Frequently asked questions​

Aya is a Canadian fintech company that focuses on simple payment technology to help mitigate rising healthcare costs.

A Health Spending Account is a flexible way employers can provide their employees with health benefits allowing employees to choose where they spend their allotted funds Employers contributions are 100% tax-deductible and employees expenses are tax-free.

Employees love HSA’s because they get to choose where they spend their allocated dollars. Using the Aya Mastercard® they never have to go out-of-pocket on medical expenses. It’s like having a bank account they can use for their medical, dental and vision expenses. An employer can also write off 100% of the costs related to it’s HSA and all expenses are tax-free to employees. In recent HR surveys, having an HSA is also a leading reason why an employee chooses to stay with an employer.

At any health or wellness merchant worldwide. Swipe to pay for medical expenses at doctor’s offices, pharmacies, dentist offices, vision care as well as many other modern treatments from a variety of expert practitioners. Click here to see the full list of expenses covered with Aya Mastercard®.

Your employer allocates a specific amount.  You will be notified of the amount and then simply use your Aya Mastercard® to pay for eligible expenses up to your allotted allowance.

Ask your employer to contact Aya or refer them to the website: www.ayacare.com

Awesome. We have the answers – call us duing normal work hours from 9AM to 5PM EST at 888-427-6682.

For Employees

Claims

Claims can be easily submitted by taking a picture of your merchant receipt plus medical receipt such as prescription and uploading it for reimbursement through the free Aya Payments mobile app, available through the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.

No, copies of medical receipts are NOT required following your claim approval; however, please keep receipts so you can submit them through the app.

No. Aya Payments needs to see the details of the service you received to ensure its eligibility; payment receipts alone don’t provide sufficient information. If you lose a receipt, contact the provider (ie: the medical practitioner) and obtain another receipt from them. If the claim submission requires a medical receipt (e.g., Prescription), you will need a copy from your provider in order to have your claim approved.

Medical eligible expenses are determined by the date of the transaction against your eligibility criteria. The eligibility criteria is defined by your employer within a given plan year. You can make a claim for a medical expense that was incurred anytime in the previous plan year as determined by your employer, and provided you have a sufficient amount of benefit available in the plan year in which the expense was incurred. If your employer has established a claim period after year end of 30 days, this means that you have 30 days after the end of your plan year to claim items that were incurred in the previous year. Keep in mind that all claims are processed according to the service date on the receipt; even if you submit a claim in the current plan year that was incurred in the previous plan year, it may still be rejected if you have exhausted all of your available benefit allotment for the year in which you had the medical expense. You cannot make a claim for any expense that was incurred prior to the date you became eligible for the Plan. If your receipt is dated prior to your plan eligibility date, it will be rejected because at the time you incurred the expense, you were not eligible for the Plan.

You should first submit your claim to your partners plan. Following adjudication, any amount not reimbursed is eligible for submission onto your aya plan.

Purchases or services should be submitted as separate claims if they’re for different transactions and have different receipts.

How do I submit a claim for my dependent?

Our mobile application will walk you the information required to submit a claim. On your paid receipt, information such as Health Merchant Name (e.g, Dr. Jane Doe), Date of Transaction, Amount You Wish To Claim (against Amount You Paid) and and other supporting information. For a specific medical claim, different information will be required (i.e., Prescription is different than Physiotherapist Services). If required, our application will prompt you for a prescription. If the receipt or invoice omits any of this information, or if you need to provide any additional information, please send us a message at support@ayacare.com.

There are a variety of reasons for why your Health Spending Account (HSA) claim could have been partially paid. A few common reasons for a partial reimbursement are:

  • Some of the products or services being claimed are not eligible for coverage.
  • The accounts being claimed against have insufficient funds to cover the full expense.
  • Because there are other reasons a claim may not be covered, but if you have any questions or concerns regarding your particular claim please contact our Customer Care team on Chat or email us at support@ayacare.com. We’d be happy to help!

How long does it take for me to get reimbursed?

Bank Details Questions

When you make an out of pocket claim, which is a claim where you spend your own money rather than using the Aya card, we need to pay you back when your claim is approved. To pay you back, we need to deposit money into your bank account. These details are securely stored and do not allow us to withdraw money, only deposit it. (There is a different process if you use the card incorrectly and need to repay.)

We need your transit number, your institution number and your account number, they can be retrieved from a void check (see details below), or by checking your account information online. If you’re not sure which number is which, the shortest, three digit number is the institution, the five digit number is the transit number and the account number is the longest, seven to twelve digits.

