Aya

Why are fees for traditional insurance so high?

Chanddeep Madaan — Tue, 19 Apr 2022 19:22:52 +0000

As an employee, you may have heard the terms Target Loss Ratios (TLRs), Large Amount Pooling (LAP) charges, and various other fees that make up your overall employee benefits premiums. Have you ever stopped to wonder how much of each dollar you are putting into a traditional group employee benefits plan is actually going towards paying for claims? It’s possible that you’re paying more than you should be for predictable benefit lines such as dental, vision care, and paramedical services including massages, chiropractic, and physiotherapy.

Large amount pooling, also known as stop-loss coverage, was initially introduced to protect against the financial consequences of catastrophic claims, such as high-cost prescription drugs, emergency travel coverage, and hospital expenses. However, this protection comes at a cost, with providers charging a premium, whether or not the protection has been used. The LAP charge is applied to the entire extended health care premium, and a similar TLR is applied to the dental premium, leaving less of your dollars going towards paying dental claims.

By utilizing health spending accounts, you can save anywhere between 25-30% in fees on predictable claims that are not protected under LAP, such as paramedical coverage. A health spending account is a defined contribution where paramedical coverage can be carved out from your traditional plan and covered through a separate account. This often charges 5-10% of claims and leads to cost certainty for employers. Through Aya Mastercard’s best-in-class platform, you can access affordable health and wellness spending accounts by making the best use of your benefit dollars. Reach out for a demo to see how we can help you optimize your employee benefits plan.

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Health Spending Accounts Eligible Expenses

Chanddeep Madaan — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 01:33:20 +0000

Health spending accounts (HSAs) contain many more eligible expense items than traditional benefit plans. HSAs are a 100% tax-free benefit for both corporations and employees, it is like having a bank that employees can use for all of their medical, dental, vision and so much more.

The Canada Revenue Agency lists all the different types of services and products that can be expensed as part of an HSA. If you have a health spending account it is always good to check the Canada Revenue Agency website to determine if your expense is eligible.

All of the typical products and services covered under traditional group benefit plans are also covered with a health spending account. HSAs can also be used to cover expenses when you have maxed out traditional benefit plan expenses. For example if your plan covers $500 in chiropractic services, and additional expenses over and above the $500 can be covered by your HSA. Some of these common items include

Dentist

Optometrist

Chiropractor

Massage therapist

Naturopath

Prescriptions

There are many other less common items and services that are eligible expenses for health spending accounts. Below are some of the more obscure items that can be expensed.

Private Health Insurance Premiums

Premiums paid to a non-government medical or hospital care plan can be expensed. Examples would include Blue Cross, Manulife Flexcare and Sun Life Affinity.

Air Conditioner

You can expense $1,000 or 50% of the amount paid for an air conditioner, whichever is less. In order for the expense to be eligible the person must have a severe chronic ailment, disease, or disorder and a prescription is required for it to be considered eligible.

Wigs

A prescription is required and the amount paid for the wig can be expensed as long as the person has suffered abnormal hair loss because of a disease, accident or medical treatment.

Health spending accounts are a more robust and flexible option for all of your healthcare related expenses.

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Benefits of the Aya Card

Chanddeep Madaan — Sun, 30 Jan 2022 20:28:03 +0000

Giving employees an Aya Card to use for all of their health spending account and wellness spending account expenses provides them with many benefits. We will outline some of the substantial benefits below. The biggest benefit that you are provide your employees by giving them an Aya Card is that you allowing them to take care of their health and wellness without worrying about finances.

Never pay out-of-pocket

Many employees avoid trips to the dentist or to the optometrist even when they have group benefit plans and the simple reason is they do not want to or are unable to pay for the expense out-of-pocket. With the Aya Card an employee never has to worry about using their own money to pay for any of their health or wellness related expenses.

Easy to use

The Aya Card can be used at any health or wellness merchant. You swipe the card to pay for your expenses, take a photo of the receipt and upload it to the Aya app or within the Aya website and you are finished. No paperwork to fill out, no forms to submit and no waiting to be reimbursed. In addition to that the Aya Card can be used anywhere in the world to cover your health and wellness related expenses.

