As the final quarter of the year continues to roll on, many clients are either already in the midst or on the precipice of open enrollment season. While it can be a blur for brokers, HR teams and other stakeholders, this time of year presents a unique opportunity to engage with clients to ensure they’re leveraging all an HSA program can offer.
An immediate change in HSA vendors might not be a reality for some clients this time of year. But having the discussion in real time as enrollment plays out provides an impactful setting to emphasize what they might be missing out on. And for clients that don’t yet offer an employer-sponsored HSA program, with the right HSA partner, there may still be time to add HSAs into the mix before year end.
Regardless of time of year, savvy brokers can follow a straightforward framework to educate, guide and sell clients on why it’s worth their time to make an HSA program a priority.
Keep the Value Proposition Simple
Clients are busy running their businesses. HR teams are strapped dealing with continuing challenges. And many organizations as a whole are attempting to do more with less.
So when it comes to the topic of HSA programs, simplicity is key—both in explaining HSA program benefits as well as the HSA program itself.
While it’s easy to dive into the details of all the ways a well-structured employer-sponsored HSA program can benefit a client, the most successful approach is often the simplest. Keep the conversation high level and focused on across-the-board value.
Why Offer an Employer-Sponsored HSA Program?
For clients that haven’t yet set up an employer HSA program, the question is—why should they do so? Especially at this time of year?
While there’s so much more than one answer, remember, keeping things simple and concise is key. So consider these highlights for why it pays for just about every client to offer an HSA program:
- Saves the client money in FICA taxes
- Saves the client money in lower premiums for employees who choose HDHP coverage
- Keeps the client’s benefit offering competitive
- Saves their employees money in taxes and more
- Provides employees a long-term savings and investment vehicle
- Serves as an important recruitment and retention tool
- Helps the client play a direct role in their employees’ overall financial wellness
- Streamlines benefit administration and offloads manual processes from already strapped HR teams
Why Switch HSA Vendors?
For clients that already have an employer HSA program, the question becomes, why should they switch vendors? Is it really worth the hassle to change HSA providers?
Understanding all HSA providers aren’t created equal, the client experience can vary greatly from vendor to vendor. And the same can be said for their employee experience. Those experiences combined, along with the quality of the HSA platform itself, can lead to a variable scale of program success (and savings).
For an in-depth look on what makes a great employer HSA experience and why the employer HSA experience can’t be an afterthought, check out our blog post devoted to that topic.
And for more information on why now more than ever, the individual HSA experience matters, we have a blog post on that, too.
For now, we’ll follow the trend of simplicity and focus on these questions to pose to a client to get them thinking about why it may pay to consider switching HSA vendors:
- Does your HSA partner provide an HSA platform that not only offers superior usability, cutting-edge features and maximum benefits (FICA savings and otherwise) for you and your employees, but also offers stability, security and is FDIC insured?
- Does your HSA partner provide comprehensive, ready-to-use educational HSA resources for you and your employees for all times of year?
- Does your HSA partner offer competitive pricing with no setup fees or hidden costs?
- Does your HSA partner provide streamlined administration and on-demand access to robust features and reporting?
- Does your HSA partner have helpful automations—everything from employee enrollment to payroll and other integrations?
- Does your HSA partner provide responsive support and guidance for you and your employees?
- Does your HSA partner offer best-in-class features, including fully integrated HSA investment offerings?
Why Choosing the Right HSA Partner is a Must
With the right HSA vendor, setting up an HSA program for the first time or switching over an existing HSA program doesn’t have to involve hassle and headaches. An HSA vendor shouldn’t be just a transactional player in the game. They should be a true partner to both broker and client (and the client’s employees!).
When well-structured and supported, an employer HSA program will be a win-win-win—saving brokers and clients time and money, and providing clients’ employees with a valuable benefit to save money in taxes, better control their short and long-term healthcare costs and invest in their future.
Build the Best HSA Programs and Work Smarter for Your Clients with Bend
Bend isn’t your ordinary HSA vendor. We’re here to be your active, engaged HSA partner to lighten client workloads, improve user experience and maximize financial outcomes—all while delighting your clients from day one.
Let’s build HSA programs together
And work smarter for your clients
No Comments Yet
Let us know what you think