Mastercard Questions

Yes, currently there is a daily spend limit of $10,000 at any point of sale purchase. If you expect this to be a problem, shoot us a note and let us know!

Your card will already come activated and you can begin using it as soon as your employer deposits funds into your account.

It typically takes 7-10 business days for your Aya Prepaid Mastercard to arrive. If it has been longer than 10 business days, please send an email to support@ayacare.com and we can look into it for you.

If you are unable to access your account, please pay for the qualified medical expense out-of-pocket if it is urgent. You can then reimburse yourself by using the out-of-pocket feature on the Aya app. Please let us know at support@ayacare.com where your card was not working and we will look into it right away! In certain cases, we have blocked the ability to purchase non-qualified medical expenses. We do this to ensure that you are not using your card inappropriately, which can lead to penalties and extra taxes!

Your Aya Prepaid Mastercard is formatted for health spending accounts and can be used everywhere Mastercard is accepted for eligible health expenses. The card cannot be used at ATMs or to obtain cash, and purchases that exceed your available balance will be declined. You can view and manage your balance to always know where you stand directly in the Aya app.

You can use your available spending balance for eligible health purchases, which generally include payments for doctor’s visits, dental, vision, prescription medications, therapy, and more. But what most people don’t know is that there are 1,000’s of other everyday items that you can pay for with your health spending dollars.

Please contact support@ayacare.com or call 1-888-427-6682 with extension 1002 and press 1 if your Aya Prepaid Mastercard has been stolen or lost immediately.

HSA Specific Questions

Yourself and any of your eligible dependents who are listed on the plan will be covered by your benefit limit.

Dependents would be your spouse or dependent children. Children are covered until the age of 21 and if they are enrolled in full-time post-secondary education they are covered until age 25. Dependents who are disabled can continue beyond the age of 25 but you will need to fill out a T2201 Form.

Changes to your benefit limit are up to the discretion of your employer. Aya Payments acts as the administrator for your employer, thus we don’t make any changes to your limit unless we are notified.

No, if you leave your current employer, the employer will get back the funds on your HSA.

A Health Spending Account is established to exclusively pay for health care services for your employees and their families. It doesn’t include any mandatory coverage and can be used to pay for any and all health, vision and dental expenses including those not covered under traditional plans, such as laser eye surgery or fertility treatments.

Additional benefits:

  • Offer employees flexibility and choice on what they want to use their HSA credits for
  • Offer employees a tax-free allowance
  • Cover expenses not eligible to be claimed under traditional benefit plans
  • Offer employees an active role in their health
A full list of eligible expenses can be found on the CRA Website. View the full list here.

Unfortunately, receipts must be submitted using the funds from the same plan year. This means a dental receipt from 2020, must use the limit from 2020.

My Account Questions

You can request a new password using the Aya mobile application or on the website.

Please contact your company’s HR or healthcare benefits administrator to get you set up.

With Aya, you can see your balance in the app in real time.

We hold your data security to the highest standard at Aya Payments. Aya ensures compliance with applicable privacy laws and legislations, in specific compliance with HIPAA and PIPEDA . Thus we have implemented security best practices to ensure that all sensitive data is protected during collection, processing and storage. Aya conducts ongoing security assessments and third party audits such as SOC 2 to review existing implementations.

Changes to profile

First and foremost, any questions that you have will be directed to your TPA (Third Party Administrator). We’ll notify you of your TPA (information will be in your mobile/web app). Otherwise, please email us directly at support@ayacare.com

For Employees & Employers

General Info

A Health Spending Account (HSA) supports employees with their medical expenses relating directly to health, hence the name Health Spending Account. It gives employers and employees flexibility with how and where they want to spend their allotted health funds. Some commonly claimed expenses in an HSA include dental checkups, prescription drugs, physiotherapy, and prescription glasses.

We believe that making smart health spending and saving choices should be affordable, easy, and even fun. That’s why Aya removes all of those pesky, hidden processes that most HSAs have. With us all you do is use our mastercard and take a photo of the receipt. Our adjudication technology reviews 100% of claims so employers no longer have to worry about fraud.

Amount Claimed: The claimed amount is the total of all eligible expenses you are claiming.

Amount Paid: The amount paid is the amount you paid for a particular transaction that may or may not have eligible claims.

