« Can A Health Savings Account Help You Bridge Employment Gaps? | Main | Are Health Savings Accounts The Future of Healthcare? »
September 01, 2010
Health Savings Account Deposits Top $1 Billion for Single Bank
United Health Group Inc., now one of the Twin Cities’ largest banks, has seen its OptumHealth Bank top the $1-billion mark for deposits on its books, and it's all due to Health Savings Accounts. By the end of June, its Health Savings Account deposits were at $1.025 billion. Chartered in Salt Lake City and part of Minnetonka-based UnitedHealth, UnitedHealth has helped thousands of employers to set up Health Savings Accounts for their employees.
There is a growing trend for employers to offer employees these tax-advantaged Health Savings Accounts in combination with high-deductible health care plans. The HSA plans typically keep premiums low, and employees can make tax-deductible withdrawals to pay for qualified medical expenses.
When Congress passed the Medicare Modernization Act in 2003 that allowed tax-exempt deposits and withdrawals for medical expenses for the first time. UnitedHealth opened its first Health Savings Account the very next year in order to simplify health care for its customers. The surprise is that UnitedHealth, with more than $1 billion in deposits, doesn’t even handle retail banking.
To keep you up-to-date on the future of HSA Plans, HSA for America maintains extensive resources to aide in establishing Health Savings Accounts and daily news updates at HSAforAmerica.com.
Posted by Wiley Long at September 1, 2010 12:31 PM