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Fiserv enters health-care savings accounts business

Make Money Online By WTN News • 06/13/05 Milwaukee Brookfield-based Fiserv Inc. has unveiled a program of healthcare savings accounts, leveraging the company's positions in financial processing and health-plan administration.

Spurred on by HSA authorization by Congress in 2004, healthcare banking is a set of services which includes managing tax-advantaged healthcare accounts for consumers and moving payments between parties in healthcare transactions.

"Our financial institution clients have a great deal of interest in recent healthcare legislation and the emergence of healthcare banking," said Norm Balthasar, Fiserv's chief operating officer. "At the same time, there's a lot of confusion in the market today, especially regarding HSAs and their implication for the financial industry.

Similar to 401(k) and individual retirement accounts, HSAs allow families covered by high-deductible health insurance plans to make annual contributions of up to $5,250 in pre-tax earnings ($2,650 for individuals). The goal is to put the ownership of everyday health spending decisions with consumers and to make insurance responsible for more catastrophic events.

There are links on the Account Information page that open a page to add or to modify your payment options, usually a credit card (see note below regarding options for business accounts). An account can have multiple payment options, one of which is the default for checkout purposes. If you store your payment option information here, it is secure, and it streamlines the checkout process, because you do not have to reenter it for each order. Entering this information here is optional, and you can enter it at checkout every time you place an order.

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