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 January 2018 edition:
- Why HSAs Increase Responsibilities For Employer, Broker
- Mid-Career Employees Most Likely to Be HSA Spenders
- Willis Towers Watson Re-Brands OneExchange, Acclaris Business
- Credit Union HSA Update: 9/30/2017
- HealthEquity Reports Third Quarter Ended October 31, 2017 Financial Results
- HSA Priorities, Strategies Differ By Age, Financial Goals
Why HSAs Increase Responsibilities For Employer, Broker
As employers continue to battle healthcare costs, many are changing to consumer-driven plans, such as health savings and health reimbursement accounts. For the shift to be successful, employees must understand it is more than shifting costs on to them. That responsibility falls on the employer and broker, who are critical to their successful rollout and execution of these plans.
Mid-Career Employees Most Likely to Be HSA Spenders
Employers are increasingly seeing health savings accounts (HSAs) as part of a retirement benefits strategy and are encouraging employees to use them as savings vehicles. However, a survey from ConnectYourCare shows mid-career employees are more likely spending their HSA assets.
Overall, 81.8% of respondent to the survey say they regularly use their HSA funds throughout the year to pay for out-of-pocket health costs, while 18.2% say they try to save/invest their HSA funds as much as possible for retirement or large future expenses. But, employees younger than 25 (25.6%) and older than 65 (22.1%) are more likely to say they try to save/invest their HSA funds. The survey found employees ages 35 to 44 (84.9%) and 45 to 54 (84.3%) were more likely to be HSA spenders.
Willis Towers Watson Re-Brands OneExchange, Acclaris Business
Willis Towers Watson has renamed its exchange business to broaden its focus, giving it a new consumer-facing brand name of Via Benefits.
The change took place in mid-November. The firm’s OneExchange and Acclaris businesses are now known as Benefits Delivery and Administration (BDA) internally and Via Benefits to customers.
HealthEquity Reports Third Quarter Ended October 31, 2017 Financial Results
HealthEquity, Inc., the nation’s largest health savings account non-bank custodian, today announced financial results for its third quarter ended October 31, 2017.
“HealthEquity has added more than 740,000 new HSAs and $1.3 billion in custodial assets since the end of the third quarter last year as we added more than 123,000 HSAs in this year’s third quarter, including 14,000 from First Interstate Bank,” said Jon Kessler, President and CEO of HealthEquity. “The 27% third quarter growth in HSAs helped us surpass 3 million total HSAs and drive our custodial assets up 30% to $5.6 billion. Our fully integrated investment platform continues to lead the industry with 73% custodial investment growth in the third quarter and total invested custodial assets at $1 billion at quarter end. With another strong quarterly performance and record year-to-date results, we are narrowing our guidance for fiscal 2018 financial expectations around a higher revenue forecast and confirming our adjusted EBITDA outlook.”
HSA Priorities, Strategies Differ By Age, Financial Goals
A health savings account (HSA) can be a powerful tool for just about anyone. The flexibility of HSAs makes them appealing for a wide range of users, but that same flexibility can make explaining these accounts a challenge. No two people have identical health benefit needs, and each employee will use an HSA differently.