Whois & Analysis for chard-snyder.com

A third-party administrator (TPA) is an organization that processes insurance claims or certain aspects of employee benefit plans for a separate entity.

This can be viewed as "outsourcing" the administration of the claims processing, since the TPA is performing a task traditionally handled by the company providing the insurance or the company itself.

Often, in the case of insurance claims, a TPA handles the claims processing for an employer that self-insures its employees.

Thus, the employer is acting as an insurance company and underwrites the risk.

The risk of loss remains with the employer, and not with the TPA.

An insurance company may also use a TPA to manage its claims processing, provider networks, utilization review, or membership functions.

While some third-party administrators may operate as units of insurance companies, they are often independent.

A flexible spending account (FSA), also known as a flexible spending arrangement, is one of a number of tax-advantaged financial accounts that can be set up through a cafeteria plan of an employer in the United States.

An FSA allows an employee to set aside a portion of earnings to pay for qualified expenses as established in the cafeteria plan, most commonly for medical expenses but often for dependent care or other expenses.

Money deducted from an employee's pay into an FSA is not subject to payroll taxes, resulting in substantial payroll tax savings.

Before the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, one significant disadvantage to using an FSA was that funds not used by the end of the plan year were forfeited to the employer, known as the "use it or lose it" rule.

Under the terms of the Affordable Care Act, a plan may permit an employee to carry over up to $500 into the following year without losing the funds.

A health savings account (HSA) is a tax-advantaged medical savings account available to taxpayers in the United States who are enrolled in a high-deductible health plan (HDHP).

The funds contributed to an account are not subject to federal income tax at the time of deposit.

Unlike a flexible spending account (FSA), HSA funds roll over and accumulate year to year if they are not spent.

HSAs are owned by the individual, which differentiates them from company-owned Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRA) that are an alternate tax-deductible source of funds paired with either HDHPs or standard health plans.

Employee benefits and (especially in British English) benefits in kind (also called fringe benefits, perquisites, or perks) include various types of non-wage compensation provided to employees in addition to their normal wages or salaries.

In instances where an employee exchanges (cash) wages for some other form of benefit is generally referred to as a 'salary packaging' or 'salary exchange' arrangement.

In most countries, most kinds of employee benefits are taxable to at least some degree.

Health Reimbursement Account is a notional derivative of a Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA), a type of US employer-funded health benefit plan that reimburses employees for out-of-pocket medical expenses.

Following implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the health plans must be integrated with a qualified employer-sponsored group health insurance plan to avoid excise tax penalties.

Using a Health Reimbursement Arrangement yields "tax advantages to offset health care costs" for both employees and employers.