HSA veteran sees plenty of room to grow

The founder of HealthEquity, one of the companies that helped create the health savings account market, told securities analysts Monday that there’s “a lot of room to grow.”

Steve Neeleman, the vice chair of HealthEquity, started the health account administrator in 1996.

The Draper, Utah-based company now administers HSAs that serve 16 million HSA holders with $27 billion in assets. HSA holders can use a combination of high-deductible health insurance, their own contributions and, in some cases, employer contributions to build assets free from federal income taxes.

HealthEquity serves many HSA holders through relationships with employers and health coverage providers.

Neeleman said during a conference call with the securities analysts that he believes HealthEquity now provides HSAs for fewer than 35% of the people covered by its health plan partners.

“It really is interesting to see how much opportunity we have,” Neeleman said. “Lots of meat left on the bone when it comes to working with these plans, and then working with the employers that need reasonably priced coverage with great tax benefits.”

HealthEquity has had relationships with most of the health plan partners for just a few years, Neeleman noted.

Plan participants’ HSA adoption rates tend to rise over time as the participants learn more about HSA tax benefits, Neeleman said.

“The key is just doing what we’re doing day after day, getting out in front of the brokers, the consultants, and then the health plan sales reps and health plan account executives and taking our solution to them,” Neelman said

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HealthEquity held the conference call to go over earnings for the first quarter of its 2025 fiscal year, which started Feb. 1.

The company reported $28 million in net income for the quarter on $288 million in revenue, up from $4.1 million in net income on $244 million in revenue for the year-earlier quarter.