A comparison of popular HRA administrators

Health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs) have gained traction with employers nationwide because they're flexible, easy to implement, and customizable. However, the key to any successful HRA lies in its administration, including compliance, management, and privacy assurance. This is why many employers turn to outside HRA administrators for help.

There are two types of HRA administrators. The first are third-party administrators (TPAs) who manage the benefit and compliance regulations on behalf of the employer. The second is software providers with a unique HRA platform so organizations can facilitate the benefit independently according to federal laws. Both options enable employers to provide a valuable, compliant employee health benefit more easily.

If it’s your first time offering an HRA, knowing which benefits administration solution is right for your organization can be challenging. In this blog, we’ll cover how HRA administration software can help employers and review some popular HRA administrator tools available for organizations.

New to HRAs? Read everything you need to know about them in our complete guide

What do HRA administrators do?

HRA administrator platforms help organizations with all the day-to-day benefits administration tasks, including compliance functions, documentation storage, and employee reimbursement verification. HRA administrators typically come in the form of a web-based tool or software.

A good HRA administration tool should help you navigate your HRA benefit from start to finish. The software you choose should make it easy for your company’s plan administrator to manage your HRA effectively and for eligible employees to use their health benefits.

A good HRA administration software should take care of the following for your organization:

• HRA benefit design and setup
• Creating and distributing employee benefits plan documents
• Tracking of HRA funds
• Reviewing documents for reimbursements
• Storing electronic copies of employee receipts and invoices
• Onboarding employees to their health benefit
• Providing resources for or assistance with tax documents and year-end reporting
• Ensuring privacy compliance

Most importantly, HRA administration software should be designed to stay up-to-date with current regulations. For example, if you have a qualified small employer HRA (QSEHRA), it should keep up with changing IRS guidelines, including annual changes to maximum contribution limits.

Why do you need an HRA administrator?

When dealing with your employees' health, correctly handling their sensitive information is critical. While you can self-administer an HRA or hire a professional services firm to do it for you, having a highly specialized HRA administrator tool that helps you follow best practices and current regulations is a more robust solution

As an employer, it can be tricky to keep up with medical record storage, health information security, paperwork, and reporting requirements that come with HRAs. HRA administration software handles all that and more. It also provides your employees with a platform they can access to more easily submit HRA reimbursement requests.

The following are four main reasons why having HRA administration software is crucial:

1. Record keeping: The IRS requires you to keep employee documentation, such as healthcare receipts, for seven years. Being able to securely maintain those records in a cloud-based database without having to store paper files can help you in case of a future IRS audit.
2. HIPAA: HIPAA regulations consider any employee's medical expenses protected health information (PHI). Keeping a safe distance from your employees’ reimbursement claims and medical information can help you ensure compliance.
3. Policy changes: Some HRAs, like the QSEHRA, have maximum contribution limits updated annually by the IRS, and most HRAs have reporting requirements. Therefore, you must be able to communicate plan changes efficiently and meet reporting requirements.
4. Legal plan design: If you’re an applicable large employer (ALE), HRA administration software can help you design a benefit that satisfies the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate. But even if you’re not an ALE, HRA administration software can help you create a compliant benefit and meet your legal and regulatory notice obligations.

Eleven popular HRA administrators

Selecting the right HRA software is crucial to administrating your benefit efficiently and compliantly. There are many organizations out there that offer HRA administration tools. But how do you know which is the right one for you?

The following companies offer HRA administration software to help you manage your health benefit. We’ll cover each organization, which HRAs they offer, and their features.

1. PeopleKeep

PeopleKeep (that’s us!) is an employee benefit administration software company offering personalized employee benefit solutions. We serve businesses of all sizes from various industries across the country. Our intuitive and user-friendly software makes providing more accessible employee benefits easier for all organizations.

At PeopleKeep, we offer software that supports the administration of three distinctive HRAs that work for every company size, budget, and health insurance status. We also offer WorkPerks—an employee stipend administration platform that allows organizations to build custom lifestyle perks.

With PeopleKeep, you can offer a QSEHRA, an individual coverage HRA (ICHRA), or a group coverage (GCHRA). You can also define your own benefit or perk category for which you want to offer reimbursable allowances through WorkPerks.

Some benefits you can support with a WorkPerks stipend include wellness, professional development, remote work, commuter, travel, meals, family, childcare, education, and more. Regardless of how many perks you offer, you can manage them all from one platform, so you don’t have to juggle multiple vendors.

