Physicians want HSA access for Medicare recipients

The AMA policy supports fine-tuning of the tax-advantaged accounts.

By Katherine Vogt, amednews staff. July 5, 2004.

Chicago -- The AMA will work to ensure that Medicare-eligible individuals have access to health savings accounts and will also study alternative means of financing health care.

The policies, passed at the AMA's Annual Meeting in June, seek to help fine-tune health savings accounts, which were created under last year's Medicare reform act. While the AMA supports HSAs as an option for consumers, the law "could use some tweaking," said Duane M. Cady, MD, chair-elect of the AMA Board of Trustees.

"Health savings accounts are clearly part of our overall program for health system reform," Dr. Cady said. "[But] we need to get it right."

HSAs are tax-free accounts that are paired with high-deductible health insurance to give consumers another way to pay for their health care. They are a broader version of the medical savings accounts that were established nationally in the 1990s. But unlike MSAs, both workers and their employers can contribute to the accounts. And anyone, not just the self-employed or small business employees, can have them.

Under current law, HSAs are available only to people younger than 65. But in 2005, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is expected to establish Medicare savings accounts, which are essentially HSAs for Medicare participants. The AMA resolution calls on the organization to monitor the pending regulations to ensure that Medicare participants can take advantage of these tax-saving tools.

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