Health savings account (HSA) FAQs

It's an individual account designed to work together with an HSA-eligible high-deductible health plan (HDHP). Eligible contributions are tax-deductible, and you can use your HSA money tax-free to pay for qualified medical expenses for you, your spouse, and your qualified dependents. You can choose to invest some or all of your HSA money for potential growth to help pay for qualified medical expenses in retirement. If it grows, that growth is also tax-free. Plus, your HSA is not "use-it-or-lose-it"—the account belongs to you, and your contributions can accumulate year after year.

At Fidelity, you can choose the Fidelity HSA^®, a brokerage account that you manage yourself (self-directed) or the Fidelity Go^® HSA, which lets us choose and manage the investments for you.

HSAs are tax-advantaged in three ways. First, personal HSA contributions using after-tax money may be federal income tax-deductible. If you have an HSA through your employer, you can make pre-tax payroll contributions—this type of contribution saves more on taxes than tax-deductible after-tax contributions.¹ Second, spending your HSA money on qualified medical expenses is free of federal income taxes. Third, if you invest some or all of your HSA money, any growth is also tax-free.

Yes. You, your spouse, and your eligible dependents can all use your HSA money to pay for qualified medical expenses as long as everyone meets eligibility requirements and you, the account owner, have authorized each of them by requesting an additional HSA debit card in their name. Debit cards are only available for the Fidelity HSA^®.

If you're covered by an HSA-eligible health plan, an HSA can offer a variety of benefits. It's tax-advantaged in 3 ways—contributing, spending for qualified medical expenses, and investment growth are all federal income tax-free. You can also invest your HSA money for potential long-term growth, so HSAs are a great way to save for health care costs through retirement.

Yes. You may open and contribute to as many HSAs as you like. Please note that the annual IRS contribution limit will still apply to the total amount you contribute to all your HSAs, and opening more HSAs will not increase your limit. Also, if you have an HSA through your employer, any contributions your employer makes will count toward the limit. See IRS Publication 969 for more on annual HSA contribution limits.

Yes. HSA money is not "use-it-or-lose-it," unlike flexible spending accounts (FSAs), and your entire HSA balance carries over from year to year, forever. In general, HSAs cover a broader variety of qualified medical expenses than FSAs.² Also, FSAs are generally sponsored by your employer, while your Fidelity HSA is owned by you. That means your HSA is always yours, even if you change employers or move to a different state.

An HSA-eligible health plan may cost less. Premiums are generally lower in exchange for higher deductibles, and HSA contributions, earnings, and distributions are all federal tax-free when used to pay for qualified medical expenses. HSA-eligible health plans have an annual out-of-pocket maximum expense amount, which limits your total yearly health care spending with additional costs, such as co-pays and co-insurance. Consider your own personal situation carefully before making a decision about enrolling in an HSA-eligible plan and opening an HSA.³

Your HSA and your balance are always yours, even if you change employers or move to another state. You can contribute to your HSA—even an HSA offered by your previous employer—as long as you continue to meet eligibility requirements. Even if you become ineligible to contribute to your HSA, you can spend your HSA money tax-free for qualified medical expenses any time, including through retirement.

Your HSA is always yours, even if you change health insurance plans. However, if you switch to a health plan that is not HSA-eligible, you will no longer be eligible to make future contributions to your HSA.

You're eligible to open and contribute to an HSA if:

• You're covered by an HSA-eligible health plan on the first of the month
• You're not covered by an ineligible health plan
• You're not enrolled in Medicare
• You cannot be claimed as a dependent on someone else's tax return

There are no taxes or penalties for opening an HSA while you’re ineligible, as long as you don’t make contributions to it. If you opened an HSA by mistake while ineligible, call Fidelity to close your HSA. You will not have to pay federal income taxes and/or penalties until you make contributions to your HSA while you’re ineligible. Any contributions you do make while ineligible will be subject to federal income taxes and/or penalties. However, you can consolidate any old HSAs into one HSA while ineligible, using a direct custodian-to-custodian transfer—this will not count toward your annual contribution limit.

If you make HSA contributions while you’re ineligible to do so, your contributions may be taxable and you may have to pay penalties.

For 2023, the IRS defines HSA-eligible plans as high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) with a deductible of at least $1,500 for an individual and $3,000 for families. These health plans must also have an annual out-of-pocket maximum spending amount of no more than $7,500 for an individual and $15,000 for families. See IRS Publication 969 for more about HSA-eligible health plans.

For 2024, the IRS defines HSA-eligible plans as high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) with a deductible of at least $1,600 for an individual and $3,200 for families. These health plans must also have an annual out-of-pocket maximum spending amount of no more than $8,050 for an individual and $16,100 for families. See IRS Publication 969 for more about HSA-eligible health plans.

Generally, you are not eligible to open or contribute to an HSA if you are covered under a health plan that is not a high-deductible health plan (non-HDHP), with certain exceptions for plans with preventative care benefits and some types of permitted insurance and permitted coverage.