When looking to add a health or wellness spending account consider going with Aya Card, your employees will thank you and you will thank yourself. You will have a happy and healthy workforce.

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Wellness Spending Accounts – Endless Possibilities

Chanddeep Madaan — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 18:51:23 +0000

Bridging the gap between plan sponsors and plan members

Wellness Spending Accounts (WSA) are the ideal solution to bridge the gap between what plan sponsors are interested in covering and what plan would use if they were added to their group health benefits plan.

2021 Benefits Canada Healthcare Survey

According to the 2021 Benefits Canada Healthcare Survey plan sponsors and plan members differ significantly on what they would like to cover compared to what members would use if provided. For plan sponsors they would like to cover 24-hour virtual care, followed by immunizations for infectious diseases and health risk screenings. Plan members would choose fitness classes, personal trainers and 24-hour virtual care as their top three choices of products and services they would like covered by their group benefits plan.

Health or fitness products?

Plan sponsors appear to be more interested in covering health-related expenses while plan members would use products more focused on physical fitness. Many of the products and services listed in the survey are not covered under any traditional group benefits plan and others would not even be covered under a non-taxable health spending account (HSA). An HSA covers substantially more healthcare related expenses than traditional group benefits plans, however even they have limitations and that is where the wellness spending account can fill the gap.

Wellness spending accounts – taxable benefit is worth it

Even though wellness spending accounts are taxable and will appear on their T4 or T4A there is still tremendous benefit to them. Clearly from the survey plan members would use wellness products if they were provided by their plan sponsors. The additional benefit to wellness spending accounts is that the plan sponsor can determine what they are willing and not willing to cover as an eligible expense. Thus, they can cover the health-related expenses that they want to provide as well as the fitness related benefits that plan members are looking for.

Wellness spending accounts can be the ideal solution for both plan sponsors and plan members when covering certain benefit expenses.

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Wellness Spending Accounts Impact on a Person’s Wellness

Chanddeep Madaan — Fri, 14 Jan 2022 21:24:31 +0000

What impact can a wellness spending account (WSA) have on a person’s wellness? To start with let’s define what wellness means – according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary wellness is the quality of being in good health especially as an actively sought goal. Dictionary.com defines wellness as the quality or state of being healthy in body and mind, especially as the result of deliberate effort.

Good health can mean many things and how a person defines good health or how they want to achieve it can also vary greatly from individual to individual. For example, one person might want to quit smoking to improve their health while another person might want to join a yoga studio to improve their wellness.

A wellness spending account provides employees with the opportunity to take care of their wellness and achieve the goals they set out. A wellness spending account is a taxable benefit that allows employees to spend on wellness-related activities and products, any wellness expenses paid for by the employer will be added to the employee’s taxable income at the end of each year.

The list of activities and products that can be covered is typically determined by the employer; employers can limit the account to specific items like gym memberships or yoga classes, or they can allow their employees to basically expense almost any item.

Now back to the question at hand, what impact can wellness spending accounts have on a person’s wellness. The answer to that is simple, it can have a massive impact; and the impact to an employer also has the potential to be large. By providing employees with a WSA you are providing them with the opportunity to take care of their wellness and by providing them with the wellness opportunity can lead to positive results for your business.

Provide your employees with a wellness spending account and see the impact on their wellness and your business.

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Use Health Spending Accounts To Achieve All Your New Year’s Resolutions

Chanddeep Madaan — Wed, 12 Jan 2022 14:19:47 +0000

It is a new year but for everyone in Canada and around the world a lot of the same concerns and stresses remain with Covid and the Omicron variant spreading rapidly. Everywhere you look the talk is about booster vaccination shots or knowing someone who has gotten Covid and is missing work or school classes being online and if they should be or not. If one person in a family gets Covid then before you know it the entire family has it as well; and be symptomatic or asymptomatic, they must isolate and hope that they don’t get very sick and require hospitalization.

