Employers are borrowing a page from the 401(k) playbook to get more workers saving in health savings accounts, using automatic enrollment and matching contributions to remove the friction of opting in.
In 2025, nearly 46% of employers automatically enrolled workers into an HSA when the employee signed up for a high-deductible health plan, according to a report published in August by the Plan Sponsor Council of America, a trade group representing employers. That share has climbed from 32% in 2019, the group’s data shows.
The shift mirrors the success of automatic features in workplace retirement plans, said Hattie Greenan, the PSCA’s director of research and communications. “I think that we’ve seen a lot of success with automatic features in retirement plans,” she said. “And employers are looking at how they can adopt that with other benefits.”
The appeal of removing friction
Auto-enrollment is widely considered a best practice among 401(k) plans when it comes to raising participation. Roughly 64% of employers auto-enrolled workers into a 401(k) in 2025, according to PSCA data. A federal law known as Secure 2.0, passed in 2022, has also required most newly formed 401(k) plans to auto-enroll workers since last year.
By applying that same approach to HSAs, employers aim to overcome the inertia that keeps workers from opening accounts on their own. “If you rely on individuals to open their own accounts, it’s much more difficult” to increase participation, said Ann Brisk, senior managing director of strategy and innovation at HSA Bank, which administers health savings accounts.
The accounts carry a powerful three-pronged tax break: Contributions do not count toward taxable income, investments grow tax-free, and withdrawals are tax-free when used for qualified health expenses.
Employer contributions are key
Unlike 401(k) auto-enrollment, which typically diverts a portion of an employee’s paycheck into a retirement account, the HSA setup is usually different, experts said. Companies that auto-enroll workers into an HSA generally seed the accounts with employer money rather than pulling from the employee’s paycheck.
About 77% of employers provided employees with an HSA contribution in 2025, according to PSCA data. In this structure, auto-enrollment becomes a way for employers to help workers handle health costs at a time when healthcare expenses are soaring, experts said.
“I think there’s a recognition that health care is expensive, and supporting employees with that is essential,” Greenan said.
Among employers making a contribution, about a third — 32% — put between $500 and $1,000 per worker into the accounts, while 29% paid $1,350 or more and 22% paid $500 or less, the PSCA found. These funds typically sit in a liquid, cash-like account within the HSA rather than being invested in stocks or mutual funds, Brisk said. Employees can generally move the money into investments once their balance exceeds a threshold set by their HSA provider.
The match is catching on
The 401(k) match — which requires employees to contribute before receiving employer funds — is also starting to appear in HSAs, Brisk said. Roughly 10% of employers that make an HSA contribution match the employee’s own contributions, according to PSCA data, and another 7.5% are considering it.
“It’s very similar to a 401(k),” Brisk said. “We think it is very easy for people to understand, and encourages people to put money in their own account.”
The trend comes as more employers have adopted high-deductible health plans, which generally carry lower premiums than traditional co-pay plans. Among employers offering health benefits, 31% offered a high-deductible plan paired with an HSA in 2025, up from 4% in 2005, according to KFF, a health policy research group.
High-deductible plans in 2026 carry minimum deductibles of $1,700 for individuals and $3,400 for families, according to the IRS. Total worker and employer HSA contributions for self-only coverage cannot exceed $4,400 in 2026; the limit is $8,750 for family coverage.
Source: www.cnbc.com — https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/05/hsa-401k-plan-retirement-automatic-enrollment.html
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