HSA-ineligible health plans include:

• A spouse's non-HDHP coverage that covers you. However, you still may be eligible to open and contribute to an HSA if your spouse has a non-HDHP that does not cover you
• Medicare or Tricare
• Veterans Affairs (VA) medical benefits received during the previous three (3) months
• A general-purpose health flexible spending account (FSA) or health reimbursement arrangement (HRA), including coverage through your spouse, that pays or reimburses medical expenses before you meet your HSA-eligible health plan's deductible

Have questions? See IRS Publication 969 or consult with your tax advisor.

There are no fees for opening a Fidelity HSA^®.

If you choose to invest in mutual funds, expenses will still apply for those funds. See the funds' prospectus for more information.

There may also be commissions, interest charges, and other expenses related to transactions or holding specific investments, such as mutual funds. See www.fidelity.com/commissions for more information.

If you have a Fidelity HSA^® through your employer, your account may be charged an administrative fee of up to $12 per quarter ($48 annually), unless it’s paid by your employer. That administrative fee may be waived for households established before a certain date and meeting certain asset minimums at Fidelity.

There is no minimum balance to open a Fidelity HSA^®.

Fidelity Go^® HSA is a type of managed account designed for clients who seek a digital, discretionary investment management experience. Most of your experience with Fidelity Go^® takes place online—including providing information about yourself, opening your account, and tracking your investments.

When you enroll in Fidelity Go^®, you turn the day-to-day investment decisions for your money over to a team of experienced professionals, who provide this service for a fee. Based on information you provide, these professionals invest your money to help you meet your investment goals.

With Fidelity Go^®, you start by telling us a few things about yourself: the year you were born, your household income, the reason you're investing, the amount you hope to invest, when you'll need the money you're investing, and your risk tolerance. Then we'll suggest an investment strategy consisting of Fidelity funds that hold stocks, bonds, and short-term investments. You can also give us more information about yourself, which allows us to know you better and helps us suggest an investment strategy that may be even more closely aligned to your financial situation. When you don’t provide us with the additional information, we propose an investment strategy using the information you provided us along with assumed responses about you based on information we derive about similarly aged investors or investors with a similar time horizon from other Fidelity programs and services.

You can select the proposed investment strategy or another strategy that you believe is appropriate for you (subject to certain constraints). After that, you open your account online.

Once your account is open, you can add money to it. We'll start by offering you the chance to make an initial deposit, in the same amount you told us you were going to start with when you created your profile. If you told us you were going to make recurring monthly deposits, we'll prompt you to add those next. But don't worry if you want to put those off until later—you can set those up at any time.

A Fidelity Go^® HSA offers tiered pricing based on your account balance. You'll pay no advisory fee for a balance under $25,000 and 0.35% per year for a balance of $25,000 and above; includes unlimited 1-on-1 coaching calls. There are no trading fees, transaction fees, or rebalancing fees.

Fidelity Go^® HSA invests in zero expense ratio Fidelity Flex^® mutual funds that do not charge management fees or, with limited exceptions, fund expenses.

There is no minimum initial investment to open a Fidelity Go^® HSA. However, for us to invest your money according to the investment strategy you've chosen, your account balance must be at least $10.

Your account will hold a combination of Fidelity Flex^® mutual funds. These funds generally hold domestic stocks, foreign stocks, bonds or short-term investments.

The day-to-day investment and trading decisions in your Fidelity Go^® HSA will be handled by Strategic Advisers LLC, a registered investment adviser and a Fidelity Investments company.

The IRS defines HSA contributions each year. For 2023, HSA contribution limits are $3,850 for individual health plans and $7,750 for family health plans. For 2024, HSA contribution limits are $4,150 for individual health plans and $8,300 for family health plans. If you're age 55 or older during the tax-year, you may also be eligible to make an additional $1,000 catch-up contribution annually. Your spouse can also make a catch-up contribution if they're 55 or older, but they'll need to open their own HSA.

Even though Fidelity Go^® HSAs are intended for investing goals of three years or longer, you can still reimburse yourself for qualified medical expenses you pay out-of-pocket by submitting a withdrawal request. When you do, we'll sell securities in your account for you. After the money has settled, which can take up to ten business days, we'll send it to you by check, electronic funds transfer (EFT), or transfer of funds to another account.

If you also have a self-directed Fidelity HSA^®, you can use a debit card to pay for qualified medical expenses by transferring money over from your Fidelity Go^® HSA.

You can use money in the core position in a self-directed Fidelity HSA^® for short-term qualified medical expenses. This way you have quick access, through Fidelity BillPay and your debit card, to the money needed to reimburse yourself for out-of-pocket expenses.

Fidelity Go^® HSA is a managed account designed for use towards investment goals with a long-term horizon of three years or more.

Form 1099-SA reports all withdrawals, including charges to your HSA debit card, you have made from your HSA during the tax-year. You should report the withdrawal amounts from Form 1099-SA on Form 8889 only if you withdrew from your HSA.

