The Best HSAs for Small Businesses

Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) have seen tremendous growth in the past decade and are quickly becoming one of the most popular employee benefits. These accounts allow individuals who are enrolled in a Qualified High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) to use tax-free dollars to pay for out-of-pocket healthcare expenses for themselves and their families.

With rising healthcare costs and more companies moving to HDHPs, employees need a way to save for that rainy day when a medical emergency hits. Small business owners can help alleviate future health care costs by offering a HSA to their employees.

In this post we’d like highlight four administrators that we believe are perfectly suited to help small businesses offer a HSA. This list is specifically geared toward small businesses with 100 employees or less with limited financial and HR resources.

We used the following criteria come up with our list of administrators.

Fees

Many small businesses are not in a position to lavishly spend on a niche benefit. Only those administrators with fees in the lower tier made our list.

Modern Platform

A modern, user-friendly digital experience that includes:

1. a seamless on-boarding process

2. easy and intuitive navigation

3. single sign on to access all accounts

Education-centric

HSAs can be confusing to employees. A lot of small businesses don’t have HR departments with a dedicated benefits specialist ready and able to educate participants on the ins and outs of HSAs. Employees might need some explanation about an HSA and how to use it properly. This can be a little annoying for a business owner if employees have a lot of questions. Administrators that take on the role of educator are invaluable to small businesses.

Technology

Many HSA administrators have failed to keep up with the technological expectations of the modern and technologically savvy consumer. Our list only includes companies that have proprietary platforms that are continually being updated to user preferences and expectations.

Investments

We looked for administrators that have an easy to use investment platform that offer a diversified mix of investment choices with low costs.

Features

All the bells and whistles of a modern HSA including speedy reimbursements, easy payments, automatic transfers, and a robust mobile app.

Decision Support Tools / Partnerships / Value Added Services

Over 90% of HSA participants are spenders. Given this fact, we looked for administrators that helped participants find the best bang for their buck on medical products, services and procedures.

A focus on HSAs!

We included only administrators whose main line of business is HSAs. Those who exist only to serve the HSA nation. They focus on one product, to deliver the best product.

HSA Tech Trailblazers

At the HSA Report Card we try to look beyond the present and into the future. We wanted to highlight companies that are building out their infrastructure to provide the best HSA solution for small businesses heading into the future. We want to see signs that an administrator is and will continue to pour resources and investments to make HSAs easier to use, understand, and optimize. A lot of these companies have proven to be positive disruptors of the HSA space in their own unique way.

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Without further ado here are our picks for the best HSAs for small businesses. You can click on the link below each administrator to get a detailed report of each.

Lively is a San Francisco, California based startup focused on creating HSAs that are simple to use and cost-effective for all. We love Lively’s offering for individual investors and spenders, and now small businesses. Over the last few years Lively has built a modern HSA perfectly fitted for any small business. There’s very few weaknesses to be found in the Lively offering.

Bend Financial is a Boston-based technology and services company that provides HSAs and financial wellness solutions to individuals, employers and organizations in the group benefits distribution market. Its innovative approach and product offerings simplify the use of HSAs while making the product attractive to all types of health care consumers. Bend differentiates itself from the rest of the pack with it’s innovative use of AI to help users optimize their HSA.

Avidia Health is a division of Avidia Bank, a bank in Hudson, Mass. Despite originating as a community bank, Avidia Health operates and has HSA accounts in all 50 states. For a small business looking to offer a fee-free HSA, look no further than Avidia. It is one of very few adminisrators out there that doesn’t charge a maintenace fee at the employer group level.

Further is the most experienced administrator on this list. They have been around since 1989. We like the fact that they keep reinventing themselves. In fact, recently they went through a total rebrand to more effectively communicate their motto of going Further than anybody else to get the best possible solution for their customers. This motto has garnered customer satisfaction scores of greater than 90%. Further is also the only administrator on this list that offers a full line up of complimentary benefits (HRA, FSA, VEBA, DCAP, TRA and POP).

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The HSA Authority has been serving HSAs since their inception in 2004, thus making them extremely knowledgeable and experienced. It is in their DNA to share this knowledge and educate their participants. All of this is offered to employers for free. This is a helluva deal for an administrator that has received awards from Morningstar for their top level spender and investor offerings.