Bend Pairs HSAs with AI

Bend Financial has developed a health savings account (HSA) that integrates Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help participants better manage their HSA.

According to Bend Financial, the solution completely automates the entire HSA process from start to finish, so there is no time-consuming paperwork to fill out or educational materials to pore over. Individuals simply set up an online profile and Bend’s AI tools help them navigate managing their HSA.

The system offers customized financial advice. This enables people to make smarter financial, investment and health care decisions, based on their specific requirements and short- and long-term goals in real time. 

Bend notes that it has been estimated that 80% of health care out-of-pocket payments that are tax deductible go unclaimed because people don’t know that they can get tax breaks on them.

The system permits people to open an HSA without funding it immediately and can subsequently guide people on how to do so when they incur health care costs, notes Itamar Romanini, chief revenue officer at Bend. The system can also link their checking and credit card accounts so that if a health-care transaction is made, the AI will alert them that it is eligible for pre-tax treatment, he says. On average, that will save them 25% of the health care costs, Romanini says.

“We believe there will be a growing role for AI in HSAs,” he says. “As their situation changes throughout their lives, it can guide them on how much to fund their HSA by looking at their past history. Long-term, we want to integrate HSAs with retirement accounts so that they can maximize their tax savings and reduce their risks. It can also help them decide which insurance plan to choose by showing them the different costs and risks.”