Better Health Savings Accounts with Lively HSA

In this episode, our guest Alex Cyriac, Founder and CEO of Lively, shares how their modern health savings accounts help families prepare financially today for tomorrow's healthcare needs.

Why health savings matters

Alex never planned to found a company. He spent years early in his career in payment processing followed by a stint at Justworks in the health benefits space. During that time, he discovered that his parents were struggling under the weight of healthcare costs even though they had coverage through Medicare. With a growing family of his own, Alex realized that a nest egg of health savings is an important asset to grow in preparation for health issues and medical expenses that inevitably happen later in life. 

Lively’s consumer-first health savings accounts

The Lively team takes a consumer-first approach in everything they do. At first, that meant just removing the friction in the process of getting started, both for the employer and employees opening a health savings account. Their onboarding experience is so easy that only 3% of Lively HSAs are not funded by the employee, while 20% of accounts go unfunded with other HSA providers.

Next, they turned to features that Cyriac and his team are really excited about. Today, you can link your health insurance to your Lively health savings account so you can see the full picture of your health-related finances in one place. They also offer debit cards and investment opportunities so you can easily access your savings and watch it grow. And since knowledge is power, they’ve produced educational content and engaged with their account-holders to help them make smart financial and healthcare decisions along the way. As a result, Lively's NPS scores soared to 73 while the rest of the industry’s scores languish in the low teens.  

Supporting the employer’s strategy

81% of Lively’s employer clients contribute to employee HSA’s, which is higher than the industry average. Lively also facilitates company matching of employee contributions, which some employers utilize as an incentive to encourage employees to save for future healthcare costs. Together these efforts contribute to Lively’s track record of having above average employee engagement in their savings accounts.

Adapting to COVID-19

Over the course of 2020, Lively saw many of their employer clients hold steady with their health plan strategies and HSA offerings. However, with more layoffs happening, they saw an uptick in individuals signing up for accounts independent of an employer. The service is 100% free and you’re able to transfer funds over from your previous employer’s HSA provider. Currently, they are partnering with employers to think about what’s the right strategy going forward.

“Our goal is to make sure that our employers have the most information available to them to make the right decisions for their employees.”

To hear more about what Lively has in store for 2021, listen to the full episode.

Alex’s resources

Alex recommends Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham’s essays for wisdom on a wide range of entrepreneurship and business management topics. 

You can check out Lively’s HSA plans on their website at http://livelyme.com. Note, this episode is for informational and educational purposes only. Alex Cyriac and Lively are not compensated, affiliated with, nor compensated by Greenhouse Life Insurance Company.

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