Help Your Employees Take Full Advantage of Their HSA in the New Year
It’s a new plan year for you and your employees!
For some of your employees, this year may be their first time managing a health spending account (HSA). And because our data shows that 65% of consumers report using their HSA as a spending resource (with 23% stating they use their account equally for saving and spending), your employees may need help to take full advantage of their HSA in the new year.
With HSAs’ high usage potential, and with employees across the United States facing rising health care costs and continued health fears in the wake of COVID-19, many are looking to their employers for tools and resources to pay for care, including HSAs. Yet, despite HSAs’ growth in popularity year over year, many people still underutilize their account. Suggestion: Let’s make 2021 the year that employees get the full benefit of their HSAs!
Beginning last year and into 2021, Further found that we are in a unique position: Employees are paying attention to their benefits, now more than ever. As an employer, you have an opportunity to capitalize on this momentum and empower employees to become educated, engaged health care consumers. When it comes to making the most of HSAs, it’s all about identifying what an individual wants to do this year in terms of paying for their health care, knowing what can be paid from their account, and planning accordingly.
To help your employees make the most of their HSA, there are a number of quick tips and considerations that you can offer to help them better manage their health care and their HSAs throughout the year, including:
- Consider this a fresh start to the medical year. Payments towards deductibles start over in the new year. Remind your employees that they can use their spending account to pay for medical expenses as they come up. This will count as payment toward their deductible.
- Consider what’s covered and take advantage of it. Importantly, routine checkups are completely covered under any health insurance plan with an HSA. Routine checkups, or preventative visits, are important in preventing illness and detecting conditions earlier, when they are easier to treat.
- Consider where to spend health savings account balances. Employees can use their HSA dollars to pay for all sorts of everyday expenses, including Band-Aids and bandages, cold medicine, SPF 30 or greater sunscreen and more. Check out this handy eligible-expenses list.
- Remind employees to make sure their HSA is activated. An HSA is not activated until a contribution has been made. This is important because only expenses incurred after an HSA is activated can be paid for with HSA funds. If your employees are not sure whether their account is active, they can log in to their account online to check.
- Technology tools make HSAs accessible at any time of day. Inclusive of apps, text alerts, online portals and direct deposit, Further has several tools that make it easy for your employees to manage their funds 24/7. Encourage employees to visit our Learning Center to learn more, so they can begin efficiently using their HSAs immediately!
Thinking of HSAs as a savings tool or long-term investment vehicle no longer resonates with employees. They look to HSAs as a means to pay for health care today. Yet admittedly, the learning curve to understand the full benefits of HSAs can be steep.
One last tip: Encourage your employees to visit our Learning Center often. We regularly update it with new information, so we recommend HSA owners bookmark it so that whenever they are looking for help, information is just a click away.