Form 5498-SA summarizes your HSA contributions, holdings, and fair market value. This form is informational only and does not need to be filed with your taxes. Please refer to our tax information guide for further details.

Form 990T – Fidelity will complete and file this form on your behalf, if necessary. This form only applies to investments in limited partnerships, so most HSA owners should not expect to need or receive one of these.

View your tax forms.Log In Required

Fidelity will send you Form 1099-SA in January if you have withdrawn from your HSA during the tax year. Fidelity will send you Form 5498-SA in May.

Please refer to our tax information guide for further details.

View your tax forms.Log In Required

You can view your contributions history on your Portfolio Summary page after you log into Fidelity.com.

The IRS defines HSA contributions each year. For 2023, HSA contribution limits are $3,850 for individual health plans and $7,750 for family health plans. For 2024, HSA contribution limits are $4,150 for individual health plans and $8,300 for family health plans. If you're age 55 or older during the tax-year, you may also be eligible to make an additional $1,000 catch-up contribution annually. Please note that if you have an employer-sponsored HSA, any contributions made by your employer will count toward these limits. If you're married and covered by a family health plan, you and your spouse can both contribute to your HSA. If you do, all of your contributions will count toward the yearly contribution limit for family health plans. See IRS Publication 969 for more on annual HSA contribution limits.

To move your outside HSA or HSAs to your Fidelity HSA, please follow our transfer of assets process. Please note: It may take a few weeks for your assets to arrive and be available in your Fidelity HSA.

If your HSA money is invested, you may be able to do an in-kind transfer into a Fidelity HSA^®, which allows your HSA provider to transfer both your cash balance and your investments to Fidelity. You may need a separate transfer request for each. Some HSA providers don't allow this, which means you’d need to liquidate your investments before moving the money.

Transfers directly into a Fidelity Go^® HSA can be made in cash or in-kind, if they are transferred in-kind they will be liquidated and reinvested, but you can transfer securities you don’t wish to liquidate into a Fidelity HSA^®.

There are four ways you can contribute to your HSA.

• Transfer money: Make a one-time or recurring transfer from a bank account or a one-time transfer from another Fidelity account.
• Deposit a check: Use the Fidelity app to make a mobile deposit or send a check via the mail.
• Use money from another HSA: Transfer some or all of your balance from another HSA.
• Move money from an IRA: Complete a one-time transfer – there’s no penalty and it’s tax-free.

Please see our guide to moving money at Fidelity for more information.

HSA-eligible individuals age 55 or older during the tax-year can contribute an additional $1,000 annually.

Fidelity gives you broad investing options, including our Fidelity HSA Funds to Consider. These are professionally selected funds for HSA investing, all with waived investment minimums and no transaction fees. Other HSA investing options include single-fund options, such as our target date funds and target allocation funds, as well as our entire brokerage lineup, which includes mutual funds, ETFs, stocks, bonds, US Treasuries, and FDIC-insured CDs.

The SIPC protects your uninvested HSA money, up to $500,000.⁴ If you choose to invest some or all of your HSA money, those investments could lose money. All investing involves risk, including risk of loss.

Accessing your invested HSA money is as simple as selling your investments in the same way you’d sell any other investment. The money should be available for withdrawal when the trade settles, usually within a few business days.

Opening a Fidelity account automatically establishes a core position which is needed for processing cash transactions such as deposits and withdrawals in and out of your account. Think of it like a wallet that you can access for trading, investing, or withdrawals. A benefit of the core position is that it allows you to earn interest or a yield, depending on which core option you choose.

When you open a new Fidelity HSA^®, we automatically put your uninvested cash into the Fidelity^® Government Cash Reserves but you can also choose another cash option. Understanding the differences between your core options can help you make the choice that's right for you. Below are the HSA core options available to you:

Fidelity® Government Cash Reserves (FDRXX) money market fund.⁵

• Money market funds are mutual funds that invest in short-term debt securities issued by short-term, high-quality entities that borrow money to repay principal and interest to investors within a short time period. Money market funds have different characteristics than a bank sweep so read the fund's prospectus carefully.

or

Fidelity's FDIC Insured Deposit Sweep Program⁶

• Through the program, the uninvested cash balance in your Fidelity HSA^® is swept to one or more program banks where it is eligible for FDIC insurance. For more information, please refer to the FDIC-Insured Deposit Sweep Program Disclosure (PDF) and the Fidelity Health Savings Account (HSA) Program Banks list.

Interest rates or yields may vary due to market conditions. View the latest.

The option to choose your position appears during account opening; however, you can also change it at any time.

• Log in to Fidelity.com and select your Fidelity HSA^® account. In the Positions tab, select Core or FDRXX.
• Select the Change core position button.
• Select FDIC or Fidelity Government Cash Reserves (FDRXX), then click "Preview order," and "Submit."

Switching is free and will not change your ability to access or invest this money.