This question did not come as a shock in our Q&A. While our name is “myHSA,” we've grown into so much more than a health spending account platform. Our solutions can be utilized to create a completely custom benefits program for any company size.

Carve out strategy — An unfortunate reality of a traditional benefits plan is the lack of flexibility for employees—take vision care as an example. There may be $250 for the employee in their benefit plan for vision, but if they do not require glasses or contacts, it's not a benefit to this employee. This is a common benefit to carve out of the insurance plan and offer an HSA to supplement the cost. It’s a win-win in terms of value for employees. Dental is another common service we are seeing being questioned, especially during COVID, when all the dental offices were closed.

Insurers were quick to respond and stopped charging the premiums for dental services. The problem this year—with no claims occurring for such a big chunk of time—come renewals, insurers will forecast claims and expenses for the ongoing year using this information. They have to use "ghost claims" to help them forecast, and if an insurer is coming back to a company with a higher renewal rate based on a forecast with claims that did not happen, that’s a tough conversation to have. myASO gives the flexibility to build ASO style plans, with defined maximums and co-pay terms for both basic and major coverage. myASO can mimic everything that a traditional insurance plan can offer, plus a few more interesting aspects. We can even do a per-family lifetime maximum amount, where the family can pool the funds if they have special needs—like if a child needs orthodontic work. Advisors can come to us with their ideal plan design, and we can create that within our system.

High renewals — We’ve heard renewal conversations might be tough. Even though some renewal rates may be fair, some companies may not be in a financial position to cover those costs regardless. Capping benefit costs with an HSA or myASO plan may be the answer. Given the ease of setup, they can be employed quickly before a renewal—ensuring companies aren’t left without coverage.

myHSA as a Constant — An active advisor on our platform shared with us their biggest pain point when it comes to shopping for insurance—the HSA. Instead of using the carrier's HSA, he keeps it separate, using the myHSA platform for the health spending account. This has been key to successful transitions and keeping up employee engagement. The employee stays familiar and engaged with the platform, and is comfortable submitting their claims. No matter which insurance provider the company chooses or switches to, the HSA stays constant, alleviating tedious, and time-consuming admin work.

With multiple generations in the workforce, the need for flexibility in employee benefits has never been greater. With a myFlexplan, offering both HSA and WSA items allows employees to top up their benefits to suit their needs. At the beginning of the benefit year, the employee has 30 days to allocate their funds (as per the CRA), and then those funds are locked in for that allocation for the rest of the year. Flexibility also prevents employees from feeling like they should opt-out of the health and dental plan since they see little to no value in it.

Want to increase the level of flexibility even more? Add a group RRSP option to the myFlexplan. Employees are now more concerned about their retirement funds than they are job security. The employee can allocate a certain amount of money to their group RRSP, and the plan administrator can run a simple plan allocation report—showing the contributions for that month, or whatever time period they choose. The best part is myHSA does not charge a fee for the group RRSP option.

Trends in WSA & COVID-19

Ah, the elephant in the room. COVID-19 has changed how we work, where we work, and how health and wellness evolve with the changes in society. With the freedom of a WSA, you can customize the list of eligible expenses to exactly what you want. When COVID first hit, we all thought we might be working from home for just a couple of weeks, maybe a month. Now, 7 months later, we are seeing companies allow their employees to claim “at-home” items like office and home gym equipment under their taxable WSA.

Our Products myHSA: non-taxable spending account, employees can claim any of the CRA eligible items. myWSA: taxable spending account, employees can claim any items deemed eligible by the employer. myFlexplan: best of both HSA and WSA, included with group RRSP options is very powerful myASO: design and completely customize your own benefits plan – the closest option to a traditional insurance plan myProducthub: allows employers to offer our add-on products without a spending account

Add-On Products — Through myMarketplace, employees can pick and choose which products they want to sign up for, like pet insurance, telehealth, critical illness, essentially creating their own benefits plan that they can alter and change each year as their needs change.

See our webinar recap PDF for our five key takeaways and complete Q&A.