myResourceCard^® Status Report

• myResourceCard^® progressing well
• DataPath team met with Treasury and IRS representatives
• myResourceCard^® 100% compliant with current regulations
• Fully integrated with DataPath administration systems
• Built, owned, and managed by DataPath

myResourceCard^® is progressing well. A project like this takes time to ensure a smooth take-off. At this time, it appears myResourceCard^® will be released this spring.

In October, a DataPath team consisting of John Robbins, Sr., Glenn Hoffman, and John Robbins, Jr., attended a meeting with people from the Treasury Department and IRS. Attorney John Hickman (Alston & Byrd, Atlanta, GA) set up the meeting, but was unable to attend. Attorney Tom Shent (Alston & Byrd, Washington, DC) represented DataPath.

Treasury calls meetings like this to “discover” what is being practiced in the marketplace and to determine how best to deal with any conflicting regulatory issues discovered. This meeting focused around the following debit card compliance issues: claim substantiation, prefunding, EDI, and 1099s. All interested participants had opportunity to provide discovery. At other meetings, presenters discussing their debit approach included mbi's Flex Convenience™ Debit Card, Evolution Benefits's Benny™ debit card, and Smartflex's SmartFlex™ debit card. Notice all these solutions surrounded the debit card platform, while DataPath's solution, vastly different, is based on credit.

July 10, 2002, the Office of Public Affairs announced the 2002-2003 Priorities for Tax Regulations for the Treasury Department and the IRS which included “guidance under sections 105(b) and 125 on use of debit cards for flexible spending accounts”. On February 10, 2003, ECFC announced that a "top Treasury Department Official" confirmed the guidance and said officials expect to be able to speak on the topic at ECFC's Annual Conference, March 13-14, 2003. So it appears the guidance can come out any day.

DataPath will respond once the guidance is issued. If the IRS is more permissive than we anticipated in our solution, we will add functions and features to take advantage of any new leniency allowed by these rulings. If, on the other hand, Treasury remains firm on the substantiation issue and the other above issues, DataPath's present approach is compliant with the current regulations.

In addition to being compliant, myResourceCard^® offers greater efficiencies because its initial design is fully integrated with our administration systems. This integration will be continued into the future since myResourceCard^® is built, owned, and managed by the one and same DataPath team.

In This Issue

Marketing in These Changing Times
DataPath and HRAs
DataPath COBRA:  Status Report
HIPAA Privacy Packet Coming!
IRS Documents, Publications, and Links