I want to warn former workers of companies that provided them with insurance and a health savings account (HSA). Be sure when you are no longer covered on the group insurance policy that you contact the administrator of your health savings account and obtain a new debit card or confirm that the existing card you have has not been invalidated.

Also, check the fees that they are charging you associated with administering your account. It has been more than a year since I was laid off and lost my insurance but had funds in my HSA. I received a letter from my HSA in January advising me that they were going to charge an annual fee of $45 effective February 2011. Upon trying to pay a doctor's bill at their office a few weeks ago my card would not work and I had to write a check to cover the visit. This was needless to say, a bit embarrassing, time consuming and inconvenient. I was informed by HSA after calling them, that the card had been invalidated when the insurance was canceled when I was laid off.

With this happening, I changed the administrator of my HSA to a company that charges a lower annual fee and hopefully will provide the service, but my HSA will not refund the annual management fee that they charged me in February. I feel strongly that they did not provide a service or do anything to earn this fee.

MARGARET MACKENZIE

Coeur d'Alene