Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA)

A Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA) is an employer funded arrangement that reimburses employees for qualified medical expenses. Typically, an employer will choose to combine an HRA with a high deductible health plan.

Advantages of an HRA

• Employees have choices and control over their healthcare spending
• Employees are encouraged to gain a better understanding of the true costs of healthcare and become better consumers
• You, as an employer, can more effectively control benefit costs by offering an inexpensive high deductible health insurance option in combination with an HRA

You may choose from several options to reimburse your employees for their eligible expenses. As outlined below, these options include a debit card, automatic reimbursements, or the traditional manual submission of a reimbursement form

• Self-reimbursement or manual submittals are also available. Employees will be required to provide a copy of an Explanation of Benefits or copies of their receipts for prescriptions or non-covered health-related expenses with their submittal.
• An employee may also access funds by auto-reimbursement of their Blue Cross and Blue Shield company-submitted claim. This process is determined by you the employer and your specific plan.
• The Blue Healthcare Bank debit card enables employees to access the HRA funds at any point of service (providers or merchants) that accepts debit cards for payment qualified expenses. This option is determined by you the employer and your specific plan.