screenings: The definition of preventive breast cancer screenings now includes not just mammograms, but also other methods like MRIs and ultrasounds for individuals not diagnosed with breast cancer.
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Diabetes Management: Continuous glucose monitors are now considered preventive care for individuals with diabetes, aligning them with glucometers, provided they function similarly. Additionally, insulin products may be covered without a deductible under the new safe harbor, regardless of whether the prescription is for diabetes treatment or prevention.
Join us in the Tech with Heart Series hub for our quarterly MyChoice Accounts update with important information for Annual Enrollment, recent product updates, and other news you can use.
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If you still need to run non-discrimination testing for 2024, please confirm with your CSL and have them kick off the process by submitting a case and getting their template started.
All requests for NDT testing for 2024 need to be submitted by Sept. 30, so we can ensure staffing for onboarding, annual enrollment, and NDT processes. Testing does not have to be completed by Sept. 30, but requests should be submitted with approximate date of testing.
Join us in the Tech with Heart Series hub for our quarterly MyChoice Accounts update with important information for Annual Enrollment, recent product updates, and other news you can use.
In the coming weeks, we will transfer two Vanguard mutual funds (older UMB funds) to a different, analogous fund. We no longer meet their minimum investment threshold. This change impacts about 624 members who still have their HSA invested funds in the migrated mutual fund.
Here is the information we will be sending to impacted members. We have provided the impact list to CSLs (as of May 8).
No money is "lost" here, they are just having funds transferred to a similar Vanguard Admiral Share fund.
Members are being advised of this change via email. This communication will take place at the end of May.
As a reminder, these are the mutual funds transferred from our UMB brokerage. Members may now liquidate those mutual funds and invest in our new line-up of ETFs, which have a lower expense ratio. Or they have the option to leave their funds invested in the mutual funds and they will continue to grow.
Send date is May 31 and transfer date is June 28.
More details will be posted here and communicated via your CSL when they are determined.
Here is a preview of the member email that was deployed.
In March, we transferred mutual funds from UMB on behalf of our currently investing members. We notified them via mail and email multiple times. They did not have to take any action and their funds remain invested.
As such, they are considered “active investors” and are being charged the monthly investment fees, as we are holding their actively invested funds.
It is in their best interest to continue investing their HSA funds, however, and to be able to invest any new contributions coming into their account. Particularly if they had an auto-investment set up, that auto-investment is no longer running because they haven’t set up funds in the new platform.
Additionally, on March 1, we added pop-up prompts in the system (web and mobile) for all unregistered members once they log in that alert them to register in order to continue their investment journey. (see screen shot below)
This registration information is also available through the platform on the member FAQ.
We are planning to message these members to alert them to register and give them instructions on next steps. This communication is being drafted and we will deploy it in early June. CSLs have the impact list.
Here is a draft of the communication:
As of March 6, all mutual funds have moved from UMB to DriveWealth.
RESOURCES: The best resource for member questions is the HSA Investment site that members access from the investment dashboard. We are updating this daily as we see volume of questions via clients or the call center.
REGISTRATION: We have added a pop-up for all members who navigate to investments with additional instructions to register their account to view their investments. Because we are using a new brokerage, all investors must register. It's about a one-minute, one-time process.
Image: portal view of pop-up targeted to members who transferred mutual funds from UMB to DriveWealth. Available now.
MEMBER SERVICES: HSA members who call in will hear a prompt for "questions related to HSA investments." If they select that, they are sent to a subset of member services team members who have been specifically trained on HSA investments. These member advocates will be able to help members navigate and understand the options presented; but they will not provide financial advice. Members with specific fund questions can be warm-transferred to Sentinel Benefits for guidance.
WHERE ARE MY FUNDS?
At the moment, SOME members may see a $0.00 investment value. We are reworking the connection to this spot in the platform to show the correct investment value. When the member goes to Manage Investment Account area, they will see the correct investment value. They can also view their transaction history to see trades. Additionally, they will not see true investment value until they register in the investment system. They will see “Start Investing” button until they register. (see “registration” above)
Reminder: Trades can take 3-5 days to show in the HSA available funds. If a member makes a trade (sells shares) on a Friday, they may not see those funds returned to their available HSA until the following Thursday, for instance. We are updating the product to alert members to this when they review their sale. This is an industry standard, and not an issue.
