Can I use a different HSA than PayFlex that came with aetna?
You can ask your employer for anything that you want. However, most employers, if they are contributing their own money into your HSA, or you are contributing to your own HSA through payroll deduction, only work with one HSA, which is much easier for them to manage. You are free to decline their HSA if you want.  However, if they are kicking in free money into your HSA, I don't recommend that you decline it.  Just pick the best option you have for investing. As for the money that you are contributing, if you don't want to put your own money into your employer's Aetna HSA, you can open up an HSA with any institution you like.  You can even do this and still keep Aetna HSA to take advantage of the employer's contributions.  However, your annual limit is still the total of all contributions to all HSA's in your name, whether you make them or your employer makes them. When deciding whether or not to use payroll deduction into the Aetna HSA or to go your own way, keep in mind that payroll deduction skips some payroll taxes. There are some cases I'm aware of where a large employer will offer alternative HSA vendors, but this is not the norm as far as I'm aware, and would only be an option if your employer has already negotiated for this with your insurer. It's likely that this specific vendor is built in for the particular HSA product your employer has elected from Aetna. If this really ticks you off on principle, you can check if they offer a stable value fund. If so, you can essentially treat this money as part of your emergency fund, and somewhat reduce your own emergency fund and invest that money however you see fit. Much of this is incorrect. Aetna owns Payflex for starters, and it's your EMPLOYER who decides which banks and brokers to offer, not Payflex. An HSA is a checking account with an investment account option after a minimum balance is met. A majority of U.S. employers only OFFER an HSA option but don't contribute a penny, so you're lucky you get anything.  The easy solution is just keep the money that is sent to your HSA checking account in your checking account, and once a year roll it over into a different bank's HSA. The vast majority of banks offer HSAs that have no ties to a particular broker (i.e. Citibank, PNC, Chase). I have all my HSA funds in HSA Bank which is online but services lots of employers. Not true that most payroll deductions or employer contributions go to a single HSA custodian (bank).  They might offer a single bank that either contracts with an investment provider or lets you invest anywhere. But most employers making contributions are large or mid-market employers offering multiple banks, and that trend is growing fast because of defined contribution, private exchanges and vendor product redesigns. Basically, nobody likes having a second bank account for their HSA when their home bank offers one.
The strength of your plan is that you have considered that if you contribute early the the 401K you might not get the match, so you do stretch it out for the entire year..  One benefit to putting money into the HSA early is that it will be available if you need it early in the year if you have a major medical emergency in the first quarter. If you need to pay a $4,000 deductible in January because of Appendicitis you would hate to have to use post tax money to pay the bill. Of course If you have had the HSA for several years then this might not be a problem. If you haven't maxed the Roth IRA for 2013, you could make contributions to the IRA up until April 15 2014 to count for the previous year.  A risk with the HSA is if you leave your employer mid-year. You can keep the money, and use it for medical expenses, but if the new company doesn't have a an HSA/High Deductible plan you might have contributed too much.  The 401K, HSA, and IRA are annual limits. So if you will switch companies you are responsible for not going over the limit. The FSA can only pay for expenses incurred after it was open.  This also applies in case of a mid-year change in election (such as due to marriage, divorce, child birth, etc.) For example, according to this page: You can only be reimbursed for qualifying expenses, from the election that was in place at the time the expense was incurred. So, say you had $500 available from January to June, then on July 1 had a qualifying event, you then elected $2000.  You can be reimbursed for up to $500 in expenses incurred prior to July 1, and then an additional $1500 in expenses incurred after (up to $2000 if you didn't use your full $500). More specifically, from the IRS Publication: Generally, distributions from a health FSA must be paid    only to reimburse you for qualified medical expenses you    incurred during the period of coverage. -- The HSA question is more complicated. I would talk to a tax accountant, or at minimum your benefits coordinator.  Also read the publication I linked above, the first part is about HSAs.  The short answer to your specific question: stop contributing to the HSA, unless you were contributing well under the limit of the HSA.  If you know your limit, and you know you're under it, you can continue contributing until April 15 of next year: If you fail to be an eligible individual during    2013, you can still make contributions, up until April 15,    2014, for the months you were an eligible individual. The general rule is you can contribute up to (1/12)*(your limit)*(number of months you were eligible).  So, if you changed jobs Oct 1, and you're single, then you could contribute (3250)*(1/12)*(9), or just over $2400 in total for the year.  If you've contributed less than that to date, you may continue contributing up to that amount - but again, contact your benefits coordinator or preferably a tax accountant, as the rules can be complicated. You definitely cannot deduct any expenses from the account that you incur after you are no longer eligible, and the rules on distributions are pretty complicated - and if you get it wrong, you may owe a 10% penalty on top of the tax you would normally owe, so there is significant incentive not to get it wrong. There are some points not covered in the other answers that I feel are important to address: In order to be eligible to contribute to an HSA, you must be enrolled in a High Deductible Health insurance Plan (HDHP).  In general, I think this is a great idea for most people (who are responsible enough to save up for medical expenses), but for a small portion it may cost more money to enroll in this type of plan, due to high recurring medical costs.  You should always weigh the costs of the related insurance plans against the benefit of an HSA. Note that once you open an account and contribute, you can use the funds at any point after that.  The eligibility described here is only regarding making new contributions to the account. This may no longer be true, but when I first started using an HSA several years back, I noticed that the fees and costs administered by the providers  were higher than I’d come to expect from, say, my IRA administrator.  