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• The President's Budget for Fiscal Year 2009 includes several provisions that would expand HSAs.  Read the applicable HSA provisions.
• The State Childrens Health Insurance bill includes provisions which would limit the use of HSAs in premium assistance plans and would prohibit further use of Health Opportunity Accounts, a type of Medicaid HSA.  Read a fact sheet.  Read a letter requesting these provisions be modified.
• Promoting Health For Future Generations Act of 2007: H.R. 2639 was introduced in June, 2007.  It includes a number of technical and broad expansion provisions which would make HSAs accessible to more citizens.  Read the summary.
• The Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006 was passed by the Senate on the last day of the lame duck session.   It made some technical fixes to HSAs based on bank, employer, and participant experience.  Two of the provisions were highly requested by ABA's HSA Council.  One provision was included that repeals the annual deductible limitation on HSAs.  Another provision removes the 1/12th rule for contributions.  Here is a summary and a technical explanation of all the provisions.  Here is a commented chart of the provisions prepared by Davis & Harman LLP.
• Health Opportunity Patient Empowerment Act of 2006: This bill was introduced in September of 2006 to bring together provisions from Representatives Cantor's and Ryan's bills as well as the concepts that Chairman Thomas of Ways & Means wanted to address.  Here is a summary of the bill.  The HSA Council Letter expresses support for all provisions, especially the provision that allows full funding of the HSA no matter when the participant began in the plan. See the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Cost Estimate for budget impact information.
•  Medicare Modernization Act, Public Law 108-173: This is the law that allowed the formation of qualified high-deductible insurance policies and Health Savings Accounts.  Here is a pdf of the section pertaining to HSA's in Title XII. >Bills from the 109th Congress (2005-2006) CMS presented a Fact Sheet on Medicare MSAs at the March NAIC meeting including information about providers and the differences between the old MSA and the new Demonstration MSA which behaves more like an HSA.
• FSA/HRA Rollover Guidance, Notice 2007-22.  Treasury released guidance on FSA/HRA rollovers February 15, 2007.  This guidance was the first to interpret the new provisions of the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006.  Here is an explanation of the guidance prepared by Davis & Harman LLP.
• ERISA Treatment of HSAs:  Field Assistance Bulletin 2006-02 has FAQs that were a response to Field Assistance Bulletin 2004-1, which describes the circumstances under which HSAs are considered outside of Title I of ERISA. For further information on ERISA treatment of HSAs, please contact Lisa Bleier, Senior Counsel, ABA Center for Regulatory and Trust Affairs.  The bulletin arrives at the conclusion that, because accounts belong to and are controlled by employees, they do not fall under ERISA.  This can also be found at the DOL website.
• SEC Proposed Regulation B:  This was proposed by the SEC to implement Title II of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 PL 106-102. Regulation B as written may affect the ability of HSA account owners to invest their funds at the institution of their choice. Read our talking points to understand how Reg B could affect HSA product offerings.
• FDIC Deposit Insurance(4-28-04): Questions have arisen about how FDIC insurance will work with HSA's.  Here is the response from the FDIC.  In short, HSA's are trusts, and are covered under trust regulation.   

State Issues:

Federal law created the federal tax deduction for HSA's but each state is free to determine how they want to handle taxation.  Here are a number of resources for information on state treatment of HSAs. 

• Council for Affordable Health Insurance (CAHI) HSA State Implementation Report is a compilation of the current status of HSA implementation at the state level.  (March 2007)
• CAHI has a comprehensive review of state insurance mandates:  Health Insurance Mandates in the States (January 2008)
• Bills and Laws from the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL): This is a site with updates on legislative activities related to HSAs.

 The HSA Council is a partnership of the American Bankers Association and its insurance affiliate, the American Bankers Insurance Association

Questions? Please contact Deanne Marino for more information.