Image: pop-up for members who are showing a $0.00 investment balance with instructions.
There are two issues currently impacting some cardholders.
1. There is an issue between merchants and the IIAS approval system with system updates and chip cards. Merchants are required to update their terminals to accept chipped healthcare cards with PIN. Members may still use their cards and bypass entering the PIN, running the card as a credit card at the terminal with no issue. Here is a VISA flier explaining this process to members. This issue only impacts members with the blue, chip-enabled MyChoice Accounts cards who have set up a PIN. PINs are not needed for use of the card.
2. We continue to see cases for issues with card activation for one key reason. When activating a new dependent card, the caller should use the primary cardholder/member's personal information to validate and activate their card. Typically, this will require the primary accountholder's date of birth and SSN. They should not use the dependent's information. The debit card web page has been updated to reflect this information, and member services has gotten additional information to help members trying to activate their card.
New clients are now live with the embedded investment experience powered by DriveWealth. As we continue to prepare to onboard our existing HSA members to the new experience, we are sending an email to all current HSA holders (to all clients with existing HSAs as of 2023) to alert them their investment options are changing and the timing of the changes.
The letter and email we sent in December were ONLY to current investors to give them additional time to plan.
1. Email - week of Jan. 23
Impact - current HSA investors only
This email will go out again, to remind current investors that their options are changing and reminding them about the fund transfer period from Jan. 31 - Feb. 13.
Review this email under Manage Templates: Reminder HSA Investment Changes
or Click here to preview reminder email
2. Email to all HSA holders (non-investors): Feb./March.
We shifted our strategy to reduce confusion. We will now alert all HSA holders to their NEW investment options once the investment platform is live. This will be done on a scheduled, staggered roll-out. We will alert each client to their email timing before we send the email.
This email-only alert is to all HSA holders, regardless of their investment status. We feel it's important that they know their options.
Get the full scoop on everything that we've updated and what we're doing next to improve service and delivery for MyChoice Accounts.
Tuesday, Jan. 30
12 p.m., CT
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Join us in the Tech with Heart Series hub for our quarterly MyChoice Accounts update with important information for Annual Enrollment, recent product updates, and other news you can use.
In order to improve the overall HSA member experience, we have changed vendors for our investment experience. Our new experience will be powered by DriveWealth, as part of the change we will offer a selected list of investment options from our Registered Investment Advisor, Sentinel Benefits.
For those investors looking for more choice, we will eventually be offering (early 2025) a full brokerage and a managed option with decision support.
The current key change for members is that they will no longer need to SSO to the UMB Savers portal, and all investment information and processes will be handled directly within their Benefitsolver/MyChoice Accounts experience.
Members will still be able to set up auto-sweep functions for incoming contributions to automatically invest, set their percentage or dollar amount to invest, and sell investments needed.
UMB will continue to be the custodial bank for uninvested funds. DriveWealth is the platform that facilitates the trades on our behalf.
Please access the member-facing investment site for more details on the member experience.
As of Feb. 14, all HSA members are using the new investment experience. As of March 6, all mutual funds have been transferred from UMB to DriveWealth and members can access them to sell as/if needed. They may also set up auto-sweep with incoming contributions or buy/sell from the new ETF line-up.
California and New Jersey are the only two states that do not recognize the federal tax-advantage for HSAs. HSA members who reside in either California or New Jersey are subject to pay taxes on earnings from their HSA.
Because the investment funds are being transferred and not liquidated (sold), we do not foresee any issues with tax implications at this time.
Investment line-up is subject to change to align with the market and best practices.
We are moving from mutual funds to ETFs for a number of reasons.
