How to Drive HSA Adoption: Seed Early Adopters

We're launching this "How to Drive HSA Adoption" series to share insights derived from Lumity's 2018 State of the HSA Survey. More than 350 professionals in HR and finance responded to our survey, and over 97 professionals participated in our HSA market research calls. Companies ranged in size from 15 to 15,000 employees.

Our research revealed that, overall, nearly 75% of employers offer Health Savings Accounts.

But, according to a 2016 Mercer National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans, only 24% of covered employees enroll in one. With so many employers offering HSAs, sluggish uptake isn't for lack of availability. So we wanted to know, what's hampering HSA adoption?

As we dug into our HSA research, we found commonalities among employers who were exceeding the national average for HSA adoption. We've distilled the recipe for success into 4-steps for this "How to Drive HSA Adoption" blog series:

• Step 1: Seed Early Adopters
• Step 2: Find Your Employer Contribution Sweet Spot
• Step 3: Mitigate Employee Risk with Your Plan Design
• Step 4: Educate Employees

Step 1: Seed Early Adopters

Sixty-three percent of employers who offer an HSA make a contribution. Providing a financial incentive jump starts employee awareness, consideration, and ultimately adoption and self-funding.

Target your ideal High-Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) candidates first.

For these personas, there's a huge potential upside of choosing an HSA-eligible high-deductible plan. It could save them hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars in a single year.

Map an HDHP to an HSA to further reduce cost and risk

When employees are looking at health plans choices, the decision is typically driven by two fundamental questions:

• How much am I going to spend on health care this year?
• What is my risk tolerance?

Now that you know the ideal candidates for an HDHP, you can focus on how an HSA further reduces their financial exposure. An HDHP/HSA combo offers a low monthly premium plus a pre-tax advantage to reduce any out-of-pocket medical expenses they may incur.

The first wave of HSA adopters can influence the second wave... and so on.

When an employer makes an HSA contribution to an employee's HSA account, they drive both awareness of an HSA and more focused consideration.

The positive experiences of your first wave of adopters can influence the second wave during your next open enrollment season. In part 2 of our series, we'll delve into how to find your employer contribution sweet spot.