"Latest enrollment" is the latest estimated covered lives in an insurance product tied to an HRA or HSA. In the case of Health Savings Accounts this number represents the total estimated beneficiaries. In the case of Health Reimbursement 'Accounts' (technically "Arrangements") this number is actual enrollment in the insurance product. An unknown percentage of enrollees in an insurance plan do not open an HSA, so the most accurate metric is bank accounts multiplied by estimated beneficiaries.

"Group Share" is the total company enrollment in both HSAs and HRAs divided by current national enrollment estimate for the group. The industrywide reported enrollment is listed at the bottom.

"All Plans" is the total estimated enrollment as of the period reported in multiple industry surveys and studies. For example, the HSA enrollment for January 2006 was the reported enrollment in an HSA survey conducted by America's Health Insurance Plans. This number is verified and may be adjusted by comparing it with data from hsafinder.com and other surveys which measure HSA bank accounts. The HRA enrollment for the same period is from public studies by researchers such as Kaiser Family Foundation/HSC, Atlantic Information Systems, Forrester Research, and multiple consulting firms including employer surveys.

As noted above, the actual number of HSA owners is less than the reported enrollment in an HSA insurance policy, so the total national enrollment in "HSAs" is over-reported by some amount.

Estimated enrollment for 2007 is the sum of current enrollment plus our estimated increase in enrollment for the current year. For example, HSA insurance policies grew by 2.9 million covered lives in 2005. Our 2007 estimated enrollment calculation adds our current estimate of the total net growth to the prior year enrollment increase. For HSAs the estimate is also verified by comparing the current rate of increase in bank accounts established, multiplied by covered lives per account, with HDHP enrollment estimates. For January 2006 these two indicators were almost identical.

HSA Bank Accounts is the total number of HSA-qualified bank accounts held by U.S. banks as reported in various bank surveys.

© 2006 Interpro Publications Inc.