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A summary of the articles included in the June 2025 edition:

  • Expansions to Health Savings Accounts in House Budget Reconciliation: Unpacking the Provisions and Costs to Taxpayers
  • Eight Ways to Make HSAs Work Better for More of Your People
  • Lively Launches AI-Powered Bundle to Eliminate Repetitive HR Tasks and Save Benefit Teams Time
  • IRS Announces 2026 HSA Limits
  • Can HSA Owners Wait to Contribute Until They Have an Expense to Pay?


Expansions to Health Savings Accounts in House Budget Reconciliation: Unpacking the Provisions and Costs to Taxpayers

The 2025 federal budget reconciliation bill passed by the House aims to promote the use of health savings accounts (HSA) through a variety of changes to the HSA provisions included in the 2003 law that created HSAs. While these changes could provide more incentives for individuals to use HSAs, they would cost the federal government almost $45 billion over 10 years, according to an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office. This Policy Watch provides an overview of HSAs and examines key HSA-related provisions in the House-passed budget reconciliation bill and their costs to the federal budget.

Eight Ways to Make HSAs Work Better for More of Your People

There’s a lot to like about Health Savings Accounts, one of the most – if not the most – tax-efficient ways to save money. The benefit to employees and their families? Short-term, it’s tax-free money to spend on medical expenses not covered by a health plan; long-term, it’s money that can be used to pay for healthcare after retirement. The benefit to employers? It makes it possible to offer a lower-cost medical plan with the option of providing employees with tax-free money to help cover the higher out-of-pocket expenses – which most employers do. HSA-based plans are still about 18% less expensive than traditional PPO plans, even after including any employer contribution to the account.

The catch is that HSAs can only be offered to employees enrolled in a qualified High-Deductible Health Plan, although many employers are hoping that rule can be changed. Employers have steadily added HSA-eligible HDHP offerings since HSAs were first introduced in 2004; today they are offered by 64% of all employers (84% of those with 500 or more employees) and 37% of all covered employees are enrolled in one. However, enrollment growth has leveled off over the past three years (36% of covered employees were enrolled in an HSA plan in 2021), suggesting that many employees are wary of high-deductible plans despite the generally lower premium contributions and the savings opportunity.

Most employees that are offered an HSA plan have a choice of other medical plan options. Just 8% of all employers offer an HSA plan as the only option for employees at their largest worksite, and among employers with 20,000 or more employees, just 2% offer an HSA plan as a “full replacement,” down from 4% five years ago. That trend has reversed as employees voiced a desire for more variety of plan choices and some plan sponsors felt high-deductible plans could create affordability challenges for lower-paid employees, especially those with ongoing medical issues.

Lively, a Top-Rated Health and Lifestyle Benefits Provider, Announces $2 Billion in Assets, Showcasing the Value of an Easy-to-Use HSA

Lively announced that it has surpassed $2 billion in HSA assets on their platform.

Launched as a direct-to-consumer HSA provider in 2016, Lively has since expanded to offer a full suite of health and lifestyle benefits for business customers, including Flexible Spending Accounts, Health Reimbursement Arrangements, Lifestyle Spending Accounts, Commuter Benefits, Medical Travel Accounts, and COBRA. The fastest growing HSA provider on the market, Lively has been a top-rated HSA by Morningstar since 2019 and has been a top-ten HSA provider according to Devenir since 2022. In 2024 Lively ranked 148 on Inc’s 5000 fastest-growing private companies in North America, boasting three-year revenue growth of 2,380%

“We started Lively so that Americans can reduce barriers to accessing and affording the care they need. This significant milestone is a testament to our commitment to build a better product and putting our account holders first,” said Alex Cyriac, CEO and co-founder of Lively.

IRS Announces 2026 HSA Limits

The IRS has announced the inflation-adjusted 2026 calendar year contribution limits for health savings accounts and HSA-compatible high-deductible health plans.

Starting in 2026, the new HSA contribution limit will be $4,400 for an individual with self-only coverage under a high-deductible health plan—a $100 increase from this year. The limit for an individual with family coverage under an HDHP is $8,750—a $200 increase, according to the IRS announcement.

Can HSA Owners Wait to Contribute Until They Have an Expense to Pay?

Question: Can HSA owners wait to contribute until they have an expense to pay?

Answer: Yes — but only if two key conditions are met:

  1. The HSA owner was HSA-eligible (enrolled in a qualified HDHP and not enrolled in disqualifying coverage) on the date the expense occurred,
  2. He or she had an HSA account established and open before the expense — even if it only had a small deposit, like $1.

Important: Just being enrolled in an HDHP doesn’t “establish” your HSA. The account must be opened with a custodian and funded, even minimally, before medical expenses can be reimbursed.