EMPLOYERS AREA

Employer Benefits To HSAs
Health Savings Accounts are a great way to offer your employees a competitive benefit package aimed at giving the employees the accountability and ownership of their health care costs, all while lowering premiums and taking advantage of unique tax benefits for the employee and employer. Giving the employer a benchmark for establishing the cap on increases they are willing to pay each year for employees' health care costs.

Employers Tax Advantages
Contributions made by employers to employees' Health Savings Accounts are treated as employer-provided coverage for medical expenses under an accident or health plan. Therefore, excludable from your company's gross income, not subject to withholding for income tax and not subject to other employment taxes.

Employers Offer Low Premiums To Employees
Premiums for health care continue to increase rapidly year after year and with Health Savings Accounts you the employer can offer more affordable premiums while providing your employees a competitive employee benefits package. How? Combining a high deductible health plan with a tax favored health savings account, established and used to help pay expenses towards the annual deductible.

Shifting Accountability to Employees
Employers are not responsible or liable for employee's Health Savings Accounts. The accountability for the control of the account rests solely on your employees. Home Federal has been offering MSAs since 1996 and now offers one of the best HSAs in the country. We are dedicated to helping you and your employees with questions about Health Savings Accounts.

Employer Contribution Rules
HSA legislation states that, unless contributions are made through a Section 125 Plan, employer contributions must be comparable to all eligible employees. That means, the contributions are either the same dollar amount or percentage of deductible for each employee. If your contributions are made through a Section 125 Plan, the comparability rule does not apply and you would be able to make matching contributions. Please see Notice 2004-50, providing frequently asked questions about employer contributions.

Employer Contributions
As mentioned employers are able to make contributions to employees' health savings accounts. Send a check for your contributions to your employees' HSAs according to your payroll schedule (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, annually etc). Employers complete the Employer Information Sheet and Employer Distribution list each time and send a check payable to Home Federal Bank.