At least, this was true for the accounts I found – perhaps I missed a better option. Furthermore, there was a much smaller selection of investment options available in those HSAs than in other brokerage accounts.  If you are not maxing out retirement already, it’s worth comparing fees and historical returns versus those accounts rather than assuming that the tax benefits will make the HSA a better deal. In my book, if it passes these two checks, then the HSA is a tremendous deal that is highly under-utilized. I like HSAs. My employer had one for one year, but then took it away. Money you put into an HSA is tax-advantaged, you can invest it however you want, it can be used for healthcare if you need it, and you can stop adding to it at any time. You're healthy now, but it's likely there will be a time when you're not, and then it would be nice to have money already available. No. An HSA is similar to an IRA, in that it's an individual account. I'd suggest you use hers for all expenses and make new deposits to yours until your wife's HSA is depleted. "This is really unfortunate.  In general you can't back date individual policies.  You could have (if it was available to you) elected to extend your employer's coverage via COBRA for the month of May, and possibly June depending on when your application was submitted, then let the individual coverage take over when it became effective.   Groups have some latitude to retroactively cover and terminate employees but that's not an option in the world of individual coverage, the carriers are very strict about submission deadlines for specific effective dates.  This is one of the very few ways that carriers are able to say ""no"" within the bounds of the ACA.  You submit an application, you are assigned an effective date based on the date your application was received and subsequently approved.  It has nothing to do with how much money you send them or whether or not you told them to back date your application. If someone at the New York exchange told you you could have a retroactive effective date they shouldn't have. Many providers have financial hardship programs.  You should talk to the ER hospital and see what might be available to you.  The insurer is likely out of the equation though if the dates of service occurred before your policy was effective. Regarding your 6th paragraph regarding having paid the premium.  In this day and age carriers can only say ""no"" via administrative means.  They set extremely rigid effective dates based on your application date.  They will absolutely cancel you if you miss a payment.  If you get money to them but it was after the grace period date (even by one minute) they will not reinstate you.  If you're cancelled you must submit a new application which will create a new coverage gap.  You pay a few hundred dollars each month to insure infinity risk, you absolutely have to cover your administrative bases because it's the only way a carrier can say ""no"" anymore so they cling to it." The FSA can only pay for expenses incurred after it was open.  This also applies in case of a mid-year change in election (such as due to marriage, divorce, child birth, etc.) For example, according to this page: You can only be reimbursed for qualifying expenses, from the election that was in place at the time the expense was incurred. So, say you had $500 available from January to June, then on July 1 had a qualifying event, you then elected $2000.  You can be reimbursed for up to $500 in expenses incurred prior to July 1, and then an additional $1500 in expenses incurred after (up to $2000 if you didn't use your full $500). More specifically, from the IRS Publication: Generally, distributions from a health FSA must be paid    only to reimburse you for qualified medical expenses you    incurred during the period of coverage. -- The HSA question is more complicated. I would talk to a tax accountant, or at minimum your benefits coordinator.  Also read the publication I linked above, the first part is about HSAs.  The short answer to your specific question: stop contributing to the HSA, unless you were contributing well under the limit of the HSA.  If you know your limit, and you know you're under it, you can continue contributing until April 15 of next year: If you fail to be an eligible individual during    2013, you can still make contributions, up until April 15,    2014, for the months you were an eligible individual. The general rule is you can contribute up to (1/12)*(your limit)*(number of months you were eligible).  So, if you changed jobs Oct 1, and you're single, then you could contribute (3250)*(1/12)*(9), or just over $2400 in total for the year.  If you've contributed less than that to date, you may continue contributing up to that amount - but again, contact your benefits coordinator or preferably a tax accountant, as the rules can be complicated. You definitely cannot deduct any expenses from the account that you incur after you are no longer eligible, and the rules on distributions are pretty complicated - and if you get it wrong, you may owe a 10% penalty on top of the tax you would normally owe, so there is significant incentive not to get it wrong. "According to the IRS, it appears there is no issue in a spouse under EE or EE+Child(ren) coverage contributing to an FSA while you contribute to an HSA under an EE Only HDHP account: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rr-05-25.pdf ""In Situation 1, H has HDHP self-only coverage and no other health coverage, is not enrolled in Medicare and may not be claimed as a dependent on another taxpayer’s return. Although W has non-HDHP family coverage, H is not covered under that health plan. H is therefore an eligible individual as defined in section 223(c)(1). The special rules for married individuals under section 223(b)(5) do not apply because W’s nonHDHP family coverage does not cover H. Thus, H remains an eligible individual and H may contribute up to $2,000 to an HSA (lesser of the HDHP deductible for self-only coverage or $2,650) for 2005. H may not make the catch-up contribution under section 223(b)(3) because H is not age 55 in 2005. W has non-HDHP coverage and is therefore not an eligible individual."" Some more information directly from IRS form 969 published for 2015 tax returns: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p969.pdf Qualifying for an HSA To be an eligible individual and qualify for an HSA, you must meet the following requirements. You must be covered under a high deductible health plan (HDHP), described later, on the first day of the month. You have no other health coverage except what is permitted under Other health coverage, later. You are not enrolled in Medicare. You cannot be claimed as a dependent on someone else's 2015 tax return. Under the last-month rule, you are considered to be an eligible individual for the entire year if you are an eligible individual on the first day of the last month of your tax year (December 1 for most taxpayers). If you meet these requirements, you are an eligible individual even if your spouse has non-HDHP family coverage, provided your spouse's coverage does not cover you."