Health Savings Account Information

If you participate in the Consumer Driven Health Plan, use the UT Payroll Deduction Form to have money withheld from your paychecks and deposited into your health savings account. You may start a deduction, change the amount of a deduction, or stop a deduction anytime during the year.

Health Savings Account deduction forms are located on the Forms page of this website.

How to qualify for a Health Savings Account

• You must be enrolled in one of the CDHP options.
• You can’t have other health coverage that pays for out-of-pocket health care expenses before you meet your plan deductible.
• You or your spouse can’t have a general-purpose health care flexible spending account FSA) or health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) in the same year. If you were previously enrolled in The University of Tennessee’s FSA you must use your funds by December 31, or your HSA will not go into effect until April 1 of the following year.
• You can’t have Medicare or TRICARE, or have received Veterans Administration (VA) health benefits in the previous three months.
• You can’t be claimed as a dependent by someone else.

What are the benefits of a Health Savings Account?

• Contribute pretax and post-tax dollars.
• Contribute up to $3350/individual and $6750/family pretax dollars annually.
• Unused funds roll over from year to year.
• Your HSA stays with you, even if you switch employers, change health plans or retire.
• If you have an HSA somewhere else, you can transfer the balance to your new HSA.
• Your money can earn interest – plus, you can enjoy investment options.
• Some common eligible expenses may include:
  • Deductibles, co-pays, and co-insurance.
  • Eligible prescriptions.
  • Vision care, including LASIK laser eye surgery.
  • Dental Care, including orthodontia.

How do you get reimbursed?

• Once funds are available in your HSA, OptumBank makes it easy to pay for your eligible expenses.
• Use the OptumBank card (your account debit card): When you use the OptumBank debit card, your expense is automatically paid from your account.
• Pay yourself back: Pay for eligible expenses with cash, check or your personal credit card. Then, withdraw funds from your HSA to pay yourself back. You can even have your payment deposited directly into your checking or savings account.

Things to keep in mind

• View the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) contribution limits and a list of common eligible expense items on the OptumBank member website.
• Annual contribution limits include contributions made by both you and the University.
• You can make a one-time, tax free transfer from an Individual Retirement Account (IRA).
• If you are age 55 or older, you can contribute up to an additional $1000 annually.
• If you use your HSA for ineligible expenses, you will need to pay income taxes and a 20 percent penalty tax on that amount. Note: If you are age 65 or older or disabled at the time of this withdrawal, you won’t have to pay the penalty tax. However, you are still responsible for paying income taxes.
• Save your itemized statements, detailed receipts and any Explanation of Benefits (EOB) statements for your expense records.