As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the enabling legislationfor HSAs, the industry, employers and brokers/agents all have theopportunity to move HSAs forward, beyond basic administration, withthe use of insightful reporting and analytical tools. Inparticular, as brokers continue to strive to prove their worth toclients, reporting offers a real opportunity to serve in aconsultative role that can make a positive impact on their clients'bottom-line.

Essentially, account reporting can provide the insight necessaryfor employers to not only see exactly how their employee accountsare being used, but also allows them to react and positively impacta desired outcome. In order to fully realize the benefits of theseaccounts and influence employee behavior to improve wellness andultimately lower health care costs, employers need to have thesupporting data and applied analysis to make those informedchanges.

We view reporting as a three-step process:

1. First, the employer will need to obtain the data in a usableformat. While this sounds straightforward, many administrators haveyet to develop or supply adequate reporting tools and analysis.It's important to consider this capability when selecting an HSAadministrator.

2. Second, the data needs to be analyzed and applied to theemployer's specific situation.

3. Third, the employer needs to take action based on what the datais revealing.

These steps can appear fairly straightforward, however, the normwith data reporting has often been to review the data and file itaway.

Understanding the data

In order to avoid stalling at step three and to take action,it's important to understand what the reporting data means.Reporting provides aggregated data that looks at the actual numbersfrom each employer group month-to-month which allows a betterunderstanding of the habits of the accountholders and any existingtrends.

Reporting can provide a wealth of data, including accounts(enrollment, open and closure); balances (total, average and tierbreakdowns); contributions (employee and employer); distributions(amount, frequency and method) and investments (number of accountsand balances).

In addition to typical reporting metrics, we've also identifiedseveral additional key data metrics that allow for tracking trends,including:

• Percentage of accounts with employee contributions
• Contribution to distribution ratio
• Distribution frequency versus benchmark average
• Remaining balance to contributions

Data reporting also can help identify and classify differentbehaviors of employee accountholders, which is helpful in creatingtailored communications.

Execution

In order to effectively implement change based on the reportingdata, employers need to have a plan for what they hope toaccomplish within their HSA plan offering—what problem they need totackle. We have identified a six-point plan to better manage thisprocess, including the following steps:

• Identify the item/problem to impact
• Choose the best way to impact the result
• Identify the measure of success
• Deploy the necessary resources
• Regularly review
• Make adjustments

By analyzing the reporting trends over a period of time,employers can review their progress impacting change in their HSAplan.

Employers need to take the time to regularly view and understandtheir HSA reports. It's also critical to analyze the data to seewhat trends and opportunities for improvement exist. While manyemployers are strapped for time and resources, business partners,including HSA administrators and brokers/agents, have theexperience and knowledge to help in driving positive change.