Each month Devenir highlights a selection of articles to keep you abreast of the latest trends and developments in the HSA marketplace.
A summary of the articles included in the April 2018 edition:
- Credit Union HSA Update: 12/31/2017
- Omnibus Spending Bill Leaves Out Health, Retirement Provisions
- Ascensus Expands into Consumer Directed Healthcare and Employee Benefit Administration Markets with Agreement to Acquire Chard Snyder
- Half of Americans Still Don’t Grasp Benefits of HSAs
- HDHPs Can Be More Cost-Effective For Consumers, Report Says
Credit Union HSA Update: 12/31/2017
On March 7th we published our latest quarterly analysis of how health savings accounts are faring among credit unions. According to the latest NCUA filings, as of December 31st credit unions held $1.47 billion in HSA deposits among what we would estimate to be roughly 577,000 accounts.
Omnibus Spending Bill Leaves Out Health, Retirement Provisions
President Trump passed the omnibus $1.3 trillion spending bill, avoiding a government shutdown. But just as important as what is in the spending bill is what got left out — and unfortunately for employers, that includes employee benefit provisions that would have helped aim to stabilize the market.
The spending bill did not include changes to health and retirement benefits that the benefits industry would have liked to have seen, including individual market stabilization for the ACA, health savings account improvements and retroactive relief from the Affordable Care Act employer mandate penalties and ACA reporting duties. It also left out the Retirement Enhancement and Savings Act, which, benefits industry experts contend, would have made it easier for individuals to save for retirement.
Ascensus Expands into Consumer Directed Healthcare and Employee Benefit Administration Markets with Agreement to Acquire Chard Snyder
Ascensus, a technology-enabled service provider that helps more than 7 million Americans save for the future, has entered into an agreement to acquire Chard Snyder. Chard Snyder, which will serve as the anchor business for Ascensus’ newly formed Health division, is a third-party administration firm that services consumer directed health (CDH) plans including health savings accounts, health reimbursement arrangements, and flexible spending accounts. It also offers benefit continuation services like COBRA and FMLA leave administration along with retiree billing administration and commuter benefits.
Half of Americans Still Don’t Grasp Benefits of HSAs
A new survey finds that only 51% of Americans consider themselves knowledgeable about the workings of health savings accounts (HSAs), suggesting that there is much work to be done to educate consumers, advisors and employers on the benefits.
A common misconception is that many Americans remain unaware that they can use their HSAs to pay for health care and long-term care expenses in retirement, according to the joint report by the LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute and Insured Retirement Institute.
HDHPs Can Be More Cost-Effective For Consumers, Report Says
Traditionally, HDHPs have been seen as potentially a wise choice for young, healthier people who are low healthcare users. They benefit from the lower premiums and don’t need to pay many out-of-pocket costs. That’s different from older people with families, who likely receive more healthcare services. However, NBER’s report suggested HDHPs are often a better financial option — even for high users of healthcare.