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Employers are increasingly turning to their 401(k) playbooks to encourage employees to use health savings accounts.
An HSA is a tax-advantaged account that offers powerful financial benefits compared to other types of savings accounts. They have three pronged tax cuts. Money that savers contribute to an HSA doesn’t count as taxable income. Investments in your account grow tax-free. Account holders can also withdraw eligible medical expenses tax-free.
By 2025, nearly 46% of employers will automatically enroll employees in an HSA if they have a high-deductible health plan, according to a report released in August by the American Council of Plan Sponsors, an industry group representing employers.
That percentage is up sharply from 32% in 2019, according to PSCA data.
A deductible is the amount a consumer must pay out-of-pocket before insurance is applied. High-deductible plans have deductibles of at least $1,700 for individuals and at least $3,400 for families in 2026, according to the IRS.
“I think we’ve had a lot of success with automation capabilities in retirement plans,” said Hattie Greenan, PSCA’s director of research and communications. “And employers are looking at how they can combine that with other benefits.”
Automatic enrollment (autoenrollment) is generally considered a best practice for workplace retirement plans, such as 401(k)s, when promoting worker participation.
About 64% of employers automatically enrolled workers in 401(k) plans in 2025, according to PSCA data. The federal retirement law known as Secure 2.0, passed in 2022, required most newly formed 401(k) plans to automatically enroll employees starting last year.
By automatically enrolling employees in workplace savings plans, including HSAs, employers aim to remove the friction typically associated with asking employees to voluntarily opt-in and, ideally, increase employee participation.
“If you’re relying on individuals to open their own accounts, it’s much more difficult to increase participation,” said Ann Brisk, senior managing director of strategy and innovation at HSA Bank, which manages health savings accounts.
Most employers contribute to HSAs
Employers who automatically enroll employees in a 401(k) plan automatically deduct a portion of each paycheck (for example, 3% or 6%) and add the funds to the employee’s retirement account.
Experts say this setup is unusual among HSA plans. Companies that automatically enroll employees in HSAs typically seed their accounts. About 77% of employers provided HSA contributions to their employees in 2025, according to PSCA data.
Experts say the scheme is a way for employers to help auto-enroll employees so they can pay for health care through employer contributions at a time when health care costs are soaring.
“I think there is a recognition that medical costs are high and that employee support is essential,” Greenan said.
About a third (32%) of contributing employers contributed between $500 and $1,000 per employee to their accounts, with 29% paying more than $1,350 and 22% paying less than $500, according to the PSCA survey.
Employers are contributing these funds to liquid cash-like accounts within HSAs, rather than contributing them to investments like stock mutual funds, Brisk said. Employees typically can transfer HSA funds into such investments once their account balance exceeds a threshold set by the HSA provider.
In 2026, combined worker and employer HSA contributions for self-only coverage cannot exceed $4,400 annually. The family coverage limit is $8,750.
401(k) “matches” also become popular with HSAs
Another common benefit of workplace retirement plans, 401(k) matches, also appear to be prevalent in HSAs, Brisk said. In this case, the employee must contribute to the HSA to receive the employer funds.
According to PSCA data, about 10% of employers that pay HSA contributions to workers match their employees’ contributions. A further 7.5% were considering it, the research group found.
“It’s very similar to a 401(k),” Brisk said. “We think this is very easy for people to understand and we encourage people to put money into their accounts.”
The trend toward automatic HSA enrollment comes as more employers are turning to high-deductible health plans, which typically have lower premiums than traditional self-pay plans, to help cover costs.
Among employers that offer health benefits to workers, 31% will offer high-deductible plans combined with HSAs in 2025, up from 4% in 2005, according to KFF, a health policy research group.
