HSA Question

[tonycar17]

Hoping someone knows the answer to this question.

We have historically as a family elected HSA-qualified plans and maxed them out each year.  Next year, my wife is planning to have a procedure done and this has us thinking about our approach in 2017.  My question specifically is can I use my historic HSA funds that I have accumulated since we started if we make a decision to have DW go on a plan that does not qualify for an HSA next year?  Basically we want to put her on more of a "Cadillac" plan because we know she will incur significant medical costs in 2017 (minimize our costs). 

I am just wondering if there are rules around using HSA funds if the individual you are paying for services is not covered under an HSA-eligible plan at the time of the procedure(s) you are paying for.  I would think the answer has to be yes you can use the HSA, but looking for confirmation. 

TC

[JLee]

https://www.hsaresources.com/faq/

Yes, you can use your HSA funds. I assume you've done the math on max out of pocket / total cost differences between the different plans?  With my employer, both best-case and worst-case scenarios resulted in the HDHP/HSA plan having less out of pocket costs for me.

[tonycar17]

I am actually in the process of looking at the total costs in the different scenarios - wanted to make sure that we were able to go down this path if we determined it was the most cost-effective all in (premium cost, deductible, co-insurance, and max OOP). 

Part of what this does by splitting it is avoid the hefty Spousal Surcharge on both company's benefit plan ($1800 for mine, and $2600 for DW) - which we consider "dead" costs as there is absolutely benefit to us in relation tot hose costs.

Good to know we will have the option to use the HSA. 

TC

[msilenus]

Double-check me on this, but my experience is that HSA-ideas are unrelated to HDHP-ideas.  So I would imagine that regardless of who is on your HDHP, your HSA capacity will be determined by your family size.  Bottom line on simple eligibility is whether the HSA-person has any other forms of coverage --rest of the family doesn't matter.

You should also check with your HDHP on how expenses apply to your deductible when you're doing COB with your spouse's insurance as primary.  For my plan (and this is super weird!) even expenses that are fully covered by my wife's (primary) insurance will favorably apply to our family plan's (secondary for wife) deductible.  So if she has a major surgery on 1/1/2017, and her insurance covers it 100%, then our family's deductible for the year will be met right away.  (But if we had already met the deductible on the family plan, then the surgery would not have caused a payout from the secondary/family coverage --so timing matters a lot.)

It is absolutely crazy that it works this way, so I wouldn't expect it to work in all states or all plans.