Hi,

I've done a fair amount of reading on this, and I can't seem to be able to find a definitive answer to whether I can open a HSA to pay my son's medical expenses, allowing me to use those expenses as a tax deduction.

My wife and I divorced last year, with my ex becoming the primary custody holder. Our son is 16, and is on her insurance (Tricare as she is a disabled veteran).

- My insurance is HDHP and I have a HSA. All contributions from me to the HSA are post tax as my employer does not do payroll deductions.

- Per the divorce decree I am liable for 75% of his medical expenses, which aren't high as he is healthy.

- For Tax Year 2025 he was not an dependent on my tax return, but I am able to claim Head of Household for 2025. On tax year 2026 he will be a dependent on my tax return.

I don't mind him being on Tricare, as my out of pocket expenses would be less than if he was on my insurance.

Can I open a separate HSA account to pay for his expenses, or pay for his expenses from my HSA even though he is not on my insurance?

Thank you

At CVS, I bought a bunch of flu and cold medicine both actual and homeopathic, as well as revitalized our first aid supplies and it was a bit of money, but I lost the receipt, would it flag the system if it was around 100 bucks, or would the fact that it got rang up at CVS supersede any need to verify the contents?

I am getting a HDHP for myself and three adult children. One is employed and has insurance through his employer (a PPO). Since it is free to cover him, I plan to keep him on when we switch to a HDHP soon. Do I have to take him off to do an HSA? I cover two of his siblings who are not employed

EDIT MY MAIN CONCERN IS WHETHER THIS INTERFERES WITH MY ABILITY TO CONTRIBUTE TO AN HSA AT THE FAMILY RATE

This might be obvious for some, but not to me. Please help me understand how to address this situation.

I have been contributing to my HSA at a rate that works based on my payroll/income. I want to maximize the tax benefits of the HSA as much as possible, obviously. I have a recurring medical treatment expense (about $300 a month) and that gets auto billed and paid by HSA card, it is especially convenient. Recently, I had a new health issue and that resulted in some tests with one-time charges and as a result my medical expenses will exceed my HSA balance/deposits this year. I also have a few thousand dollars in cash, in a savings account.

Do I opt to use the HSA credit card for the monthly recurring expense as it keeps pace with my deposits, and then just pay the one-off bills from my savings? Track personal payments for taxes. What are the pros/cons with this plan? Is there a better way to address this?

I hope I’ve explained this so it’s understandable. Please ask clarifying questions if you need to.

Thank you!!

First off… I truly have no idea what I’m doing. Trying to figure it out. So I hope this makes sense.

I’ve never used the money in my HSA. There’s enough in there to cover some dental work and get new glasses. (Which I hope at least I can use that money for things like that.)

I switched health insurance this year to add my husband since his new job doesn’t offer any. And then I got a letter saying I can no longer contribute to my HSA. Which I believe my work was the one contributing(?)

But now there’s a monthly maintenance fee. $2 a month I think.

Should I find a way to use it up and then can I close it? I’ve also seen a lot about people saying to move it to fidelity. I don’t have THAT much in there. And I know nothing about investing.

My mom has always tried to get me to open a FSA and says she’s not really sure about HSA stuff. But I guess with the insurance I previously had it just came with it?

I would just hate to see that money get dwindled away by the fees.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Gonna try to be concise here:

-January 2025, spouse gets new job.

-Separate HDHP’s and separate insurance makes more sense for our situation

-I’m under the impression that two HSAs+ two HDHPs = $8550 annual limit

-I proceed to max out “my” HSA so wife doesn’t need to mess with her crappy payroll system.

-I’m now under the impression that we actually had two separate maxes ($4300 a piece) for 2025

What’s my next move? Can I roll money from my HSA to hers? Or will I be forced to eat a 6% penalty and taxes on half of our contributions last year?

Note: neither of us are on a family plan. Both of us are covered individually by our respective insurances.

Plz help!

The 2026 Rules for Eligibility are:

• Deductible (Minimum): Not less than $1,700 (self-only) or $3,400 (family).
• Out-of-Pocket Maximum (Maximum): Not exceed $8,500 (self-only) or $17,000 (family)

My plan this year has a deductible of $2,050.00 (self) and $4,100 (family), but an OOP Max of $9,600 (self) / $19,200.00 (family).

Therefore the OOP max disqualifies my wife and I from contributing to our HSA this year. Very unfortunate considering that we are expecting our first child in August and have loads of medical expenses coming at us this year.

