HRA Administrators: What to look for (and what to avoid)

HRA administrators help employers offer employees tax-advantaged health reimbursement arrangements. While they’ve been around for a while, HRAs have recently gained traction among businesses of all sizes due to regulatory rule changes that make them more accessible and easy to use. The key to successfully administering an HRA lies in implementation, including remaining compliant with all the rules and regulations that govern it. Here’s what to keep in mind when considering HRA administrators or HRA administration software. 

HRA Administrators 101

An alternative to traditional group plans, these 401(K) style benefits put the power in the employees’ hands and offer more personalization. They are also an effective recruitment and retention strategy. However, it’s best to outsource the administration functions of the HRA.

The right HRA administrator makes reimbursing employees for health insurance simple, quick, and effective.

Let’s check out some of the specifics of what HRA administrators do (and why you need one).

What is an HRA account?

HRA stands for health reimbursement arrangement. These are tax-advantaged tools that are built on a series of regulations that help to ensure they are being offered fairly and are achieving their intended aim, which is to help employees pay for benefits tax-free.

A health reimbursement arrangement works pretty much exactly how it sounds: the employer reimburses for premiums and medical expenses on a tax-free basis, and the employee chooses a plan that fits their needs. Employees are reimbursed when they submit a claim.

Super simple, right? 

QSEHRA Administration & ICHRA Administration

QSEHRA administration and ICHRA administration pertain to two specific types of HRAs. Let’s break that down.

HRA types

QSEHRA: The qualified small employer HRA is designed specifically for small businesses (i.e., companies less than 50 employees) who do not offer a group plan. The QSEHRA has annual contribution limits which change from year to year.

ICHRA: The individual coverage HRA is similar to its predecessor but has fewer limitations- it is available to companies of any size, has no contribution limits, and has greater design flexibility with its eleven classes, which allow for differing reimbursements to employees.

For almost everything you could possibly want to know about these HRAs, check out our in-depth guides for the QSEHRA and the ICHRA.

What is an HRA administrator?

HRA administrators are the software or platform that bridges between business owners offering an HRA and the employees using the HRA. They receive the administrative burden of offering an HRA, ensure that employees get reimbursed, and keep businesses compliant. 

What HRA administrators do

A good HRA administration tool will do all the heavy lifting for you and help you navigate the process from start to finish. Ours will help you with:

Legal documents
Onboarding employees
Tax documents and year-end reporting
HIPAA and privacy compliance
A customized admin portal to review and approve HRA documents, view monthly reimbursement reports, add/remove employees, manage subscriptions, update payment information, and see overview information about HRAs.

We’ll also help employees get the most out of their HRA by:

Providing helpful educational material to communicate to your employees the benefits of their new HRA and how to get the most out of it
Supporting employees while they shop for an individual health insurance plan to use with their HRA
Answering questions along the way
Providing an easy platform to request reimbursements (like simply snapping a picture and uploading on phone)

Why do you need an HRA administrator?

We are often asked whether an employer can administer their own HRA. Our best advice? Don’t even think about it. For one, when dealing with health insurance and employees’ health, privacy is a big deal. Things could get pretty uncomfortable for everyone involved. Then there’s the whole issue with the HIPAA Privacy Rule, which is another layer of protection for employees’ private health information.

It’s also time consuming for business owners to keep up with the medical receipts, maintain all the health information in a secure way, and handle the paperwork that comes with it.

Need more convincing?

This post walks you through more of the specific penalties and fees an HRA administrator can help you avoid. 

Take Command HRA Administration 

As you research the best benefits software for companies like yours, remember that we are the only HRA administrator that also provides support for individuals shopping for health insurance. We can help your employees shop for off- and on-market plans, compare plans side by side, and see what works best for them, their preferred doctors, and their prescriptions.

Check out our reimbursement platform to see how easy it is to start designing the best HRA for your business or give our new HRA Guide a read. Our team of HRA experts is standing by to help you get started!