New Alegeus Research Debunks Common Misconceptions About Health Savings Accounts
Alegeus, the market leader in consumer-directed healthcare (CDH) solutions, today from the 2019 HLTH conference, unveiled part two of its research series on health savings account (HSA) participants, the 2019 Alegeus HSA Participant Profile. This report uses participant data to debunk four common misconceptions that consumers have about HSAs.
The premise of healthcare consumerism is that, if given more financial responsibility for healthcare and empowered to make more informed decisions, consumers will make better choices that lead to improved health outcomes and decreased overall healthcare costs. Part one of this research report found HSA participants to be America's savviest healthcare consumers, and part two uses the same data to debunk common misconceptions that include:
- HSA-qualified health plans are only for the healthy and wealthy: HSAs support a diverse group of participants who have middle-class incomes ($72.4k is the average household income), families (52 percent have children), and even chronic conditions (10 percent consider themselves to be unhealthy).
- HSAs lead consumers to avoid seeking care: Most HSA participants (80 percent) claim to make healthy lifestyle choices and smart healthcare decisions. In fact, only four percent of HSA participants say they avoid care.
- HSAs are for short-term expenses, not long-term/retirement savings: Many consumers don't realize that HSAs are more flexible and offer greater tax benefits than a 401(k). An optimized healthcare savings strategy will include both a 401(k) and an HSA.
- Saving and investing in an HSA is not a top priority for account holders: Today, only 13 percent of participants say they invest their HSA dollars for growth; however, their balances are growing and nearly 60 percent say they may start investing soon. These are signs that HSA participants are beginning to understand the importance of saving for the future.
"Health savings accounts are the foundation for Americans to get better value for their healthcare dollars," said Steven Auerbach, Alegeus CEO. "That is why, earlier this year, we unveiled the industry's first Smart Account that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to meet consumers where they are ? guiding them to save for the future and ultimately unlock the full tax advantages these accounts offer."
To learn more, click here to download the full report.
About Alegeus
Alegeus is the market leader in consumer-directed healthcare (CDH) solutions, offering the industry's most comprehensive platform for the administration of healthcare benefit accounts (including FSAs, HSAs, HRAs, wellness incentive, dependent care, and commuter accounts), the industry's most widely-used benefit debit card, and powerful engagement solutions to help consumers maximize savings and optimize spending for their healthcare. Over 350 clients ? including health insurance plans, third party administrators and financial institutions ? leverage Alegeus' deep expertise and proven technology to administer benefit accounts for more than 30 million members and process more than $9.1 billion in consumer healthcare payments annually. As the healthcare and benefit markets continue to evolve, Alegeus delivers solutions that enable clients to evolve their service offerings, operate their businesses more efficiently, and focus on their customers. The company is headquartered in Waltham, MA with operations in Orlando, FL and Milwaukee, WI.
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