Avoid IRS missteps by simplifying HSA payment collection

The most obvious benefits of Enterprise Health portals are the impact they can have on onsite employee health clinic administrative efficiency and productivity, and fostering employee engagement. But did you know those same portals can be used to help avoid tax trouble?

When one of our clients was looking for a new electronic employee health record, one of their requirements was the ability to manage and collect health savings account (HSA) payments through the employee portal. While not the focal point of their evaluation process, the ability to deliver on this requirement was considered a “must have.”

This employer provides a variety of occupational and employee health services at its onsite employee health clinics, including urgent care, health and wellness, and chronic disease management services. While most of these services are provided free of charge, the IRS requires employees who have health savings accounts as part of their benefit plans to pay fair market value for certain service types to preserve their HSA eligibility.  

In short, no employer or employee wants to run afoul of the IRS, but keeping track of who owes what when and collecting payment is not something easily done on a manual basis. We worked with the client to determine which services are considered billable if the employee has an HSA and configured the Enterprise Health solution to automate the complex process that includes:

• tracking which employees have HSAs using demographics from the HR system;
• automatically checking HSA status when an employee visits the clinic and one of the billable services is provided and documented in Enterprise Health;
• generating an invoice for the applicable services and placing it in the employee portal;
• notifying the employee via email they have a message and providing a link to the portal;
• presenting the employee with the invoice and enabling them to pay with their HSA via the portal;
• integrating with the credit card processing service of the client’s choosing to manage financial transactions securely;
• generating reminders for past due balances and reports that enable clinic staff to determine payment status; and
• enabling administrative users to access a patient dashboard which details balances and invoices and to reconcile accounts and write off or void invoices as needed.

This entire solution was designed to help our client provide clinic services in a manner compatible with the tax laws governing HSAs. It’s just one example of how Enterprise Health delivers exceptional functionality to meet unique client needs.