Starmark - Visitor - New Starmark HRA Bottom-Line Friendly for Employers, Easy for Employees

New Starmark HRA Bottom-Line Friendly for Employers, Easy for Employees

Gives employers control of their cash flow and flexibility in benefit program design.
Empowers employees to take an active role in their healthcare decisions, using Healthy Foundations decision support tools as resources.
Expenses paid from HRAs are 100 percent tax deductible to the employer.
Reimbursements from the HRA are tax free to the employee.

LAKE FOREST, Ill., Nov. 27, 2006 — Star Marketing and Administration Inc. (Starmark) introduces the Starmark HRA. This new offering enables employers to pair a health reimbursement arrangement, or HRA, with their health plan as an innovative approach to managing their overall health-insurance expenses. And, when combined with a higher-deductible health plan, employers can save money with lower health plan premiums.

An HRA is an arrangement funded solely by an employer. Employees can use HRA funds to pay for eligible medical expenses under a selected health insurance plan. HRAs are owned by the employer, who decides how much to contribute to the arrangement, which expenses will be reimbursed through the HRA, who pays the eligible expenses first: the HRA or the employee, and if funds remaining at the end of the year will roll over to the next. Plus, rather than prefunding the arrangement, claims are paid through the HRA only as they occur.

“An HRA gives the employer a lot of flexibility in creating a benefit program to offer employees,” said Kim Croisant, Starmark Second Vice President of Marketing and head of product development. “The employer is ultimately in control of how much he wishes to spend and how he wants the HRA to work, which is an attractive feature to small business owners searching for ways to reduce overall healthcare expenses.”

The Starmark HRA is available for January 1, 2007, effective dates, and offers three suggested reimbursement arrangements from which employers can choose:

Advance HRA – Eligible expenses are reimbursed through the HRA first, and the employee covers the remaining portion of the deductible.
Bridge HRA – Eligible expenses are reimbursed through the HRA after the employee covers a set part of the deductible.
Shared HRA – The HRA and the employee share the expense of each medical claim applied to the deductible.

Plus, because an HRA empowers employees to take an active role in their healthcare decisions, Starmark provides them with helpful decision support tools through Healthy Foundations, which they can use to make informed choices:

HealthAtoZ – Health information and interactive health management tools, including condition managers, reminders, information about diseases and conditions, detailed fitness and nutrition guidance, and online fitness demonstrations
Rx Price Comparison – More than 200 drugs with lower-cost alternatives for ongoing conditions, including over-the-counter alternatives when available
Treatment Cost Comparison – A range of cost estimates for in- and out-of-network providers based on ZIP code, including how much members can expect to pay for office visits, diagnostic tests, lab tests and more

Members can access Healthy Foundations through www.starmarkinc.com/. For more information about the Starmark HRA, Healthy Foundations or any product in the Starmark portfolio, call 800.522.1246, ext. 33057, or visit www.starmarkinc.com/.

About Starmark

Starmark specializes in small group healthcare benefits and serves businesses with two to 50 employees through a network of managing general agents and MultiBenefit Services, an affiliate of Starmark. All plans are fully insured by Trustmark Life Insurance Company, a subsidiary of Trustmark Mutual Holding Company. Through its subsidiaries and operating divisions, Trustmark Mutual Holding Company offers a broad line of life, medical, managed care, dental, disability, critical illness, and benefit administration products and services to groups and individuals. Trustmark Mutual Holding Company has assets of more than $1.9 billion and administers more than $3 billion in health and life benefits annually. Additional information can be found at www.starmarkinc.com.

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