A Health Savings Account (HSA) is an individually owned, tax-favored account that allows individuals to pay for qualified health care expenses. In order to set up or contribute to an HSA, you must be covered by a Qualified High-Deductible Health Plan (HDHP). Premiums associated with an HSA-qualified plan are usually lower than a traditional plan, allowing employees to capture the savings and fund their account.

HSAs remain popular because consumers are looking for more choices and more ways to save. For example, HSAs offer triple tax savings. This means any HSA contributions can be made either pre-tax or are tax deductible at year-end. Any interest income or earnings on investments tied to an HSA remains tax free. As long as the HSA funds are used to pay for qualified health care expenses then no taxes will be charged on distributions. HSAs are extremely versatile, and there are many other benefits of opening an HSA.

Here are 5 tips to maximize your HSA account:

Go beyond December 31; put that end-of-year bonus to good use

As long as you don’t go over the annual HSA contribution limits set by the IRS, you can sock away your HSA dollars until Tax Day.

Apply the last-month rule

This rule allows individuals who are eligible on the first day of the last month of their taxpaying year, which is usually December 1, to contribute the full yearly maximum. For example, if your HDHP coverage started October 1, 2018, you’d be eligible to contribute the maximum for 2018 since you were covered before December 1, 2018. That’d total $3,450 if you have individual coverage and $6,900 if you have family coverage.

Use the once-per-lifetime IRA transfer

It can be difficult to find the funds to get started with an HSA. However, HSA rules allow a once-per-lifetime transfer from a traditional or Roth IRA to an HSA. The same HSA contribution limits for the year apply.

Reimburse yourself

Use receipts for the health care expenses you paid for with non-HSA funds and repay yourself from your HSA account. For example, let’s say you paid your recent health care expenses out of pocket, and never withdrew money to repay yourself. And now you’re a little short on paying for a major house repair. You can use the receipts for the health care expenses you paid for with non-HSA funds and repay yourself from the HSA account.

Get your family involved

By naming your spouse as a beneficiary, he or she gets your same tax benefits. If you name your child or anyone else as beneficiary, the funds are taxable income in the year they are received. If you have a child starting with a new HSA, you can help out by depositing funds into their account to help them meet their annual contribution limit.

According to recent research, health savings account (HSA) participants are savvier health care consumers and more engaged in health care decision-making than their peers.

Relative to the general population, HSA holders are 80 percent more likely to save aggressively for future health care savings, 68 percent more likely to have a savings goal, 54 percent more confident in forecasting out-of-pocket health care costs and 46 percent more likely to research and compare costs, according to the 2018 Alegeus HSA Participant Profile Report.

Given these findings, along with the substantial benefits HSAs provide employers and employees, one might wonder what can be done to help sustain the predicted rise in HSA uptake. Whether you’re a broker or employer, there are plenty of options available to help facilitate and sustain HSA participation growth:

Educate employees

Education is essential if you’d like more employees to achieve the status of informed HSA participant. Many consumers still lack the knowledge of basic health care concepts. They need substantial training and support to understand how HSAs could benefit them. To give you an idea of the enormity of this problem, only 19 percent of the general populace can pass a basic true/false HSA proficiency quiz.

Fortunately, the benefits offered by HSAs are undeniable. Employers can expect to see a considerable increase in account adoption if they can effectively communicate the value of HSAs to their employees.

Incentivize employee participation

It’s crucial for employers to incentivize employee participation by contributing to their accounts. This is one of the most important things an employer can do if they want to see more employees opt-in for HSA and HSA-eligible plans.

Reinforce the value of HSAs throughout the year

One of the biggest mistakes employers make is only providing educational materials to employees during open enrollment. Organizations should communicate the benefits of HSAs throughout the year. It’s especially effective to focus on timely information that guides HSA holders to optimally fund, spend and invest their health care dollars.

It’s also effective to offer resources across a range of formats when discussing the benefits of HSAs. Webinars, on-demand videos, promotional displays, Intranet pages and account comparison tools are all effective options.

Most people have a hard time understanding health plans and benefits. So, while strong growth is projected for HSAs over the next few years, don’t fall into the trap of feeling a false sense of security. Consistent year-round communication, along with employer account contributions, is the best route forward for seeing increased HSA employee participation.