Employers looking to reduce the costs of offering group health care to their workers are quite happy with HRAs, as they offer a lot of advantages, not the least of which is they aren’t like a plan and don’t have the same level of intense management other health care plans do. Another feature employers seem to like is the ability to place caps on the amount of money they are willing to pay out for employee’s health care expenses. The system is fairly easy to administer, just post notices in the workplace letting people know what is available, have them sign up and they’re in business. The only thing employees need to know is what categories the employer will pay in and the amounts. HRAs are portable which makes employees happy, but they might not like the caps employers put on them. However the simplicity of just submitting receipts after paying for medical services using pre-taxed dollars is pretty enticing overall.
