If you choose the Healthy Savings Plan and are not covered by another plan (including Medicare), claimed as a dependent on someone else’s tax return and/or you or your spouse are enrolled in a general-purpose Health Care Flexible Savings Account, you are eligible to set up a Health Savings Account (HSA) to pay for current health expenses and save for future qualified medical and retiree health expenses on a tax-free basis. The account is owned and managed by the employee/retiree, and funds remain in the account from year to year if not used for eligible medical, dental and/or vision expenses.
Plus, if you are an active faculty or staff member, the university contributes to your HSA to help pay the higher deductible and eligible expenses. You may choose to contribute to your HSA, too, up to the IRS maximums, but you do not have to do so to earn the university contribution.
Retirees do not enroll in an HSA through the university. Any retiree who meets the eligibility criteria may enroll in an individual HSA. If you’d like to open an individual HSA with Optum Bank, visit the plan contacts webpage to locate contact information for Optum Bank. Since your HSA will not be a university-sponsored group HSA, you will be responsible for any fees associated with the account. Visit umurl.us/HSA for more information.
Reviewed 2019-10-17
