Health Reimbursement Arrangement

An HRA is an employer-owned account that employees can use to pay for things like deductibles, copays, dental or vision care. As the employer, you get to decide what the funds are eligible for.

You're also the only party who can fund the account. This means you can budget and decide in advance how much to spend on your employees’ health care.

Because employers own the accounts, they get to keep any funds employees don’t use.

You can learn more about how an HRA stacks up to other account types with our Consumer-Directed Health Comparision Guide (PDF).

We offer several types of HRA accounts that you can choose from for PPO plans:.

• Medical HRA: This allows you to choose how much you contribute to the account and what types of services can be covered. 
• Rollover retirement reimbursement arrangement: This allows you to roll over your HRA funds each year
• Retirement reimbursement arrangement with a one-time contribution: This allows an employer to make a one-time contribution at retirement. No future contributions are allowed. Funds don't expire.
• Limited purpose HRA: This reimburses qualified dental and/or vision services. It must be paired with an HSA.
• Post-deductible HRA: This reimburses qualified medical expenses after the plan deductible is met. It must also be paired with an HSA.

For BCN HMO and Blue Elect Plus POS plans, you can choose a medical HRA that’s funded by you and administered by BCN. There are four HRA designs available:

• HRA pays first: Funds will be used for eligible expenses until the HRA funds are spent, then the employee will be responsible for any remaining expenses.
• Employee pays first: Employees pay a designated amount first before accessing funds from the HRA. This designated amount is called the HRA deductible, and the employer lists the amount the employee must pay out of pocket for deductible and coinsurance first before HRA funds are used.
• HRA-employee split: The employer splits the costs of eligible expenses with the employee until the HRA funds are spent. When eligible HRA claims arrive, the employee will pay a percentage of the eligible expense and the group HRA allocation will pay a percentage.
• Employee pays first; HRA-employee split: Employees pay first with an HRA deductible and then split the costs with the employee until the HRA funds are spent.

Want to see plan details? We offer an HRA-compatible plan for each group size.

• Community Blue HRA PPO for businesses with 2-50 employees
• Simply Blue HRA PPO for businesses with 2-50 employees
• Simply Blue HRA PPO for businesses with 51-999 employees
• Blue Elect Plus HRA POS for businesses with 2-50 employees
• Blue Elect Plus POS for businesses with 51-999 employees — pair any high-deductible plan with BCN HRA 
• BCN HRA HMO for businesses with 2-50 employees
• BCN HMO for businesses with 51-999 employees — pair any high-deductible plan with BCN HRA