Summer is upon us, and there is no better time for a pooled party! Ok, maybe a bad dad joke, but we have been working on a big opportunity for myHSA to continue to grow. We will be launching our ability to quote, implement, and TPA employee pooled lines in a few select provinces shortly.
As we continue to grow and mature as a company, we will be offering a suite of group insurance products to complement the various forms of spending accounts that we are known for. This important step sets us up to become a strong player in the digital TPA space within Canada.
First off, we did not take this undertaking lightly. Anytime you enter the insured space—and as many of the “disruptors” have failed to see—there are complexity and risks, so you need to know what you are doing, for everyone’s sake. Also, we work with many TPA’s and hope to continue to do so, therefore, we didn’t necessarily want to become a competitor to these partners. We are very much believers in being good at one or a few things and executing world-class service in these.
Advisors have asked us to offer insured products alongside the spending account for a long time. This makes sense, especially to us, as many small to mid-size employers do not want or need a full-blown insured plan for their employees. We have always made the case to insure risks when they make sense. The concept of Life or Disability is not a great fit for self-insurance and does need to be insured. Many routine health, dental, and vision—one may argue—do not need to be insured. Essentially, for a lot of these expenses, the insurance company is just acting as a bank and recouping losses at renewal through increased premiums.
We will have the ability to quote, onboard, and maintain employee data and bill for pooled products through three carriers to start. This will allow us to be one-stop for the whole plan as far as administration. To stay true to our roots in self-funding, we will not be providing EHC and Dental insurance, as this market has many players who do this well in the TPA space – many of whom we partner with for the spending accounts. Also, a few of our advisor friends are launching some tech platforms in this area, and we will work with them and cheer them on.
Why us? We think we have simplified the advisor, employer, and employee experience for our clients. The idea is to further expand this into the quoting and administration of insured products. Employees with a myHSA spending account use our app consistently – it's the place for them to get reimbursed for regular claims. So, adding the rest of their benefits is an easy transition and makes sense for everyone – especially the employee. Plan admins have come to enjoy our ability to bill seamlessly with no requirement to float and fund our bank accounts ahead of time. We can do these arrangements, but many have found our no-prefund approach nice. We can continue much of our reporting and billing to the insured. From an advisor's standpoint, we can produce quotes, rate guarantees, and fully onboard your clients on a white label platform – just as they would with a spending account. Our platform will enrol and maintain the employee information and feed it into the insurers' system.
We have bigger hopes to continue to make this offering even better with drug stop loss and further build our ASO capabilities.
Steve McEwan
myHSA COO & Co-Founder