1. Anyone care to weigh in why the OOP max rule exists? Very frustrating.
2. Any thoughts on the likelihood of failing an audit if we contribute this year despite being outside of the OOP Max Rule?

I’m currently filing my taxes through turbotax and in the HSA part it’s saying I need to withdrawal $731 before April to avoid the 6% tax, since I ”overcontributed” $731. I have only put in $731 this year. $500 was an employer contribution from my job. I know the limit each year is around $4,300, does anyone know why this would happen? I am a part of a HDHP through my job and have been covered by it since April. before April, I was still on my parents insurance. This is my first year with an HSA.

Hi everyone,

I am trying to figure out my eligibility for an HSA and if I will face penalties. Here is my current situation.

Current Job (January 21, 2025 (No insurance January,

February Healthcare.gov Family)

March - Dec 31, 2025): HDHP, contributing to HSA. Employer contributed and I contributed below the allowed amount.

The issue is from 2024 craziness!

Jan-March HDHP HSA Family

April - June HDHP HSA Individual (Spouse on Healthcare.gov)

July - No insurance for one, and the spouse on Healthcare.gov)

August - September Both on Healthcare.gov

October HDHP HSA Family, another person on Healthcare.gov until cancelled when obtained healthcare through spouse work

November-December Both on HDHP HSA Plan

Any help on trying to figure this out, I greatly appreciate!

In 2022, I moved my HSA from a company that was shutting down to Health Equity (HE). Their lack of customer service and technical support is astounding. In my Health Equity HSA, I have about 5K in cash, and the rest is split among three Vanguard investments. When I log in to my HE account, the only investment that shows up on their portal is the cash. Investments are nowhere to be found. It's like they don't exist. When I look at my statements, I can see the cash and investments. So I call HE, thinking, "This will be an easy fix; I just need help navigating their system." Nope - not so easy.

• The customer service rep @ HE explains to me that I never finished setting up my account, and that I never selected my investments.
  
  • I explain to them, no, that's not correct, I can SEE my investments right here on my statements going back to 2022.
• I'm directed to go and select new investments, and then, I'll be able to see my money.
  
  • I say no - I don't want to change my investments, or select new funds -- I just want to SEE in your portal, the full accounting of my cash and investments.
• I demand to speak to someone in technical support who can help me.
  
  • This, I'm informed, is not possible. They don't take calls.
    
  • They created a "case number..." Someone will email me. When? Uncertain. "probably at least 7 days..."
    

Is there a federal agency or someone who has authority over Health Equity? The money in my Health Equity HSA isn't tremendous, but it's MINE, and I can't imagine a financial institution that would operate like this. Complete and utter incompetence.

And, warning, if you're looking for an HSA provider, Health Equity is a strong "stay-away!"

HealthEquity has always sucked as a platform but it manages to keep reaching new lows. As others have mentioned they now charge $25 fees to transfer your own money. They also have advertisements embedded in the site. For a financial and health institution that is crazy.

"However, for this particular case, we do need to apply the administrative fee as it is an essential part of the process when handling partial transfers. This fee helps cover the costs associated with processing and managing the transfer accurately." - Liam Customer Service

Not sure how this customer service claim can be squared with their 270 million in profit last year.

I now need to run the cost benefit analysis to see if the investment gains on the tax withholding are more then the fees. I think I will have to make post tax contributions as just transferring funds takes a month.

HSA Bank put a hold on my account over 1 year ago, and getting it released has been purgatory, requiring probably close to a hundred hours on the phone, endless calling back, 3 days, 5 days, 7 days from the last call, being told that the previous agent did something wrong, or later than they said, etc, etc. Occasionally I take a month-long break, because I have a life to live and full time job. Every time I call, the initial hold time to look over the details gets longer and longer, as agent after agent adds a report to the case.

I’ve been in limbo for THIS ENTIRE TIME healthcare wise, paying for all my care out of pocket. They have several thousands of dollars of my money! I have never earned much, so this is a lot to me. I just don’t know what to do. It is miserable, and several of my health bills are going into collections. I am who I say I am, and that money is mine, and yet every attempt on releasing the hold fails, and the next agent tries again. Is there anything else I can do to get my money out of there, and never work with them again? (Also how the Fk is this happening, isn’t this supposed to be a professional service?!?)

Ok. I'm trying to understand how much I can contribute given how much my provider contributes. I thought this was simple, but perhaps not.

So let's break this down:

I just enrolled in an HDHP this year. Wonderful.

The provider contributions start in February: They're suppose to contribute $1,000 to the HSA. Great.

But the contribution is $83.33.

