Double-Digit HSA Growth Tied to Health Plan Coverage
By Dennis Zuehlke, Compliance Manager, Ascensus.
Growth in health savings accounts (HSAs) continued at a rapid rate last year, with a 20 percent increase in the number of accounts and a 22 percent increase in assets from 2015 to 2016, according to the 2016 Year-End Devenir HSA Market Survey. The number of HSAs now exceeds 20 million and the accounts hold close to $37 billion in assets, based on data from the top 100 HSA providers that participated in the Devenir survey.
Devenir provides customized investment solutions for HSAs and the consumer-directed health care market. Ascensus partners with Devenir to offer the Devenir myHSAinvestments solution and private-label HSA investment platform to banks and credit unions.
The growth in the number of HSAs results primarily from the growth in consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs) that are paired with an HSA or health reimbursement arrangement (HRA). The 2016 Employee Benefits Research Institute (EBRI)/Greenwald & Associates Consumer Engagement in Health Care Survey reported that 14 percent of privately insured adults were enrolled in a CDHP. And, while more than half of CDHP enrollees (56 percent) opened an HSA, the survey reported that 25 percent of CDHP enrollees were enrolled in an HSA-eligible plan but had not opened an HSA. The other 19 percent of CDHP enrollees were enrolled in an HRA and were not eligible to open an HSA.
These statistics are good news for credit unions offering HSAs to their members as enrollment in CDHPs paired with HSAs continues to increase. And, for credit unions not offering HSAs, market opportunities abound.
Credit unions were early entrants into the HSA market and those that were are finding great success. But HSA penetration in the credit union space is low. As of year-end 2016, less than 15 percent of credit unions (832 out of 5,906) offered HSAs to their members. And, while HSA deposits at credit unions increased 169.9 percent over the last five years—from $512 million at year-end 2011 to $1.38 billion at year-end 2016—the number of credit unions offering HSAs increased by less than 13 percent, from 745 to 832, according to Devenir.
Clearly, credit unions that are offering HSAs are seeing success. The numbers alone should send a message to those credit unions that are not offering HSAs.
Learn more about this topic by listening to our recent podcast: "Not Offering HSAs? Your Credit Union is Missing a Chance to Grow"
Ascensus is the NAFCU Services Preferred Partner for IRA, Retirement Plan, and Health Savings Account (HSA) Solutions Software, Training, Documents and Consulting. To learn more about our partner, visit www.nafcu.org/Ascensus