While there is a growing body of literature around the use of medical services and spending among individuals in HSA-eligible plans, there is limited financial data on accounts and account owners. In 2013, the maximum annual contribution to an HSA was $3,250 for account owners with individual coverage and $6,450 for account owners with family coverage. Individuals who had reached age 55 and not yet enrolled in Medicare could make an additional $1,000 catch-up contribution. Maximum annual contributions included both individual and employer contributions. This paper examines data on contributions from the EBRI HSA Database. Specifically, it examines HSA owners and characteristics associated with accounts receiving the maximum contribution. HSAs with contributions of between $3,088-$3,413 ($3,250 plus or minus 5 percent), or at least $6,128 ($6,450 minus 5 percent) were considered as having received the maximum contribution. Overall, 15 percent of all accounts had received the maximum contribution in 2013. HSAs opened more recently were less likely than older accounts to have received the maximum contribution. Accounts with distributions for claims and higher-level claims were more likely to have received the maximum contribution. Accounts belonging to older HSA owners were more likely than those belonging to younger ones to have received the maximum contribution. Men were more likely than women to receive maximum contributions in their HSA. Sixteen percent of accounts belonging to men received the maximum contribution compared to 10 percent among those belonging to women. When contributions were examined by both gender and age, it was found that among men, 55-64-year-old HSA owners were more likely to receive maximum contributions in their HSAs than those ages 45-54. However, among women, 55-64-year-old HSA owners were less likely to receive maximum contributions in their HSAs than those ages 45-54. In 2013, 14 percent of HSAs with an employer contribution received the maximum contribution, compared with 20 percent of accounts without an employer contribution.The PDF for the above title, published in the January 2015 issue of EBRI Notes, also contains the fulltext of another January 2015 EBRI Notes article abstracted on SSRN: “Debt of the Elderly and Near Elderly, 1992-2013.”