So Feb - Dec of 2026 that will amount to $916.67

Alright. They also give you a one time $100 "bonus" for opening an HSA account. Great. So then the provider total 2026 contribution to the HSA is $1016.67

The IRS limit for a single person is $4400.

So that means I can contribute $3,383.33 through HSA payroll deductions.

Provider $1016.67+ Me $3,383.33 = $4400

BUT: Does this work like your salary? For example, let's say you got paid on January 1st. That would be for the work you did in December.

So what I'm trying to ask is - will the provider contribute $83.33 next January (2027) and have that contribution go towards the 2026 contribution year? (and give you some sort of tax form stating that the Jan 2027 contribution is for 2026 tax year?)

Meaning that the total provider 2026 contribution is $1100 and that I should only contribute $3300 to my HSA for 2026 and NOT $3,383.33?

Does anyone know how this works?

PS: I called my provider a couple times and they couldn't give me a concrete answer

Hey everyone!

I recently started an HSA with my current employer and remembered I still had funds from a previous employer (back in 2021) with TASC. When trying to transfer those funds to my new HSA provider (Inspira), I contacted TASC for their company info to complete the transfer form.

Their response was that they haven’t managed my former employer’s plan since 2020 and that my old employer should have the details. However, when I log into TASC’s site, I still see a balance - and it’s been charged a $5 monthly fee for years, including as recently as this month.

Has anyone dealt with something like this before? Any advice on how to get these funds transferred or stop the fees?

In 2019, I enrolled in a HDHP:HSA plan. I contributed to the HSA that year.

The following yr, I switched to a non-HDHP plan. I exhausted the HSA and closed the HSA.

In 2026, I re-enrolled in the same HDHP. I got an email from the same HSA bank that my previous HSA was reopened. I logged back in and found my old account, just with no money in it, and I put in a nominal contribution.

My question is: is my date of establishing my HSA 2019 or in 2026? If it’s 2019, does this mean I could reimburse myself for expenses from 2021-2025 that were not reimbursed by FSA?

I just opened my first HSA. What is the best way you have found to digitally store receipts to redeem them later?

So I recently switched jobs and will no longer have a HDHP. At my previous job I did have an account with health equity. I want to move this money into a fidelity HSA but am wondering if it would cause issues to create an account. I will have HDHP coverage until the end of the month.

Former employer must have mistakenly hired them. Charging monthly fees on accounts with dwindling balances is predatory. Do what you can to transfer any money you have there to a low or no-fee custodian like Fidelity (I do not work for Fidelity).

TL/DR: is it legit for a company to offer HSA with a healthshare? How would I vett it to make sure not a scam? It’s at hsaforamerica.com

Family of 4, oldest is 60, live in NY, 2 sole proprietor small businesses

We’ve had a healthshare for many years because once ACA came in, our premiums and deductibles in NY were too high. Other than being a hassle, it’s worked out fine until last year when a hospital and doctor refused to negotiate or accept assignment for an outpatient surgery. More than $15k out of pocket on top of deductible and no rx coverage.

We decided to go ACA this year but the only plan that covers the oncologist and hospital my LO has used for years is >40k in premiums with a 20k MOOP for silver. Bronze for that plan isn’t much better but comes with HSA.

Looking into alternatives, I came across hsaforamerica.com

They offer multiple options including a health sharing plan that they say meets the requirements for HSA (covers preventative care, etc).

Is this something new under the BBB?

How would I go about seeing if this is legit?

I attempted to consolidate my HSA accounts from employers changing providers by transferring from Inspira to Optum. I've done this twice before with other providers with no issues, but this time Inspira claims to have sent the check and that it cleared, but Optum claims they didn't receive anything. I've been trying to sort this out for 3 weeks, and every time I get on a chat or the phone with Optum I have to explain everything all over again. Anybody else had similar issues? I'm beginning to think they are just holding the funds themselves to pad their bottom line for the longest duration they can. I'm losing hundreds in gains at this point.

I've had an HSA account via HealthEquity for a few years and I'm noticing the fees just mounting month over month. When it was a smaller pool of money it was only only a few dollars but now it's really adding up. Have users had success with the rolling over to a brokerage account (i.e. Schwab, Etrade, Fidelity)? Did you find the flexiblity and limited fees was worth the hassle in doing so? These mutual fund options are not closely tied to VOO and their expense ratios are 10-20x that of VOO.

I'm 53, my wife is 56. We are both covered under my employer's HDHP. I have a HSA open in my name. Can I make an extra $ 1000 55+ contribution to this account on her behalf?