InComm Payments

Dave Etling, SVP and GM

If you work in HR or benefits long enough, you develop a pretty thick skin. You’re the ones trying to balance budgets, keep people healthy and modernize a system that doesn’t exactly like to change. The fact that you’re still looking for better ways to do it says a lot.

Here’s one place that’s ready for a rethink: the humble HSA.

Most of your employees can tell you which credit card earns 3% back on groceries or which loyalty app gets them a free coffee. They’re used to checking point balances and cash back totals on their phones. Rewards are familiar. They’re easy to understand.

Now put that next to how HSAs usually land at open enrollment: a slide about “triple tax advantages,” a list of eligible expenses and some fine print at the end. The details might be accurate, but the story doesn’t match how people actually interact with money.

You can see the result in the data. In InComm Benefits’ 2025 Employee HSA Research Report, 64% of accountholders say they avoid using their HSA when they’re not confident an expense is eligible. The benefit is there, but the hesitation is, too.

The issue isn’t that employees don’t care about their finances. It’s that the HSA has been built and marketed like a tax form, not like the rewards products they use every day.

Loyalty Has Already Done the Hard Work

Other industries have spent decades figuring out how to nudge behavior.

Credit cards made rewards and cash back the headline. Retailers turned points and perks into reasons to choose one store over another. Streaming and subscription brands bundle and discount to shape how people subscribe.

They all lean on the same basic ingredients: simple rules, clear value and easy tracking in an app.

In benefits, we tend to reach for different tools. We update plan design. We add another webinar. We send another FAQ. Those things help, but they don’t always change what people actually do on a Tuesday afternoon when they’re paying a medical bill.

Which is why a new approach is getting attention: using loyalty logic and payments technology to redesign the way HSAs work.

A cash back HSA takes a concept employees already understand and applies it to healthcare.

With the HSA from InComm Benefits, for example, accountholders can earn 2% Cash Back on eligible HSA transactions, up to a capped amount each year.* When someone uses their HSA debit card on a qualified expense, a small percentage goes right back into their account.

Think about it: An employee has a $100 urgent care visit and gets $2 back. It doesn’t seem to make a huge difference in the moment, but it does change the story. Instead of “you’re on your own until you hit your deductible,” the message becomes: you used this account the right way, and it rewarded you for it.

That subtle shift matters. It moves the HSA out of the mental category of “complicated savings vehicle” and into the category of “card that gives me something back when I use it correctly.”

And behind the scenes, the technology does the heavy lifting.

With InComm Benefits’ HSA, the system helps determine which purchases qualify as eligible, applies the HSA funds and automatically credits the 2% Cash Back.* Employees then see their balance, recent transactions and rewards in a simple, consumer grade app, much like the banking and loyalty apps they already check.

Designing the HSA Story You Actually Want to Tell

As you look ahead to your next benefits cycle or vendor review, it might be worth asking a simple question:

If an employee were explaining your HSA to a colleague over coffee, what would they say?

Right now, the answer might be something like, “It’s that account I’m supposed to save in, but I’m never sure when I’m allowed to use it.” A better version could be: “It’s the card I use for medical stuff—it’s pre tax, and when I use it on the right things, it even gives me money back.”

The more the HSA behaves like a modern rewards product—clear rules, visible value, clean digital experience—the less you have to fight to get people to use it. That’s the opportunity in front of HR and benefits leaders right now. Not to make everyone an expert in tax code, but to give them a benefit that fits the way they already make decisions in the rest of their financial lives.

To see where employees are getting the most value from HSAs (and where they’re still holding back) take a look at InComm Benefits’ 2025 Employee HSA Research Report.

*InComm Benefits Cash Back offer is subject to terms and conditions. The maximum amount of Cash Back that can be accrued for the calendar year is $200. A calendar year is considered January 1 – December 31. Once the $200 limit is reached, account holders will stop accruing Cash Back on transactions for the remainder of the calendar year.

InComm is a financial technology company, not an FDIC insured bank. Banking services for HSA and FSA offerings are provided by Coastal Community Bank, Member FDIC. The InComm Visa® Debit Card is issued by Coastal Community Bank pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. InComm spending accounts are FDIC insured up to $250,000 per depositor through Coastal Community Bank, Member FDIC. FDIC insurance only covers the failure of an FDIC insured bank. FDIC insurance is available through pass through insurance at Coastal Community Bank, Member FDIC, if certain conditions have been met.