Quick question on HSA

[jordy913]

Hi there,

I'm pretty new here and have a quick question. It might be dumb question and apologies if this is not the right place to ask, or if this has already been asked and answered!

My company was just recently acquired. Our new health insurance from the new company does not offer a HSA. Because of this, we were given the option to keep our HSA open (through Tango and Optum Bank), but it has a $4/mo fee. There's about $1,000 in the account.

Is it worth to keep, and just pay the ~$50 a year fee? 

It says it can be rolled over to another HSA custodian. I imagine if I did keep it open and got another job elsewhere that had a HSA I could roll it over then. The other option would be close the account, but it says it would be subjected to normal tax + 20% penalty.

I'm leaning towards just keeping it as I'd really like to use a HSA in FI.

Any insight is greatly appreciated!

[seattlecyclone]

Do you tend to have medical or dental expenses ever? If so, I would probably just use the account to pay for those expenses over the next year or two and then be rid of it. A $1,000 balance is hardly worth shopping around for a different provider with lower fees, especially if you don't know when (or if) you'll next have a health insurance plan that allows you to contribute to an HSA.

[MDM]

Our new health insurance from the new company does not offer a HSA.

To clarify: does your new company not offer a way to contribute to an HSA via payroll deduction, or does it not offer a High Deductible Health Plan that would qualify one to have an HSA?

[jordy913]

Thanks for your response. I believe they do not offer either - no high deductible plan and no way to contribute via payroll deductions. Kinda stinks.

[jordy913]

Thanks seattlecyclone, good idea. I don't really have many dental or medical expenses, but I do have some items from the past that I could get reimbursed on (still have the receipts). I suppose I could get the account down to zero and then just close it. Thanks for your help!

[ENL]

I'm not sure if this would be possible since you do not currently have a qualifying health plan, but you may be able to open up an HSA with another HSA provider and roll the funds over to the new account.  HSAs are a separate entity than your insurance plan, so you don't have to switch jobs/insurance to roll your funds over.  You won't be able to contribute more to it without a qualifying health plan, obviously, but it might be worth it if you don't expect to use up the balance soon and can find something with lower fees.

My husband and I recently did a HSA rollover from an account we didn't like to one we picked out with better investment options.

[terran]

You might be surprised by all the things that are qualified expenses: https://www.healthhub.com/consumercenter/planningtools/EligibleHealthCareExpenses.aspx

[boarder42]

WTF condoms are an eligible medical expense.  this is awesome.

[jordy913]

Thanks for all the help here everyone! @terran - this is a great link! There is a lot more I could get reimbursed than I thought!