January is typically a time for New Year’s resolutions, to lose weight, or to join a gym or yoga class, maybe it is to read more books or connect with old friends more often. People enjoy setting goals for themselves to start off the year, a new year, and a new outlook, striving to be better then the year before.

When it comes to setting resolutions and goals; everyone is different, there is no one size fits all approach to setting goals for yourself. It should be that way, nobody knows you better than you know yourself and therefore nobody is in a better position to determine what will make you happier, or healthier or provide you a more positive outlook than you.

Having health and wellness spending accounts is the ideal solution for dealing with New Year’s resolutions; it is the ideal benefit solution for offering employees the flexibility and freedom they desire to do as they choose for themselves and their wellbeing. With health and wellness spending accounts the choice is up to the individual on how and what they spend their health expenses dollars on.

Like New Year’s resolutions, health and wellness spending account expenses everyone is different; nobody is locked into specific expenses or sets of expenses. Having a health spending account allows the individual to know themselves better once again than anyone else and choose health choices that make them feel as good as they can.

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Top 10 Reasons To Choose Aya For Your Health Spending Account

Chanddeep Madaan — Fri, 31 Dec 2021 20:26:10 +0000

Health Spending Accounts continued to grow in 2021 as more and more companies added them to their current group health benefits or added them as a stand-alone option for their employees group health benefits. As we close out the year, we expect that health spending accounts will continue to become more and more prevalent in 2022. Let’s look at top ten reasons to choose Aya for your health spending account provider.

Top ten reasons to choose Aya as your health spending account provider

You never have to pay out-of-pocket with the Aya Mastercard®
They are tax free
There are never any increases in your rates
You can carry over any unused funds into the following year
Dependents are covered
Can be used for pre-existing conditions
Funds can be used for any healthcare expense
There is no paperwork to fill out when submitting claims
Aya Mastercard® can be used anywhere in the world
You never have to pay out-of-pocket with the Aya Mastercard®

Now we will dig into each reason and explain the benefits of each.

Using the Aya Mastercard® means you do not have to pay out-of-pocket for any of your health expenses, simply use the card, take an image of the receipt, upload to the Aya app and you are finished.

Health spending accounts are tax free to employees and tax deductible for employers; the best of both worlds while paying for your healthcare.

Unlike traditional group health benefit plans that typically have an increase in rates every year, health spending accounts only increase if the employer chooses to add more money to employee’s accounts. Providing cost-certainty is a benefit to any employer looking to control costs and budgets.

In traditional group benefit plans if you do not use any allotted funds for a given category then you forfeit them at the end of your plan year. With health spending accounts any unused funds can be carried over for an additional 12 months and if still unused those funds are returned to the employer.

Dependents are covered under health spending accounts and in addition to that, who can be considered a dependent under health spending accounts is much wider then with traditional group benefit plans. As long as the individual resides with you and is financially dependent on you, they can be considered a dependent.

You can use health spending accounts to pay for any pre-existing condition you had before you obtained the health spending account.

You choose what health expenses to pay for, you are not bound to any category limits. Also, the list of expenses that can be covered is much greater than traditional plans.

Aya is a completely digital experience, from onboarding to submitting claims there is no paperwork, everything can be done within the Aya app or on the Aya website.

The Aya Mastercard® can be used at any health merchant anywhere in the world. If you are travelling for business or pleasure and need to pay for a healthcare expense, you are covered.

Yes number 1 and 10 are the same reason but for good reason, not having to pay -out-of-pocket for your healthcare might be the difference between getting those new pair of glasses or making that trip to the dentist. Not all employees have the disposable income to pay for their expenses and wait to get reimbursed.

As health spending accounts continue to grow, consider choosing Aya as your provider and give your employees the Aya Mastercard® to pay for the health related expenses.

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Announcing strategic marketing advisor, Barry Stamos

Chanddeep Madaan — Fri, 24 Dec 2021 17:48:47 +0000

Chanddeep Madaan, CEO, is excited to announce Barry Stamos as a founding advisor focused on strategic marketing to Aya Payments.

