First Dollar Selected to Power Pre-Tax Accounts for Clearwater Health

AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 11, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- First Dollar, flexible infrastructure for health spending benefits, today announced its partnership with Clearwater Health to power health savings accounts (HSAs) on Clearwater's platform.

The most recent KFF Employer Health Benefits Survey found that the average family premium rose 7% in 2023. Both employers and employees are feeling the cost, as employers paid $17,393 and employees paid $6,575. In response, many Americans are turning to HSAs to plan for their healthcare costs and enjoy tax savings as the 2023 Midyear Devenir HSA Research Report found that Americans held $116 billion in almost 36 million HSAs, an annual increase of 17% for assets and 6% for accounts.

As more Americans turn to HSAs and other health spending benefits, organizations must offer intuitive benefit experiences and effective education campaigns to help ensure members fully utilize their benefits. The First Dollar and Clearwater relationship arose in part to address this challenge as they share similar principles and values when it comes to healthcare accessibility and affordability.

First Dollar's technology enables partners to make their benefits truly theirs. With documented APIs, low-code widgets, and branding tools, partners can white-label and embed health spending benefits on their platform. First Dollar also boasts an industry-leading consumer NPS and tested, turnkey benefit education campaigns so its partners can enjoy happy members who understand and use their benefits.

"HSAs offer tax advantages and the ability to plan for future healthcare costs," said Jason Bornhorst, First Dollar CEO. "We're excited to partner with Clearwater to make HSAs easier for employers and employees to understand and use."

Clearwater is the health benefits platform of choice for individuals, families, and small businesses nationwide and offers a wide variety of high-quality, highly affordable healthcare solutions tailored to meet individual's unique needs via innovative insurance plans, healthcare solutions, supplemental insurance, and other unique health plan offerings. Now, by offering an HSA on its platform, Clearwater owns the experience of its members and eliminates unnecessary steps, like signing in to another site or remembering another vendor's name.

"We're excited to partner with First Dollar for our benefits infrastructure," said Clearwater CEO, Jason Sherman. "We needed a partner that could provide us with a full technology stack for offering and managing pre-tax accounts, lifestyle benefits, rewards programs, and supplemental benefits. With First Dollar's technology, we can further simplify the member experience and promote easier HSA access."

With Clearwater's rapid growth and First Dollar's novel health wallet approach to powering every health spending benefit, this partnership signals the possibility of future collaboration for other additional account types like flexible spending accounts (FSAs), health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs), or lifestyle spending accounts (LSAs).

About First Dollar
First Dollar builds flexible infrastructure for health spending benefits. We offer software tools and APIs that enable our partners (like TPAs and banks) to design, launch, and manage pre-tax accounts, lifestyle benefits, rewards programs, and supplemental benefits. We're based in Austin but are remote-first with teammates throughout the United States.

About Clearwater
Clearwater is the health benefits platform of choice for individuals, families, and small businesses nationwide, that gets members into the right plan, at the right price, with total transparency—even if it's not one of the company's exclusive offerings. The first company of its kind, Clearwater offers a full suite of health and benefit options resulting in better plans, better benefits, and better prices, so that when life happens, Clearwater's members keep moving forward. Clearwater's consultative approach makes it easy to find, buy, use, and enjoy high-quality and affordable health plans. To learn more, visit www.clearwaterhealth.com.

SOURCE First Dollar