Health Savings Account

Once you’re enrolled in the Health Savings Plan, you will open a Health Savings Account (HSA) with Optum Bank. You’ll receive an HSA debit card to pay for your eligible health care expenses, along with detailed information about your account. You must accept the terms of an HSA through Optum Bank.

You can use your HSA to pay eligible medical, prescription drug, dental, vision and hearing expenses. HSA payments for qualified health care services are tax-free. For a full list of qualified expenses, visit IRS.gov.

Your HSA grows through:

• Contributions made by the university,
• Optional pre-tax (payroll deducted) and post-tax contributions made by you,
• Transfers from any existing HSAs you have, and
• Interest and investment earnings once your account reaches $2,000.

Using Optum Bank

If you have another account with Optum, you can use your same HealthSafe ID to log in to all your Optum accounts.

To register with Optum Bank:

• Visit optumbank.com.
• Follow the prompts to create your unique HealthSafe ID. You’ll provide your full legal name, birthdate, primary ZIP code, email, phone number, and Social Security Number or Employee ID.
• Confirm your email and phone number, as prompted.

Not sure if you have a HealthSafe ID? Use the “Recover my Username” feature to check.

Optum Bank Mobile App

Get Health Savings Account information on-the-go with the Optum Bank mobile app. Through the app you can upload receipts, check your balance, make a payment and deposit a check. The app is available on the App Store or Google Play.

The IRS requires the following for you to enroll in an HSA:

• You must be enrolled in a high-deductible health plan—in our case, the Health Savings Plan.
• You can’t have other health coverage that pays for out-of-pocket health care expenses before you meet your plan deductible.
• You can’t be eligible for AND enrolled in Medicare, covered by TRICARE (a health care program of the U.S. Department of Defense Military Health System) or have received Veterans Administration (VA) health benefits in the previous three months.
• You can’t be claimed as a dependent by someone else.
• You or your spouse can’t have a Healthcare Flexible Spending Account (FSA) or Health Reimbursement Account in the same year that you have an HSA. If you are currently enrolled in the University's Healthcare FSA, you must use the money in your Healthcare FSA by December 31, 2025. You will have the option of waiving the automatic rollover of any remaining FSA funds so that you can still have an HSA in 2026.

You may want to consult a tax adviser to discuss your unique circumstances.

IRS rules say that you can't participate in a general purpose Healthcare FSA and an HSA at the same time. The HSA has many attractive features compared to a Healthcare FSA. However, an HSA is only available if you elect the Health Savings Plan.