“Barry is an exited founder (unicorn) who is an expert in growth marketing and scaling speed-to-value. He is exactly the type of advisor that Aya was looking for..”, said Chanddeep Madaan.

Barry is an exited Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur and marketing expert. He is the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at 500 Global, the most active Venture Capital firm in the world (#1 VC globally in exits). Barry built a $300M+ professional services practice from scratch, as the Global Practice Leader of Strategy & Innovation at Acxiom (served most Fortune 100 brands).

Barry’s rare combination of creative, strategic, and analytical skills will provide Aya with the marketing advice that will drive growth and demand generation. “Having someone with Barry’s experience and skill set on our advisory board is a tremendous asset to Aya and we are very excited to have him as an advisor.”, added Madaan. “I believe in Aya’s leadership team and purpose in empowering people financially for health and wellness spending,” said Barry. “I see the mega trends of democratization, and thanks to Aya employees will now have the ability to choose from a wider range of treatments across practitioners, physicians and medical care providers and products without worrying about reimbursements.”

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Health Spending Accounts (HSA) – Maximize Cost Savings

Chanddeep Madaan — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 22:29:23 +0000

Discover the substantial cost savings offered by health spending accounts (HSA) compared to personally paying for medical expenses as a single-person corporation. This informative post showcases the potential savings and highlights why obtaining a health spending account is a worthwhile investment for covering your healthcare expenses, as opposed to relying solely on personal income. Health spending accounts are 100% tax-deductible for your business and can be utilized for all healthcare expenses, including those of your dependents.

If you choose to pay for healthcare expenses with personal income, you’ll be using your net income after tax deductions. However, by opting for a health spending account, you can pay for the same expenses using your business income, with the amount paid becoming a tax deduction for your business and tax-free for you as an individual.

Let’s explore different scenarios to illustrate the cost savings potential of a Health Spending Account (HSA) based on various income levels. For the purpose of this example, we will assume a business in Ontario, utilizing Ontario tax rates for calculations. Additionally, we will consider a $10,000 health spending account and assume a 10% administration fee. Please note that these figures are based on 2021 tax rates.

Income	HSA Admin Fee +Taxes	Average Tax Rate	Savings
$50,000	21.50%	15.31%	-6.19%
$100,000	21.50%	23.45%	1.95%
$150,000	21.50%	30.11%	8.61%

Savings of having a health spending account versus paying for expenses with net income

If your business generates minimal revenue, there may not be a significant tax advantage to having a health spending account. However, once your business exceeds $86,375 in revenue, based on the aforementioned figures, having a health spending account becomes a beneficial choice. In other provinces, the revenue threshold for advantageous HSAs may be lower, as Ontario imposes higher taxes on health spending accounts compared to other provinces.

Health spending accounts do have taxes applied based on the claim amount, your province of residence, and the administration fee charged. However, as demonstrated in the table above, if your business generates revenue exceeding $100,000, a health spending account emerges as the ideal choice.

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Experienced sales leader Ala Lada joins Aya as Director of Sales

Chanddeep Madaan — Tue, 07 Dec 2021 16:57:51 +0000

Aya is pleased to announce that Ala Lada has joined the leadership team as the Director of Sales, reporting into Chanddeep Madaan, CEO. Ala brings years of experience in the industry as well as a vast network of senior level connections and will play a strong role in building and growing the team as well as revenue, said Chanddeep Madaan.

Ala is a results-driven leader who was most recently with Alberta Blue Cross as the Manager of Group Sales & Business Development for southern Alberta. While at Alberta Blue Cross, he managed a team of 20 sales and service representatives who were responsible for revenue growth and customer retention. Prior to Alberta Blue Cross, he was Director, Strategic Partnerships at Nuera Insurance Inc, an InsureTech brokerage and before that he was a regional manager with Echelon Insurance.

We are thrilled to have Ala join our team here at Aya and are very much looking forward to his leadership and contributions towards our rapidly growing business, added Madaan.

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