Overview of Federally Qualified
Medical Savings Accounts (MSA's)  

The 104th Congress recently enacted a monumental Health Insurance
Reform Law - P.L. 104-191. This bill is called the "MSA Law" and
enables employers (and the self employed) to set up high deductible
Medical Plans and then to set up Tax Qualified Accounts to receive
deposits that can be used to pay for deductibles and co-insurance.

The MSA account contributions are fully tax deductible. The minimum
account size is $975.00 for an individual (annual contribution) with a
maximum family contribution of $3,375.00 per year. These accounts
can be set up at banks, brokerage houses or insurance companies.

The target market for the MSA account is your small business banking
customer. The law allows the accounts to be set up by employer groups
of up to 50 employees. Congress has opened up this program as an
"Open Enrollment" for the first 8 months (January 1, 1997 -
September 1, 1997) with the maximum number of enrollees to be
750,000 nationally. However, everyone who sets up MSA accounts
during the open enrollment period will be grandfathered by Congress.
So the real key for a bank is to set up as many MSA accounts as
possible during the open period.

Group Insurance - Employee Census Form
MSA Request Form for the Self Employed
More on MSA's --Federal Rules