Employers sometimes set up List-Billing because some employees may not have available funds to make the first premium payment for a personal health policy in advance of reimbursement. Instead of List-Billing, Zane Benefits generally recommends giving employees a cash advance outside of the ZaneHRA arrangement, or using ZaneHRA to make same-day reimbursement for claims on an as-needed basis.

Certain carriers allow companies to set up List-Billing for their employees. See What is List-Billing?

Federal law explicitly allows an employer to reimburse employees' personal health insurance premium expenses through a Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA).

With ZaneHRA (when List-Billing is not involved), employees:

1. Purchase their own Personal health insurance policy;

2. Make payment to the carrier (via ACH transfer, check or credit card) for their insurance premium;

3. Submit a Personal health insurance premium claim to ZaneHRA with proof of payment (e.g. bank statement, credit card statement or carrier receipt); and

4. Receive tax-free reimbursement from their employer via check, payroll addition, or direct deposit.

In a List-Billing scenario, the only difference is #2 (above), the employee's method of premium payment. The employee must still submit claims for reimbursement of their insurance premium to ZaneHRA.

Rather than paying the carrier directly via ACH transfer, check or credit card, the employee pays the carrier indirectly (through their employer) via payroll withholding (post-tax). Nothing changes as far as ZaneHRA is concerned.

With ZaneHRA (when List-Billing is involved), employees:

1. Purchase their own Personal health insurance policy;

2. Make payment to the carrier through their employer (via post-tax payroll withholding) for their insurance premium;

3. Submit a Personal health insurance premium claim to ZaneHRA with proof of payment (e.g. payroll stub showing withholding or carrier receipt); and

4. Receive tax-free reimbursement from their employer via check, payroll addition, or direct deposit.

Generally, Zane Benefits does not recommend the use of List-Bill arrangements with HRAs because of the potential for HIPAA privacy violations (i.e. the employer has knowledge of whether individual employees have purchased health insurance, the carrier they chose and at what price).

This document has been prepared solely for the purpose of providing information based on legal and tax advice provided to Zane Benefits, Inc. However, it is not meant to provide legal or tax advice for entities other than Zane Benefits. No representation is made as to the completeness or accuracy of the information herein. As such, it should not be used as a substitute for consultation with professional employment law specialists, tax accountants, attorneys, or other advisors. To comply with U.S. Treasury Regulations, we inform you that, unless expressly stated otherwise, any tax information contained in this communication is not intended to be used and cannot be used by any taxpayer to avoid penalties under the Internal Revenue Code.