Double-digit HSA growth tied to health plan coverage

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.

 

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