With all of the changes going on in the healthcare insurance industry today, many people are asking questions, like how does a health savings account (HSA) work? An HSA is one of the many different Texas insurance options that are being offered by insurance companies in Texas today.
Different than a traditional major medical insurance policy, HSA's are being purchased either a standalone policies or as complimentary policies, in cooperation with other individual or family health insurance.
So how does a health savings account work? Traditional major medical insurance provides each policy holder with a pre-negotiated list of prices for nearly any medical service that they need.
Any doctor or provider that accepts the insurance offered by that particular insurance plan agrees to accept that amount for their services.
The policyholder will visit the doctor, and will oftentimes pay a co-pay.
The doctor will bill the insurance company for the pre-negotiated amount, and the insurance company will pay the doctor.
With a HSA, there is no pre-negotiated price structure and no group of participating providers.
A health savings account is an opportunity to for a person to put money aside, pre-tax, into a special savings account that is to be used only for healthcare related expenses.
How do they work? Any time that you visit a doctor, buy a prescription, or incur some other healthcare expense, you are able to deduct money from your health savings account.
In some HSA's this can even include over the counter medications, dental expenses and vision expenses as well.
For many people, this is a less expensive monthly alternative to traditional major medical insurance.
For others, this is a great way to put aside the money needed for the co-pays and deductibles that they would otherwise have to pay out of pocket.