SEC. 71-9-3. Definitions.

As used in this chapter:

(a) "Account administrator" means a state chartered bank, savings and loan association, credit union or trust company authorized to act as a fiduciary and under the supervision of the Department of Banking and Consumer Finance or the Department of Savings Associations, as appropriate; a national bank, national lending association or federal savings and loan association or credit union authorized to act as a fiduciary in this state; an insurer licensed and admitted to do business in this state; a third party administrator licensed by the Mississippi Commissioner of Insurance; or an employer, if the employer has a self-insured health plan meeting federal ERISA requirements.

(b) "Account holder" means a resident individual or an employee for whose benefit a medical savings account is established.

(c) "Dependent" means the spouse of an account holder or the child of an account holder if the child is:

(i) Legally entitled to the provision of proper or necessary subsistence, education, medical care, or other care necessary for his or her health, guidance or well-being and not otherwise emancipated, self-supporting, married or a member of the Armed Forces of the United States; or

(ii) Mentally or physically incapacitated to the extent that he or she is not self-sufficient.

(d) "Domicile" means a place where an individual has his or her true, fixed and permanent home and principal establishment, to which, whenever absent, he or she intends to return.

(e) "Eligible medical expense" means an expense paid by a taxpayer for medical care described in Section 213(d) of the Internal Revenue Code.

(f) "Higher deductible" means a deductible of not less than One Thousand Two Hundred Fifty Dollars ($1,250.00) but not more than Two Thousand Five Hundred Dollars ($2,500.00) for individual health coverage, and not less than One Thousand Seven Hundred Fifty Dollars ($1,750.00) but not more than Three Thousand Five Hundred Dollars ($3,500.00) for health coverage provided to an individual and his or her dependents, in tax year 1994. Such deductible limits thereafter shall be adjusted annually for increases in the cost of living, as measured by the medical costs component of the Consumer Price Index.

(g) "Medical savings account" means an account established to pay eligible medical expense of the account holder and his or her dependents.

(h) "Medical savings account program" means a program that includes all of the following:

(i) The purchase by an employer of a qualified higher deductible health plan for the benefit of an employee and his or her dependents or the purchase by a resident individual of a qualified higher deductible health plan for his or her benefit or for the benefit of his or her dependents, or both;

(ii) The payment on behalf of an employee into a medical savings account by his or her employer or payment into a medical savings account by a resident individual on his or her behalf of at least sixty-six and two-thirds percent (66-2/3%) of the premium reduction realized by the purchase of a qualified higher deductible health plan; and

(iii) An account administrator to administer the medical savings account and the reimbursement of eligible medical expenses therefrom.

(i) "Qualified higher deductible health plan" means an accident and health insurance policy, certificate or contract that provides for payment of covered expenses that exceed the higher deductible and that is purchased by:

(i) An employer for the benefit of an employee; or

(ii) A resident individual for his or her benefit.

(j) "Resident individual" means an individual who has a domicile in this state.

SOURCES: Laws, 1994, ch. 468, Sec. 2, eff from and after January 1, 1994, and shall stand repealed from and after January 1, 1998

Note: 1997 Laws, Chapter 606, Sec. 9, state as follows:

SECTION 9. Section 7, Chapter 468, General Laws of 1994, is amended as follows:

Section 7. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after January 1, 1994 * * *.