Health savings accounts are growing rapidly thanks to trends in health benefit plans and the tax advantages they offer.
Yet, the HSA industry is opaque and provides investors scant resources to help them navigate the hundreds of products that exist, according to Morningstar's third annual study assessing 11 brand-name HSAs available to individuals.
The report, released this week, evaluated the providers' success in responding to two different ways in which HSAs are used: as an investment account to save for future medical expenses and as a spending account to cover current medical costs.
The analysis showed that the industry has made progress over the past year, but providers still have room to lower fees, simplify investment menus and account rules, and boost transparency to make it easier to compare providers.
"As high-deductible health plans have surged in popularity over the last decade, so have HSAs, with total assets surpassing $60 billion as of mid-2019," Leo Acheson, associate director of multi-asset and alternative strategies at Morningstar, said in a statement.
"Despite the industry's growth, it can be hard for investors to choose an HSA given the lack of transparency and the industry's frequently changing landscape."
Acheson said the onus was on providers to re-examine fees, bolster investment lineups and simplify and improve plan features. "The industry got a fresh reminder of that in the past year when Fidelity entered the market with its own HSA, emerging as a clear winner for both spenders and investors."
Research analysts evaluated HSA providers available to individuals, as opposed to those offered through employers, where fees can vary based on a number of factors. They assigned positive, neutral and negative scores to various criteria, and aggregated those scores to reach an overall assessment for each provider as both an investing account and spending account.