Benefit Coordinator: Also known as the BC, this is the person from your business that has administrator permissions for the benefit plan. We only provide plan information to the Benefit Coordinator.

Benefit Limit: The fixed dollar amount an employee receives each plan year.

Claim Deadline: The date deadline you have to submit a claim for your plan. For example, many employees must submit their claims within 30 days after the plan year end.

Classifications: These are the categories that each of your employees are placed in which designate what their benefit limit will be.

Dependents: Dependents are defined as your legal spouse and unmarried, unemployed dependent children including natural, adopted or step-children. Children of a common-law spouse may be covered if they are living with the employee.

  • A spouse of an eligible Employee who is either:
    • legally married to the Employee; or
    • a person who is living with the Employee and who is publicly represented as the Employee’s spouse or partner; and
  • Any financially dependent member of the Employee’s household with whom the Employee is connected by blood relationship, marriage or adoption.

Dependent children are eligible for benefits to a maximum of 25 years of age if the child is a full-time student or is mentally and/or physically disabled.

Effective Date: The effective date is when the Plan is to commence or when the employee is eligible for the Plan.

HSA: Health Spending Account

PAD: Pre-Authorized Debit. This is the fixed amount that will be pulled from your business account on the first business day of the month . The Benefit Coordinator can adjust this amount by contacting support@ayacare.com to meet the group’s claiming needs.

Plan Year: Your Plan either runs with the calendar year or on a unique 12-month period that was set up when your plan was created. As the Benefit Coordinator can view your plan year dates within your Aya account.

Approved: This status means that you claim has completed the processing stage and payment will be issued shortly.

Submitted: This status means the claim has been received and has now begun processing. Once all the items you are claiming have been entered into the system, the status of your claim will change again.

Reset (Benefits): Under this option, the benefit limit must be used within a given plan year or the benefit is forfeited. Aya does not receive or keep the forfeited amount.

Rollover (Benefits): This is the unused portion of the benefit limit that will be carried forward into the next plan year. The amount carried forward must be used within 12 months.

Service Date: This is the date when the procedure, service or prescription occurred.

For Employers​

A Health Spending Account is a cost-effective means for a business to provide employees a way to pay for health-related costs while providing a tax benefit to the employer.

Additional benefits:
Health spending accounts aide in employee attracting and retention
Cost control and customization for employers
Contributions from the employer are 100% tax-deductible
Funds not used by the employees are returned to the employer

Your HSA is funded based on how you set up your application – monthly, quarterly or yearly. A predetermined amount will be withdrawn from your business bank account and held in trust with Peoples Trust. Your funds will be used to pay employee claims as they are incurred. The funds always belong to you and may be returned to you at no cost. You decide the monthly contribution. We recommend you determine your monthly contribution by totaling the amount you plan to offer your employees and divide by 12.

As a plan administrator, you’re the go-to person for your company’s group plan. You’re responsible for helping employees with day-to-day administrative needs, so understanding your responsibilities and benefits plan is super important.

New employees are invited to enroll in their Aya benefits plan for themselves and their dependents. Enrollment occurs within 31 days of becoming eligible for benefits.

A key part of your role is to update necessary employee information on time. This ensures claims are paid correctly and promptly and monthly billing statements are correct. As the plan administrator you need to ensure:
  • Employees’ class information is up-to-date with Aya.
  • Employees leaving the plan are quickly terminated from Aya.
  • Employees record Qualifying Life Events (QLEs) with Aya within 31 days of the event.
  • Aya is informed in advance about other important employee benefit changes, such as leaves of absence (LOA), lay-offs, and benefit extensions due to severance agreements.

Do I have to give all my employees the same benefits?

No HR department, no problem! Aya was designed with small-to-medium businesses in mind – we know what it’s like to wear multiple hats, and we’ve done our best to make Aya easy for anyone in your company to manage. If you need any help along the way, the Aya Care team can jump in.

If an employee leaves their group Aya plan, they will be able to continue submitting medical, dental (if applicable) and Aya claims for 30-90 days as determined by the administrator when setting up the company. This can be customized for your group during your set up. If funds are being deposited monthly, quarterly, or annually, the unreserved funds that the employee has available to use are pro-rated based on that employee’s termination date.

Yes, you can make up to 2 changes. This is customizable based on your application. At the end of your plan year you will again be able to make changes to your group’s medical plan.

Set up a Pre-Authorized Debit agreement. Currently Scotiabank, RBC and BMO have enabled bill pay.

Change/Cancellation of plan

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