An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a type of pooled investment security that operates much like a mutual fund. Typically, ETFs will track a particular index, sector, commodity, or other assets, but unlike mutual funds, ETFs can be purchased or sold on a stock exchange the same way that a regular stock can. An ETF can be structured to track anything from the price of an individual commodity to a large and diverse collection of securities. ETFs can even be structured to track specific investment strategies.
- An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a basket of securities that trades on an exchange just like a stock does.
- ETF share prices fluctuate all day as the ETF is bought and sold; this is different from mutual funds, which only trade once a day after the market closes.
- ETFs can contain all types of investments, including stocks, commodities, or bonds; some offer U.S.-only holdings, while others are international.
- ETFs offer low expense ratios and fewer broker commissions than buying the stocks individually. (Investopedia)
- ETFs use fractional shares to help investors maximize their investing. This is especially important for investors for HSAs, as they are still able to purchase high-performing and well-known stocks but using smaller investment amounts.
We are moving to ETFs because they provide more “bang for the buck,” with lower expense ratios and are considered a more modern approach to this type of investing. Members will get better dividends in the long run.
Yes. Members will now be able to initiate or manage their investments directly within the mobile app. Members who have not yet invested will see a prompt to “Start Investing.” This functionality is available now.
Here is a video demonstration of the new functionality.
Watch the investment experience (1:40)
Prototypes are subject to change based on end-user testing before release.
Members whose cards expire in October 2023 or later will receive a new card during their expiration month.
Any member who requests an additional, replacement, or dependent card will now receive the new card.
Members who received a card before Oct. 15, 2023, have a purple card:
Cards issued after October 15, 2023:
Yes. Members receiving a new card because theirs has expired will need to activate their cards by following the instructions on the card when it arrives.
The card arrives like this, attached to the mailer.
Members will receive a new card mailer with a QR code directing them to get more details about card usage at our MyChoiceAccounts.com member website.
- The new card will have the chip-enabled contactless pay feature, allowing members to use the tap-to-pay features at retailers when available.
- Every card issued after Oct. 15 will have an individual card number, allowing an individual card to be locked in case of loss/theft. This will allow members to continue using other cards attached to their account. The current model has the same card number for all cards in the account.
- Moving our card program to the processor also provides a near real-time data exchange, providing a better balance update throughout each day. All cards (older and newer) will benefit from the faster debit processing time.
Yes, members may request an updated card after Oct. 15 to receive the chip-enabled turquoise card. The purple card would continue to work as well as their new card.
To do this on the member portal, they would navigate to Manage > Cards and select the Add Card button. Or on the MyChoice Mobile App, they would select Accounts > Manage > Cards and select the icon of the card to "reissue card."
The touchless pay card is great for commuter benefits members. It's easy for them to request a replacement card AFTER Oct. 9.
Here are the member instructions.
- Log in to your benefits portal or open the MyChoice Mobile App and navigate to your MyChoice Accounts (On the web: Look for the piggy bank icon. On the app: Select the Accounts tab located at the bottom of the screen.]
- Click on the Manage tab and select Cards, then choose the card you need to manage by selecting the three-dot menu to the right of your card. Or on the app, select the image of the card.
- Select reissue card next to the name of the member who has commuter benefits (remember, these benefits are individual and do not extend to dependents).
- The new card will be mailed in 7-10 business days.
All members (regardless of their card type) will need to call 1-877-315-3483 to activate their card.
There will be a new number for reporting fraud or lost/stolen cards: 1-800-556-5678. This is different from the card activation number.
Members can log in to the portal and navigate to MyChoice Accounts via their home page, by selecting the piggy bank icon or MyChoice Accounts from their profile drop-down.
They should select Manage > Cards. If they need to replace a card for an existing cardholder, they should select the three-dot menu beside the name of the cardholder and select "Reissue Card." If they need a net new card for an eligible dependent, they should select + Issue Card and select the dependent from the drop-down menu and submit the request.
(note: if the member does not have eligible dependents without a card, they will not be able to use the Issue Card function. They should use the three-dot menu beside each name to replace their card.)
The card mailer directs members to mychoiceaccounts.com and a page specifically for cardholders.
This page is also accessible by just navigating to mychoiceaccounts.com.