August 2025

MATTERS THAT MATTER

Healthy decisions: Employees, health benefits and open enrollment

Open enrollment is just around the corner, so it’s a key time to ramp up communications and education to help employees make informed decisions about their benefits.

With inflationary pressures likely to continue, employees will be leaning on the benefits you provide to help them pay for health care and prepare for retirement. That’s why it’s especially important to arm employees with information, tips and tools that can help them get the most out of their workplace benefits.

One best practice we recommend is to provide a steady cadence of communications in the month leading up to open enrollment to reinforce key messages, drive positive action and encourage good habits to support holistic wellness. Better yet, consider using communications activities planned for open enrollment to springboard into a yearlong program.

Open enrollment season is the perfect time to encourage employees to check in on their 401(k) and make any adjustments to get on track toward retirement goals.

Take advantage of educational outreach and resources available to you and your employees, from emails we deliver directly to employees to an extensive range of webinars, articles, videos and tools that employees can conveniently access on the health and benefit accounts Learn Center and on the Education Center. You can also download a plethora of resources to use in your company’s communication channels, such as ready-to-send emails, flyers, videos, web banners, posters, and more, all available on the Employee Communications Center.

Timely topic: Helping employees understand and optimize an HDHP with an HSA

With health care costs continuing to rise, more employers are offering a high-deductible health plan (HDHP) as a way to lower premiums and give employees greater control over how they spend their health care dollars. However, many employees don’t fully understand HDHPs, how they compare with traditional health plans and how they pair with a health savings account (HSA) to help them pay for out-of-pocket expenses now and down the road.

More education is clearly needed. A recent Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) study1 found that one-third of HSA account holders are withdrawing more from their HSA than they’re contributing. On top of that, few account holders contributed to the maximum allowable amount or took advantage of the ability to invest assets in HSAs for potential longer-term growth.1

To help educate employees during open enrollment, we’ve planned several educational webinars and supporting emails to distribute important, actionable information to employees. In addition, plan sponsor clients can also benefit from our employer communication toolkit, which includes ready-to-send emails, web banners, posters, flyers and digital graphics for corporate television monitors you can use in your company’s communication channels to help prepare employees for the decisions they’ll need to make about their health benefits. It all adds up to an effective way to help your employees make healthier choices about their health benefits.

Key takeaways

  • Talk with your Bank of America representative about communications planned for open enrollment and the rest of the year.
  • Your Bank of America team can work with you to create engagement strategies to complement activities.
  • Don’t have an HSA with Bank of America? Your representative can review what makes our program and offerings stand out.

Footnotes

1 “While Account Balances Rise, New Health Savings Account Research Report Finds One-Third of Accountholders Withdrew More Than They Contributed,” EBRI, June 12, 2025.

Mutual Fund investment offerings for the Bank of America HSA are made available by Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated (“MLPF&S”), a registered broker-dealer, registered investment adviser, Member SIPC (opens in new tab) and a wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of America Corporation (“BofA Corp.”). Investments in mutual funds are held in an omnibus account at MLPF&S in the name of Bank of America, N.A., for the benefit of all HSA account owners. Recommendations as to HSA investment menu options are provided to Bank of America, N.A. by the Chief Investment Office (“CIO”), Global Wealth & Investment Management (“GWIM”), a division of BofA Corp. The CIO provides investment strategies, due diligence, portfolio construction guidance and wealth management solutions for GWIM clients.