Manage Your Health Care Expenses With The Visa Healthcare Card

15 October, 2010

Health care is a national concern. Lack of proper health care, expensive procedures or lack of coverage all together continues to be an issue across the country. Many programs such as the health care card are designed to help consumers tackle the growing costs of health care.

How Visa Can Help with Health Care Costs

Visa has long been known as a preferred choice for many credit card holders, offering a variety of benefits, perks and payment options for individuals, small businesses and employers, Visa now offers a health care card, specifically designed to manage expenses relating to health care needs. Visa provides three different health care cards that cater to specific health care needs either through an employer or by working directly with individuals who qualify.

Visa sponsors the following health care cards:

• Health Savings Account (HSA)
• Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
• Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA)

Visa Health Care Card for Individuals

The Health Care Savings Account or (HSA) is a pre-tax program that works with consumers that have High-Deductible Health Plans to pay for health care costs. A high deductible health insurance plan is a coverage plan that has very low premiums and high deductibles. Many of these plans are tied into a health savings account that allows consumers to accumulate pre-tax money.

A Visa Healthcare card offers easy access to your health savings account funds and is available directly to consumers with a Health Savings Account (HSA). These cards are offered directly to individuals who qualify and also through an employer sponsored plan.

Visa Healthcare Cards Available through Employers

Unlike the Visa Healthcare Card which is available directly to consumers as well as through an employer sponsored program, there are other cards that are designed to work specifically through an employer. Employers may offer additional benefits such as Flexible Spending Account (FSA) or Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA) that assist employees in paying for health care costs. This type of plan is offered exclusively through employers as a benefit to employees. The Health Reimbursement Arrangement program is employer owned. The HRA and the FSA are both individually owned. There are slight differences between the employer sponsored programs and the programs designed for individuals, both offering comparable benefits.

The Benefits of Having a Health Savings Account (HSA) and a Visa Healthcare Card

• A HSA allows you to qualify for a Visa Healthcare Card which makes it easy to access account funds to pay for qualified health care expenses.
• The health savings account (HSA) is owned by the individual consumer.
• Money accumulates year after year.
• A health savings account transfers between employers.
• Funds are contributed to the account pre-tax.
• The accounts earn tax—free interest.
• Healthcare costs are tax-free if qualified.

The requirements for a Visa (HSA) Card include the following:

• The Individual cannot be covered by other health insurance.
• Must be currently enrolled in a qualified high-deductible health plan.

How the Card Works

Meeting the eligibility requirements for a HSA allows you to receive a Visa Healthcare Card. The card allows you to access your account to pay for things such as; co-payments, medication, dental expenses and other qualified health related expenses. Any amounts deposited into the HSA either through employer deduction or individual deposits will be pre-tax.

The card works just like any other credit card and can also be used for qualified internet purchases such as prescriptions. You present your Visa HSA card to the medical service provider at the time of payment and the funds are directly withdrawn from the HSA account. If a provider does not accept credit cards you can retain a receipt and request for reimbursement from the administrator of the HSA plan. Typically the card will be declined if there is an attempt to purchase unauthorized items, insufficient funds in the account or the card has not been properly activated.

The Visa Healthcare card is one way that Visa has helped consumers to manage the expenses of health care. Not only does the card make the process easier but it assists with managing health care costs through the pre-tax benefit that carries over year after year. This benefit helps consumers to save money for unexpected and uncovered health care issues. Individuals and employees alike can benefit from the benefits of using Visa programs to manage expensive health care costs.

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