Health Plan Members Pleased with Their HSAs

Most employers and account holders using health savings accounts and HSA-qualified health plans are satisfied with their coverage, spend less, and are more engaged in managing health benefits, two HSA industry-sponsored surveys indicate.

The surveys, conducted last spring, examined employer and account holder selection and use of HSAs as well as health plan participation, behaviors related to plan usage, and satisfaction with product features.

The surveys, sponsored by HSA administrators ACS and subsidiary Buck Consultants, found that:

• 84% of account holders say their HSA-qualified plans are affordable.
• 72% of account holders say they pay the same or less than a traditional type of health plan.
• After moving to an HSA, more than half of account holders say they more closely monitor their healthcare costs, while 48% read their medical bills more closely than when they did not have an HSA, 46% have a better understanding of where their money goes, and 40% more closely evaluate costs before electing medical services.
• 81% of account holders said the ability to personally control healthcare costs is an important factor that caused them to select an HSA.
• Of the employers offering HSAs for more than three years, 86% indicated that plan costs were the same or less than the previous year.
• 96% of employers claimed that HSAs allow the company to continue offering group-sponsored health insurance.