What is a Health Spending Account?

A Health Spending Account (HSA) is generous add-on benefit provided to you by Cision. The HSA benefit is administered by Desjardins. The idea is pretty simple: at the beginning of each reference year, Cision deposits a certain number of credits in your HSA that you and your dependents can use to pay for health or dental expenses that aren’t covered by your provincial health insurance plan or any other group insurance plan.

Submitting claims using your HSA

Any applicable coordination of benefits (COB) should be submitted before you claim amounts under your HSA. This will allow you to make the most of your group insurance benefits.

In both cases, the total reimbursement covers 100% of the eligible expenses. But Situation 1 makes optimum use of your HSA by also coordinating your benefits with your spouse’s plan. Situation 1 uses fewer HSA credits, so you’ll have more left over to use for future claims.

Eligible health and dental expenses

Eligible expenses are defined by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). For a complete list of eligible expenses, visit the CRA website at cra-arc.gc.ca, and enter “eligible medical expenses” in the site’s search engine. For more details, click on the Income Tax Folio S1-F1-C1, Medical Expense Tax Credit link on the web page.

Checking your HSA balance

Your HSA balance is debited each time a claim is paid. You can check your HSA balance three different ways:

• Log on to the secure site at desjardinslifeinsurance.com/planmember and click on Access our online services and then under Your account, select Health Spending Account
• Access your file online using the Omni mobile app and select Health Spending Account from the menu bar
• Refer to the explanation of benefits that’s produced and posted on the secure site each time a claim is processed (if you don’t have access to the secure site, or if you haven’t signed up for direct deposit, you can refer to the explanation of benefits that will be sent to you by mail)

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Life and accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) insurance provide financial protection for you and your family. You are eligible to participate if you are a regular employee scheduled to work at least 30 hours per week. These benefits are administered by Desjardins.

Accidental Death and Dismemberment (AD&D) insurance provides specified benefits to you in the event of a covered accidental bodily injury that directly causes dismemberment (i.e., the loss of a hand, foot or eye). If your death occurs due to a covered accident, both the life and the AD&D benefit would be payable.

Benefit Amount (same for Life and AD&D): 2 times annual earnings for up to $500,000. It reduces by 50% at age 65 and terminates at age 70 or retirement, whichever is earlier.

You can purchase optional life insurance for yourself, your spouse or domestic partner and your children. The rates vary depending on your age, gender and smoker/non-smoker status and are medically underwritten.

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Supplement your medical and disability coverage with a lump-sum payment if you experience a condition such as cancer, a heart attack, stroke, kidney failure and more. You can purchase coverage for you or your spouse. Find more information here.

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