IRS 90% Rule and Flagging Issues

The IRS 90% rule for pharmacies took effect on July 1st, meaning that as of now, pharmacies must either have an IIAS in place or 90% of their transactions must consist of eligible items. In the past, healthcare locations where one could buy eligible items were flagged by their Merchant Category Code. As of 7/1, however, pharmacies are no longer considered valid MCCs; pharmacies must have an IIAS or be listed as a 90% pharmacy to use your card there.

In some cases, an IIAS Pharmacy MCC location may fail to send the IIAS flag for a transaction and cause a transaction to be declined. In one specific instance (Rite Aid), the cause for the IIAS flagging failure has been narrowed down to the issue of running the card as Debit or Credit. In cases where the card is run as Credit, the IIAS does not send us the flag for the transaction. Rite Aid is currently educating their clerks and working on fixes to their system to control whether a card is recognized as Credit, Debit, or FSA.

House Democrats Present Healthcare Reform Bill

The House Democrats introduced a draft healthcare reform bill Friday, June 19, 2009 which they say will cover 95% of Americans.

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IRS Releases New 2010 Limits for HSAs and HDHPs

The IRS has released Rev. Proc. 2009-29, which addresses the 2010 plan limits for High Deductible plans and Health Savings Accounts.

HSA Contribution Limits The 2010 annual HSA contribution limit for individuals with self-only HDHP coverage is $3,050 (up $50 from 2009) and for individuals with family HDHP coverage is $6,150 (up $200 from 2009).

HDHP Minimum Required Deductibles The 2010 minimum annual deductible for self-only HDHP coverage is $1,200 (up $50 from 2009) and for family HDHP coverage is $2,400 (up $100 from 2009).

HDHP Out-of-Pocket Maximum The 2010 maximum limit on out-of-pocket expenses (including items such as deductibles, co-payments, and co-insurance, but not premiums) for self-only HDHP coverage is $5,950 (up $150 from 2009) and for family HDHP coverage is $11,900 (up $300 from 2009).

For more information read Rev. Proc. 2009-29

America’s Health Insurance Plans Release 2009 Census Data on HSA/HDHP Statistics

America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) conducts an annual census of U.S. health insurance carriers, receiving participation from virtually all private health insurance carriers in the HSA/HDHP marketed.  (The census does not include coverage associated with HRAs.) AHIP started conducting this annual census after the HSAs were authorized in January 2004.

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Congratulations to John Robbins, Jr. for Making the 40 Under 40

John Robbins, Jr., Vice President of DataPath, was named one of Arkansas Business Magazine's "40 Under 40." Every year, Arkansas Business highlights 40 business professionals from around the state under the age of 40. Out of hundreds of submissions, the publication chooses 40 truly impressive individuals with bright futures, consisting of bankers, lawyers, judges, business owners and executives.

To view the list of Arkansas' 40 Under 40, click here.

Happy 25th Anniversary, Hatch-Waxman!

In 1984, the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act, more commonly known as the Hatch-Waxman Act, was passed, essentially creating the system of generic drug alternatives which we have in the market today.

As part of the Generic Pharmaceutical Association’s (GPhA) celebration of this last 25 years, they released an independent analysis which found that over the last 10 years, use of generic drugs have saved the American healthcare system over $734 billion, with $121 billion of that coming from 2008 alone.

"In 1984, it was predicted that the Hatch-Waxman Act would save our country $1 billion in the first decade,” said GPhA President and CEO Kathleen Jaeger. “Now, generic medicines save more than that every three days."

For more information about the GPhA study, click here.

IRS Posts Additional Q&As on COBRA Subsidy

In response to the many questions about the COBRA premium subsidy authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), the IRS has posted additional Q&As. The new Q&As have been added to the end of the previous series of Q&As.

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