To NCRO members
Today, January 10, many members age 65 and older with HRA accounts began receiving emails from WageWorks . It probably came with a subject of “Claim Payment”. Other members whose emails are not on file with WageWorks may be receiving letters. Its information on the amount deposited for the 2017 HRA and the payment to be made from the 2017 HRA may be in error. Your NCRO became aware of that this morning. We have contacted FCA and are now alerting our members. Once we have more information, we will share it with you.
The NCRO is aware of the following at this point, as is FCA. One or both of these may affect other retirees, also:
- The amount of the HRA contribution for 2017 may be double what it should be. For one retiree, for example, there are two HRA contributions indicated — $1975, twice, instead of only once, for an erroneous total of $3950. Benefit Connect provided the contribution information to WageWorks and is also aware of the errors.
- The Reimbursements from the 2017 HRA include, for this retiree, Medicare Part B premiums for 2016 months that were not able to be reimbursed in 2016 because he had fully used his 2016 HRA prior to those months. In the past, the rule had been that the HRA could only reimburse for expenses incurred in or after the year the HRA was funded. For, example, the 2017 HRA amount could only be used for 2017 and later eligible expenses. The NCRO does not know yet if the rule has changed or if WageWorks’ scheduled reimbursement is another error.
We will share more information as we receive it. In the meantime, if you receive a similar email or letter from WageWorks, you do not need to let the NCRO know.
To the NCRO’s knowledge, the HSA accounts for retirees under 65 are not affected. There is no reason that this should affect the Retiree Healthcare Account (RHCA) at Merrill Lynch.