A national provider of administration services for employee benefit programs is teaming with MasterCard to improve employee participation in flexible spending and health savings accounts and health reimbursement arrangements.
PayFlex Systems USA, Inc., based in Omaha, Neb., processes nearly $1 billion per year in employee benefit program transactions, including FSAs, HRAs, HSAs and commuter, dependent care, COBRA and direct billing services. In partnering with MasterCard Worldwide, company officials are hoping to push participation in the PayFlex HealthHub, a website that links healthcare, financial and wellness information with a single prepaid or debit card and customer call center.
"With the continued momentum of consumer-directed healthcare, PayFlex is constantly seeking convenient ways for employees to simplify how they manage their wellness and healthcare spending," said PayFlex President Rob Butler. "By offering employees the option to use a prepaid or debit MasterCard card to pay for their healthcare needs, we're able to provide a familiar and easy-to-use payment method that offers incentives and additional value for consumers."
According to PayFlex officials, employees accessing the PayFlex HealthHub can use a MasterCard prepaid or debit card to make co-payments or pay for deductibles, prescriptions, vision care and certain over-the-counter items, as well as for certain employer-arranged benefits like dependent care, transit/parking costs and incentive programs. They said the use of a branded credit source gives employees the confidence to manage their tax-advantaged healthcare accounts.
Butler referenced a 2010 survey by Tower Watson and the National Business Group on Health, which found 46 percent of companies have at least 20 percent employee participation in a consumer-directed health plan. A national trend toward consumer-directed healthcare, combined with a healthcare reform plan that pushes more healthcare availability to more people, means patients and providers will be looking at more options for paying the healthcare bill at the point of service.
"Consumers today clearly prefer the convenience, security and flexibility that cards tied to HSAs, FSAs and other healthcare accounts can provide. In fact, MasterCard research shows that offering a prepaid or debit card option may be one of the keys to ensuring consumers use their HSAs more effectively," said Ron Hynes, group leader of global prepaid product development solutions for MasterCard Worldwide, based in Purchase, N.Y. "We are pleased to be working with PayFlex to offer consumers a better way to track healthcare spending, simplify the medical payments process and to make it easier for consumers to manage their medical expenses."