Job Changes and Your HSA
Effects of job loss on HSA spending
No matter what your employment situation and medical insurance coverage is, your HSA and the money in it are yours. You can always use it to pay for eligible medical expenses.
When receiving unemployment benefits, health insurance premiums are considered eligible medical expenses. See Eligible Expenses for a searchable list of eligible medical expenses.
Effects of job loss on HSA contributions
To contribute to an HSA, you must be covered by an HSA-qualified high-deductible health plan (HDHP).
Your ability to contribute more money to your HSA depends on the health plan decisions you make after the change in employment.
You can't make HSA contributions for any month you weren't covered by an HSA-qualified health plan. But you have two choices that will allow you to continue to add money to your account:
Buy individual health insurance
You can continue to contribute to an HSA if you purchase an HSA-qualified individual health insurance plan. See Enrolling in an HSA-qualifying health plans for more information.
Choose COBRA
Choosing to keep your former employer's HDHP through COBRA will allow you to keep contributing to that plan's HSA.
Transferring from an employer group plan to an individual HSA with Capital Blue Cross
If your current HSA is part of an employer group plan, and you are no longer with that employer, your HSA will automatically become an individual HSA with Capital Blue Cross.
Capital Blue Cross sends you a letter that explains the change and the Capital Blue Cross HSA plan options available to you, and you choose the plan and options you want.
Capital Blue Cross customer service is available at 877.293.7041 to give you more information about this process.
Monthly administrative fees will be withheld from your account
Your former employer may have paid for the monthly administrative fee associated with your HSA while you were part of their plan. Once your account is transferred to an individual HSA, any monthly administrative fee will automatically be withdrawn from the balance of your account.
Crossover
We recommend that members who participate in Crossover call Capital Blue Cross customer support at 877.293.7041 for more information about how your employment changes will affect your account.
See Crossover: Automated Claim Payments for more information about this service.
Switching to a new employer's health benefits
If your new employer offers health coverage, they may offer an HSA-qualified HDHP. Once covered by an HDHP, you can keep contributing to your Capital Blue Cross HSA.
Look into the plan that your employer offers. They may contribute additional money to an employee's HSA. You can open a second HSA under your employer's plan to take advantage of the benefits that they provide, while still contributing to your Capital Blue Cross HSA open as long as you don't contribute more than the maximum allowed amount.
See HSA Contribution Limits to learn more