IRS Expands Preventive Care Under High-Deductible Health Plans

High-deductible health plans can offer expanded benefits for contraception, diabetes, and breast cancer services to enrollees earlier under new IRS guidance.

Enrollees in high-deductible plans often use tax-free health savings accounts for medical care, so long as the plan doesn’t offer benefits before they meet their deductibles. Certain preventive care items and services are exempted.

The IRS guidance released Thursday clarifies and expands those exemptions for male condoms, over-the-counter and emergency oral contraceptives, continuous glucose monitors, and additional breast cancer screenings.

The change to breast cancer screenings broadens the exemptions beyond mammograms to include imaging like MRIs and ultrasounds. ...