Insurance

How Can the VEBA Plan Help You?

The VEBA plan is a health reimbursement arrangement providing for individual, employer-funded accounts that may be used to reimburse participants for qualifying medical care expenses, and has become an increasingly popular option for many groups. This Service Cooperative product is generally part of a high deductible health plan, along with an irrevocable employer sponsored trust.

What’s attractive about the VEBA plan?

• Use VEBA as a savings tool. Account balances are rolled over from year to year—unlike the flexible savings account which is a “use it or lose it” situation—VEBA permits members to save for health expenses during retirement.
  
• It is considered a consumer-driven product—designed to engage members in health care decisions. As members become more involved in the process, they take control of how their medical dollars are spent. By raising the awareness of the cost of services versus benefit value, and allowing members to use discretionary dollars for the services that are most important to them, their decisions will help to reduce unnecessary utilization of services and provide a viable option for bargaining units.
  
• Elect a cross-over feature – create an electronic connection between your health plan and your financial accounts. SelectAccount administers this connection which allows electronic submission of your claims to your accounts for reimbursement to you.

For employers who are continually pressured to provide good health coverage at a competitive cost, the VEBA plan continues to be an attractive option. VEBA has been well received by members of the Service Cooperatives, and could be a good option for you. For further information regarding VEBA plans please contact Les Martisko: lmartisko@integraonline.com, Wanda Sommers Nielsen: wkn@frontiernet.net, or Lisa Litke: llitke@mnscsc.org, or visit the SCSC website. www.mnscsc.org, and click on Insurance.