American Health Value, LLC (AHV) located in Boise, ID, is a privately-held company.  Our custodial bank currently reports their total assets at $3.4 billion as of September 30, 2011.  AHV carries Errors and Omissions Coverage specifically for administering HSA's. 

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Founded in 1996, AHV was responsible for opening the first Medical Savings Account (MSA) on January 1, 1996. 

Visionary and majority owner, Dr. William T. Terry, a local Boise child and adolescent psychiatrist, was an early pioneer in a new concept in healthcare delivery:  Consumer Driven Health Care (CDHC).  As a doctor, he was well-versed in the existing medical system and knew it to be unsustainable with the cost becoming prohibitive to most.  Like a 'house of cards' it was sure to collapse.  Once committed to the CDHC concept, Dr. Terry has never wavered or hesitated to follow through on his vision. 

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From the onset, AHV faced a number of challenges.  They recognized they had to find ways to promote, implement, and to ultimately expand the highly restricted MSA program if it were to become permanent. 

The program itself seemed designed for failure.  Restricted to certain sized groups, a pre-determined number of accounts that could be opened, and the looming sunset date were among these limitations.  The MSA program had to take root and show actual benefits while lowering overall healthcare costs, or congress would vote it out and seal its fate. 

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The goals became obvious:

• Convince insurance carriers to create the compatible MSA health plan
• Convince agents this was indeed a program beneficial to their clients
• Change the mindset of employers & consumers on the benefits of the MSA program

All of that and more had to be accomplished prior to the sunset date proving there was nationwide demand for this new healthcare delivery system.  The challenge was how to introduce and promote a product to an industry that for the most part, was not receptive.

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The plan was to crisscross America from coast to coast giving live presentations intended to educate everyone they could about the value and necessity of the CDHC movement.

Flying up to 100,000 miles per year at their own expense, members of AHV made presentations to Insurance Carriers, Health Underwriter Associations, Chambers of Commerce; to anyone who was listening and wanted to learn more.

The initial results were as expected:  Some were optimistic, some were skeptical, and some rejected the concept altogether. 

AHV remained committed and continued to educate through face-to-face presentations, advertising, writing articles for publication, and even some good old-fashioned arm twisting.  If time is the measure of all things, AHV believed that eventually time would become their ally and the program would become well-received. 

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Mission accomplished!  Health Savings Accounts were signed into law and became available to consumers nationwide in 2004.  Today, AHV continues their commitment to take a leadership role advancing the CDHC healthcare environment. 

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