PeopleKeep is a four-time Stevie Award winner for customer service, was voted the best small to medium-sized (SMB)-focused solution at the 2022 HR Tech awards, and was a Health & Wellness finalist at the 2022 Silicon Slopes Hall of Fame Awards.

As a trusted company since 2006, we strive to help all organizations build an inclusive and customized benefits package, regardless of location, budget, or demographics.

Notable PeopleKeep HRA highlights:

• HRAs we provide

• • QSEHRA
  • ICHRA
  • Group coverage HRA (GHCRA)

• Plan features

• All-in-one intuitive platform
• Documentation storage
• Customizable HRA design
• Full compliance and reporting assurance
• Award-winning customer support team
• Legal plan documentation creation
• Employers can choose the eligible expenses for reimbursement
• Documentation review support
• Automatic send of required employee notices

Whether you’re a small employer looking for your first health benefit or a large employer looking to boost your benefits package with an employee stipend, PeopleKeep has just what you need.

2. HealthEquity

Founded in 2002, HealthEquity is most commonly known for its health savings account (HSA) administration platform. However, it also offers HRA administration software as well as flexible spending account (FSA) administration in addition to its HSA platform.

HealthEquity’s platform allows employers to manage a few different types of HRAs. However, it doesn’t offer a QSEHRA administration option, nor does it enable employers to sign up for an HRA without following a multi-step plan with its representatives. So, if you’re a small employer or want to launch a new benefit quickly, you may want to look into other options.

If you want more information on what HealthEquity offers, you’ll need to contact a sales representative to learn more.

Notable HealthEquity HRA highlights:

• HRAs they provide

• • ICHRA
  • Excepted benefits HRA (EBHRA)
  • Group plan HRA
  • Retiree-only HRA

• Plan features

• Mobile app
• HRA administration software with a customizable platform
• Integration capabilities with an FSA
• Health incentive account available
• Ongoing customer support

3. HSA Bank

Since 1997, HSA Bank has specialized in health accounts and is now one of the largest HSA vendors in the country. More recently, the company has expanded its offerings to include FSAs, premium reimbursement accounts, commuter benefits, and HRAs—which the company began offering support for in 2014.

HSA Bank only offers two HRA administration options—a retiree HRA and a limited-purpose HRA. Additionally, its plan features may not be as flexible as other providers if you’re looking for more flexibility and customization.

To learn more about HSA Bank’s HRAs and their plan features, you’ll need to schedule a call with a sales representative via their website.

Notable HSA Bank HRA highlights:

• HRAs they provide

• • Retiree HRA
  • Limited purpose HRA

• Plan features

• Mobile app
• Plan document creation
• HRA management services
• Employers can contribute HRA funds upfront at the beginning of the plan year or monthly. Also, funds can roll over annually.

4. Paychex

Founded in 1971, Paychex is mainly known as a payroll service vendor. However, they also offer other employee benefits administration solutions, including those for FSAs, HSAs, and HRAs.

While this company offers a few different HRA administration options, it has limited plan features, so customers wanting more customization may want to look elsewhere. To learn more about Paychex’s HRAs, plan features, and pricing, you’ll need to contact its sales team.

Notable Paychex HRA highlights:

• HRAs they provide

• • ICHRA
  • Excepted benefits HRA (EBHRA)
  • QSEHRA
  • Integrated HRA

• Plan features

• Member website
• Customer support from Paychex HRA benefit specialists

5. Take Command

Since 2014, Take Command has served HRA administration software to small and midsize employers. Take Command’s software enables employers to offer a QSEHRA or an ICHRA. However, employers looking to add an integrated HRA to their existing group health plan must work with another HRA administrator who provides tools for that benefit.

Notable Take Command HRA highlights:

• HRAs they provide

• • QSEHRA
  • ICHRA

• Plan features

• HRA management software with an all-in-one platform
• Individual health plan shopping support
• Customizable HRA design
• Full HRA compliance and reporting capabilities
• Ongoing account support

6. Gravie

Founded in 2013, Gravie provides SMBs with the option of offering an ICHRA managed through its platform or a self-funded group plan with Gravie as their third-party administrator. The company has offered an ICHRA administrator platform since the benefit became available in 2020.

However, because the ICHRA is the only HRA Gravie supports, employers looking for more HRA options may find other companies better suited to their needs.

