How prepared are your employees for health care expenses in retirement?

Inflation and ongoing financial issues from the COVID-19 pandemic have hit many Americans hard. We can cut corners and curb spending, but what will our ability to save for health care expenses in retirement look like in the future?

There’s no better time than the present to encourage your employees to think about the future. National Financial Awareness Day on August 14 is a day dedicated to sharing financial principles and practices people can follow to boost their retirement savings. It’s a great time to look at what we’re spending — and saving. And health care takes the lead for costs in retirement.

According to the fifth annual HSA Bank Health & Wealth Index^SM, one-third of surveyed respondents expressed uncertainty in being able to cover health care expenses in the near term or their retirement. That’s an estimated third of your workforce.

As an employer, you play an integral role in helping your employees by sharing health care savings tools and resources with them. And with open enrollment approaching, this is an opportune time to reevaluate your employee benefits communication strategies.

Here are three key tactics you can take to better prepare your employees for their financial future:

• Encourage your employees to go back to basics. It can be helpful for them to revisit their previous benefits selection and evaluate whether that’s still the most appropriate choice for their current situation. Changes in health, covered family members, and long-term health and wealth goals are critical areas for consideration. Guide your employees with pre-enrollment communications that thoroughly educate them on these topics. Even if employees maintain the same health plan, a refresher could benefit them if they’re contemplating a contribution change, investment options, or enrolling in a different health plan or health account altogether.
• Provide employees with details about health plans and health accounts. If your company offers health savings accounts (HSAs), flexible spending accounts (FSAs), health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs), or lifestyle spending accounts (LSA), educate your employees on how to select them, the benefits of each option, and which may be the best fit for them. Some accounts — such as an HSA and Dependent-Care FSA — complement the other and could add to even more savings for your employees. Tailoring your communications can also further engage employees to make confident benefits decisions. An HSA spender, one who uses the majority of their HSA funds to pay for qualified medical expenses, is going to benefit from different information than an HSA saver would, and both differently than an HSA fund investor would.
• Emphasize the long-term benefits of HSAs through contributions and investments. Does your company incentivize employees with HSA contributions for completing benchmarks? Or do you have an HSA seed or direct contribution match program? If not, consider a contribution strategy to increase engagement. Employer contribution matches encourage employees to take an active role in saving. This typically leads to increased account balances and savings for employers, as well as improved retirement readiness and the value of benefits. Whatever employee benefits program your company has in place, if it’s not utilized it’s not helping your employees. Encourage them to contribute to the IRS maximum contribution limit ($3,650 for self-only and $7,300 for families in 2022). And provide tools to help them calculate their projected savings in retirement. Take your teachings a step further and show employees how their HSAs can complement the traditional retirement account your company offers. HSAs are the only investment account with three separate tax benefits – funds are not taxed when put into the HSA, any earnings through interest or investing are not taxed and if the money is used for qualified medical expenses, it is also not taxed when it is spent. It’s quite literally savings on their savings.

Related: Workers see inflation as biggest obstacle to retirement savings goals: Schwab

As an employer, you can make a considerable impact on what your employees save for health care. When you carefully think through your open enrollment communications, offer health care savings tools such as HSAs, and help your employees utilize them with contribution matches or incentives, you encourage their engagement. And when employees are engaged, they’re eager to do more.

Kevin Robertson is the CRO of HSA Bank.