Pre-tax healthcare spending dollars can help reduce financial stress while supporting employees with essential well-being items year-round. But unlike our health needs, loading up your flexible spending account (FSA) or health savings account (HSA) funds typically only happens once a year at annual enrollment.
This “set it and forget it” approach is fantastic for financial security but may mean these savings are out of sight and out of mind when it matters most. Since we’re halfway through the year, now is a perfect opportunity to remind employees to stock up on wellness essentials.
Unlike other consumer-directed spending accounts, FSA dollars are use-it or lose-it, meaning your funds “expire” at the end of the year. Many employers may offer rollovers or claim extensions, but this isn’t a guarantee and still leaves employees scrambling to spend down their accounts at the end of the year.
Summer is a great time to remind yourself and your employees to use those hard-earned healthcare funds for covered expenses such as:
There are lots of surprising items on the eligibility list. FSA dollars can prepare employees for all their epic summer adventures and ease those satisfyingly sore muscles the next day.
Unlike FSAs, HSA dollars don’t expire. Another perk: HSA funds can be invested to grow wealth over time.
Healthcare costs continue to rise, and our own Benefits Insights data shows that many of us don’t feel prepared to take on a large medical expense, planned or otherwise. That’s why many employees are looking to their employers for guidance as financial stress ticks higher and higher.
Though we’d like to think large health costs are limited to just the “unexpected,” like an emergency room visit or urgent surgery, the reality is that expected costs, like braces or home health equipment, have a high price tag, too.
If employees understand their health savings accounts, including how to invest funds and request reimbursement, they can breathe easy knowing panic-level medical costs are covered.
HSAs and FSAs are a big part of financial wellness strategy, providing a safety net to pay for healthcare costs big and small. But this strategy is only as effective as employees know that money is available in those stressful moments and can conveniently request reimbursement.
Technology can help you keep employees connected to their benefits year-round, especially when all of their benefits are in one platform. In fact, our data shows that when employees’ FSA or HSA accounts are in the same platform as the rest of their benefits, engagement overall rises by at least 12%.
Simplicity is key to engagement, especially when it comes to benefits and health spending. Employees have one life, one paycheck, and one “wallet.” HR pros that take a holistic approach will drive greater value in all their benefits programs, meeting employees in the middle.
Our MyChoice® Accounts solution brings all things consumer accounts right where employees want and expect them to be—inside their benefits portal. One system for one wallet.
As limits shift to better support people’s health needs in this uncertain economy, make sure to keep employees informed and consider pointing them towards the HSA and FSA Store to make the most of their hard-earned dollars.
