Canada’s largest group benefits provider, Great-West Life, recently introduced a new Visa payment card for healthcare benefits.

Eligible cardholders can now pay directly for:

• Prescription drugs.
• Vision care.
• Dental expenses.
• Paramedical treatment from chiropractors, psychologists and other approved practitioners.

No more filling out claim forms then waiting for reimbursement. Simply swipe your Health SolutionsPlus card at the counter, and your health benefit bills are paid immediately.

At least, that’s what the marketing materials say.

Limitations and constraints
Prepaid cards are only available for a special type of group health benefit called the Health Spending Account. An HSA represents tax-free money to be used for health-related expenses.

HSA payment cards also have restrictions. Typically, prescription drugs generate the highest volume of health benefit claims. Yet the new prepaid card works only if your employer also has a pay-direct drug plan. To pay for prescription drugs at participating pharmacies, you must present both your pay-direct card plus the HSA prepaid card.

Because the HSA card is relatively new, there’s a good chance that your favourite healthcare provider doesn’t have the special card reader required. Few Canadians will travel across town to find a practitioner who does.

Also, your employer can control approvable expenses under preloaded cards. Cards can be pre-programmed with cost containment features that will reject your preferred benefit choices.

Finally, the new prepaid cards may not allow you to carry over your annual allotment to next year – even though a grace period is a standard HSA feature.

Electronic group benefit payments
The HSA prepaid card launch is a limited pilot project. It remains to be seen whether prepaid cards can be used for traditional group health coverage including extended health care and flexible benefits. There are many complications, like how to exclude employee deductibles and co-payment amounts from card payment.

In the near future, the more likely scenario is that online e-claims will become the preferred way to submit Canadian health claims.