3 New HSA Administrators to Keep a Close Eye On
The HSA landscape is changing - at a blurring pace - and for the better. New companies are entering the industry - mostly of the fintech/startup variety and they are tackling HSAs in their own unique way. We like the value propositions that some of these new HSA administrators offer to consumers. Let's take a look at three companies we are keeping a close eye on.
“The Bend HSA was conceptualized, designed and built to make HSAs easy for everyone to use.”
Bend Financial uses advanced technologies to help individual consumers easily manage healthcare expenses, maximize tax benefits, and save for the future. The platform learns about individual situations and provides actionable advice. The Bend HSA was conceptualized, designed and built to make HSAs easy for everyone to use. Bend was built from the bottom up to provide an outstanding consumer experience, and to have technology do as much for account holders as they’ll let it.
The most unique feature of the Bend HSA is the Bend Advisor – a unique tool that takes advantage of leading technologies including artificial intelligence to help you track and manage your account. The Bend Advisor does much of the work for you. It pulls in data from your other accounts — like checking, credit cards, payroll and health plans— and guides and makes recommendations for you every step of the way so you can feel confident that you’re growing and spending your savings wisely.
With Bend and the Bend Advisor, no expenses are left behind and you no longer need to worry about remembering what you paid for, with what account, and if those expenses were eligible or not. You can also choose to pay for expenses outside the HSA and bank expenses to be reimbursed from the HSA in the future. Bend’s system will find your eligible expenses for you, and leave no expenses behind, helping you maximize your HSA.
The use of AI is definitely an exciting development in HSAs, but we also like the fact that Bend’s leadership team has extensive experience in the space. CEO, Tom Torre, for nearly 20 years has led organizations in the consumer-directed healthcare space, including a 10 year stint as CEO of Alegeus. He describes himself as a fintech and healthtech entrepreneur who, at his core, is a payments nerd. Itamar Romanini, Chief Revenue Officer, has over 18 years of experience in the HSA market (17 years at HSA Bank), building and growing HSA products, technology, strategy, sales and marketing. Bend certainly has a deep bench and we’ll be following them closely.
Bend HSA is now live for individuals and employers to sign up!
“Care search with guidance, not guesswork.”
Amino is a healthcare financial wellness benefit that eliminates barriers for employees and their families to access affordable, high-quality medical care. Combining data, design, and consumer-first thinking, Amino offers guidance features that curate each users personalized matches for in-network facilities and provides concierge appointment booking with nearly every doctor in America. Paired with a modern HSA, Amino’s mission is to deliver smarter savings at every turn, so companies and employees get the most from their health insurance plans. The company is based in San Francisco and is backed by Accel, CRV, Highland Capital Management, Rock Health, and notable individual investors.
The Amino solution will deliver a much-needed upgrade to HSAs by pairing its tax-free savings and spending with transparency around healthcare cost and quality. With the help of Amino, consumers can book the best care online, know the cost before they go, and get the most from their health savings account. Amino goes even further by highlighting providers and facilities that are in-network, highly experienced, safe, and affordable. And if that isn’t enough, you can request to book an appointment and an Amino Assistant will take care of the details. Your Amino assistant will confirm your physician is in-network while making your appointment so you'll never get a surprise bill. For HSA spenders, these are some of the most useful features that we have come across in researching the HSA provider landscape.
At this time Amino’s solution is only available to employers and its employees. Unfortunately, at this time Amino does not offer individually sponsored accounts. Amino was planning on rolling out its HSA offering to individuals insured through the marketplace in late 2018, but this never took place. We hope their solution becomes available to individuals. We’ll keep you posted.
“Investing that’s built-in and easy.”
The origins of the Starship HSA can be traced to its founders, Sean Engelking’s and Adam Pruden’s, frustration with HSAs. In particular, their poor design, long hold times, weird rules, lack of a mobile app, and hidden fees. In 2016 these two gentleman embarked on a mission to build the best HSA possible; one that’s modern, thoughtful, and if at all possible, fun. The Starship HSA features;
-> Overflow investing: Set a threshold and automatically invest into smart portfolios built with low-fee index funds.
-> Intelligent Investing: Starship believes investments should be built-in and effortless. Answer just a few questions during enrollment and they’ll automatically invest your unused funds into low-fee index funds.
-> No Fees: Starship has none of the annoying fees charged by traditional HSAs. $1 month to invest.
-> Auto Contributions: Set up a recurring daily, weekly or monthly contribution.
-> Paperless: Starship is a completely modern, paperless HSA.
-> Receipt Management: Attach receipts to any bill using the camera on your phone. Starship will even collate them at tax time.
-> Family Management: Share an HSA with your family? Easily keep track of who’s spending what with family tags.
-> Apple Pay & Android Pay: Add your Starship Card to Apple Pay or Android Pay for secure and convenient mobile payments.
-> Mobile First: An HSA for iOS, Android, and web.
Starship HSA is currently available to the general public.
A word of caution. These three administrators are all new to the space. We have no idea what kind of customer experience they will provide. One thing is certain, competition is heating up in the HSA administration space. We hope the new competition leads to better experiences and outcomes for individuals and families with HSAs.