December 5, 2024 | Vol. XXI, Issue 15
- HealthFlex Webinar for Plan Sponsors December 11
- HSA Reports for W-2 Reporting
- Virgin Pulse/Personify Health Updates in December and January
- Notes on Occasional Network Disruptions
HealthFlex Webinar for Plan Sponsors December 11
On Wednesday, December 11 from 11am-12pm Central, Wespath is offering a webinar covering how HSA contributions are to be reported on participants' IRS Form W-2. This job aid is also a useful tool to use or share with local churches.
Registration is now open. Click here to register.
HSA Reports for W-2 Reporting
HSA Contribution Report for IRS Form W-2 reporting will be delivered the week of December 16. Once the December HSA contributions are posted in HealthEquity, we can begin our process to audit and confirm the amounts prior to creating the reports. As a reminder, this report will contain the amount of HSA contributions for an individual that HealthEquity is reporting to the IRS. Wespath is committed to turning this report around as quickly as possible given the information on which they depend.
Virgin Pulse/Personify Health Updates in December and January
On December 9, Wespath will be updating Benefits Access single sign-on to Virgin Pulse/Personify Health. Virgin Pulse members who login via Benefits Access will be asked to complete a one-time login with their username and password.
On December 16 the Virgin Pulse app icon will change to Personify Health. Members may be prompted to update the app at this time. There will be an additional release of the app on January 1, 2025 that will require another update, and members will be asked to sign back in with their current username and password.
Notes on Occasional Network Disruptions
We have recently received questions from a couple of plan sponsors when a key local medical center publicizes challenges about its negotiation and contracting with Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS). We discussed this briefly during the financial presentation at the Virtual HealthFlex summit.
There is a lot of pressure in the market right now with providers trying to increase their reimbursement rates to counter increases to their own costs. We contract with BCBS-or any Third-Party Administrator-to try to help limit increases to overall medical claims costs. Wespath does not have any direct control over the network contracting, so when we hear of these situations, all we can do is monitor it alongside you and update you when we hear news-good or bad-about the negotiations. These negotiations often go to the 11th hour; they typically end up working out an agreement. However, it is certainly possible that they will not agree or there will be a break in the agreement, during which the provider would be out of network. There is a difficult balance between maintaining a broad nationwide network and controlling rapidly escalating health care costs. We know that providers are very personal to our members and these negotiations can cause anxiety and questions.
Please note that if someone is in active treatment, there are often options for a short-term agreement to complete the treatment with the same provider at in-network levels. Concerned individuals can reach out to their Care Coordinator for assistance in those situations.
Wespath is committed to striking the best balance between our fiduciary responsibility to the plan and our members and providing a broad network with access to the providers that our members want to see.
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