Notable Gravie HRA highlights:

• HRAs they provide

• • Gravie ICHRA

• Plan features

• Mobile app with full access to benefits
• Ongoing customer support for employers and employees
• Assistance with HRA plan design and account management
• Employee support for locating in-network health providers
• Year-round in-house health plan shopping assistance from the Gravie Care team
• Insurance premium payment capabilities from the employees’ accounts to their insurers with the Gravie ICHRA CompletePay platform

7. Venteur

As a newly founded company in 2021, Venteur helps brokers, hospitals, SMBs, enterprise companies, and startups find health benefits. While their HRA software has a fair amount of features, they currently only offer an ICHRA, which may not support the needs of small employers or companies with a group health plan already in place.

Notable Venteur HRA highlights:

• HRAs they provide
  • ICHRA
• Plan features
  • Compliance and reporting capabilities
  • Custom HRA plan design options
  • Ongoing customer support, including an AI decision support tool and assistance during the open enrollment period
  • Ability to make monthly premium payments to the insurance carrier on behalf of the employee
  • An intuitive and modern dashboard with a benefits marketplace
  • Payroll and email integrations to save employers time on administrative duties and create a seamless onboarding experience

8. Benefitbay

Launched in 2012, Benefitbay offers an ICHRA administration platform for small employers. Like other options on this list, this company gives employers the ability to pay for employees’ individual premiums directly.

However, like many other HRA administrators, they only support one type of HRA—the ICHRA—so employers looking to offer another type of HRA will need to find another vendor.

Notable Benefitbay HRA highlights:

• HRAs they provide
  • ICHRA
• Plan features
  • Employee and employer portal
  • Individual health plan shopping support
  • Automated management tasks to reduce administrative burden for employers
  • Simple benefit design and onboarding process
  • Fulcrum tool that offers real-time plan design options with compliance assurance
  • Subsidy Advantage tool that determines ICHRA affordability and potential premium tax credit eligibility
  • Advanced Reimbursement Checking accounts that allow seamless automatic premium payments to an employee’s health insurance company
  • Ongoing customer support for brokers, employers, and employees

9. Zorro

Recently founded in January 2022, Zorro offers a platform that enables employers to offer a QSEHRA or an ICHRA as its health benefit. While Zorro’s features help employers better manage either of these HRAs, it does require employers to pre-fund an account to cover the cost of employee premiums.

Notable Zorro HRA highlights:

• HRAs they provide

• • ICHRA

• Plan features
  • An AI-driven platform that uses data to customize and improve your benefit.
  • Compliance assurance and legal plan document creation
  • Individual health plan shopping support based on data points that generate personalized medical plan suggestions
  • Automated premium payments to insurance carriers on behalf of the employee
  • Transparent dashboards for employers that show cost optimization options and allowance models
  • Ongoing AI and live customer support

10. zizzl health

zizzl health launched in 2016 and, in more recent years, has focused on offering ICHRA administration software. The company’s platform gives employers the option to cover employee premium costs through a traditional reimbursement model or front the cost of employee premiums themselves. However, employers looking for more HRA offerings will want to consider other options.

Notable zizzl health HRA highlights:

• HRAs they provide
  • ICHRA
• Plan features

• Mobile app
• A simple, integrated administrator platform
• Individual health plan shopping support
• Fast implementation and onboarding process
• Custom HRA plan design options showcasing cost savings
• Employers can make monthly premium payments to the insurance carrier on behalf of the employee
• Real-time customer support

11. Remodel Health

Since 2015, Remodel Health has been focused on helping organizations transition from traditional group health insurance to alternative health benefits. They currently only offer ICHRA administration software, so employers looking to offer a QSEHRA or integrated HRA will need to find another option.

In addition to their ICHRA platform, they also offer a solution called Wage+, which enables employers to provide employees with post-tax wage increases to purchase an individual health insurance plan.

Notable Remodel Health HRA highlights:

• HRAs they provide

• • ICHRA

• Plan features
  • ICHRA+: White-glove service
    • Custom HRA plan design options
    • Individual health plan shopping support with assistance from their licensed benefits advisors
    • Detailed payroll and reimbursement reports.
    • Direct employer and employee access to ongoing customer support
    • Optional on-site education and regular reviews to improve the benefit’s affordability and performance

Conclusion

An HRA is an excellent choice for employers looking for a health benefit they can customize to get the biggest bang for their buck. However, an HRA administration tool is essential to stay on top of compliance regulations and keep your HRA running smoothly.

At PeopleKeep, we offer several HRAs that can fit any organization’s health benefits needs. And with our HRA and stipend administration software solutions, we can keep you compliant with more time to focus on running your business.

Schedule a call with one of our personalized benefits advisors today, and we’ll set you up with the right HRA for your company.

This article was originally published on April 27, 2022. It was last updated on October 30, 2023.