A Health Savings Account (HSA) is a tax-sheltered account that Congress created to encourage American workers to purchase health insurance coverage with higher deductibles and lower premiums. You pay for health care expenses with tax free dollars from your Health Savings Account (MyHSA). The money in your MyHSA account that is not spent remains in your account - no more "Use It Or Loose It" - and can continue to grow. You can keep your money invested until you need to use it.

Why is MyHSA Health Savings Investment Account special?

Alliance Benefit Group of Illinois has partnered with The Charles Schwab Trust Company and has designed a 401(k) look-a-like MyHSA account. We will automatically start investing the money in your MyHSA account after you have contributed only $200 in cash, the amount you have in cash will not earn any interest. All of the Investment Options in our MyHSA program come from multiple fund families. There are no transaction fees with the funds in our program so a participant can make investment election changes when they need to and not be hit with the upfront or backend sales commissions. For a complete list of MyHSA account fees, please click here. You can read our Investment Policy Statement to see the processes Alliance Benefit Group of Illinois uses in picking, monitoring, maintaining and terminating the investment options within our MyHSA program. Your MyHSA account comes with one debit card, however additional debit cards can be purchased. Each MyHSA account holder will also have access to a participant website where you can check account balances, view your transaction history, make investment election changes, request distributions online, download forms, and have access to medical purchasing information tools.

Where is my contribution invested?

Your MyHSA account will need to have a cash balance of only $200 before you can start investing (your cash balance does not earn any interest). When you are eligible to start investing, you will have four Asset Allocation Portfolios to choose from, or you can make a custom selection from the eleven funds available. One of the funds in our MyHSA program is the MetLife Guaranteed Fund, where MetLife guarantees your principal and will also pay a fixed interest rate of 2.00% (This rate is locked in for a 12-month period and will be adjusted again in May 2010). Your MyHSA account comes with one debit card that can be used for all distributions, or you can request distributions online at your participant website. No explanation of benefits or receipts are needed to get access to your money.

How do I "spend" the money in my account?

You can use your MyHSA account whenever you need it. You make payments with the MyHSA debit card or a check can be sent from your MyHSA account to pay routine medical bills.

When you spend money from your account on Qualified medical expenses or for other qualified expenses you pay with tax deferred dollars.

You do not have to spend the balance in your account by the end of the year. Your balance, along with any new contributions, continues to grow tax-free. (Investment choices may expose you to investment risk and financial losses.) Your account belongs to you. It is your money until you spend it.

You can spend the money from your MyHSA account however you choose. Amounts withdrawn for anything other than qualified Medical Expenses or other qualified expenses are considered to be a taxable distribution and must be reported to the IRS. MyHSA helps keep track of how you use your account to make your reporting easier.