What's the cost of not choosing Lively?

This tool helps you quantify the hidden cost of low HSA participation and inefficient HR support. Using a blend of national benchmarks and Lively’s internal data, it estimates how much your company could be saving each year — not just on payroll taxes, but also on HR workload and missed engagement opportunities.

It’s designed to help teams build a stronger case for investing in better HSA education, automation, and enrollment support — whether you're reviewing your current provider or planning ahead for open enrollment.

What This Calculator Helps You Uncover

You’ll get a side-by-side view of your current setup and the results companies typically see after switching to Lively. In just a few clicks, you can:

• Estimate how many additional employees may enroll in an HSA

• Project the HR time you could save annually

• Calculate the value of that saved time based on your HR team's hourly rate

• Estimate payroll tax savings driven by higher pre-tax contributions

• Understand your potential total savings — across time, cost, and effort

This is a quick, data-backed way to support benefits planning, budget conversations, and vendor evaluations.

What You Can Edit

The calculator is pre-filled with defaults from national surveys and Lively’s internal benchmarks, but everything is customizable based on your company’s structure. You can adjust:

Eligible Employees

Default: 1,000

Why it matters: This is the foundation of the calculator. Every savings calculation depends on how many people are eligible to enroll in an HSA. The more eligible employees, the greater the potential time and tax savings.

Average Hourly Rate for HR

Default: $80/hour

Source: Salary.com estimate for HR specialists in California

Why we use it: The calculator uses this to estimate the cost of HR time spent on HSA-related tasks — and how much you could save if your team had fewer support tickets to handle. You can adjust this if you know your HR rate differs.

Average Annual HSA Contribution per Employee (Including Employer Contributions)

Default: $2,802

Source: 2025 PSCA HSA Survey — a national survey of U.S. employers conducted by the Plan Sponsor Council of America 

Why we use it: This figure reflects the average combined contribution made by employees and their employers. It provides a reliable benchmark for total pre-tax contributions, which drive payroll tax savings.

Enrollment Rate Without Lively (Your Current Rate)

Default: 10%

Source: 2025 HSA Bank Health & Wealth Index

Why we use it: This reflects the typical HSA enrollment rate across U.S. employers without enhanced education or support. It sets a benchmark for comparison.

What Happens Behind the Scenes

These assumptions are pre-filled based on national data and Lively’s internal benchmarks. They aren’t editable, but they drive the savings estimates you see.

HSA Enrollment Rate

This is the percentage of eligible employees who enroll in an HSA.

Lively (Default: 27%)

Source: Internal Salesforce data. Actual enrollment rates for existing customers acquired between FY23 and FY25

Why we use it: This number reflects the average enrollment rate employers achieve after switching to Lively. It’s based on real customer data and includes the impact of Lively’s onboarding, education tools, and user experience.

Market Average (Default: 10%)

Source: HSA Bank

Why we use it: This represents the average HSA enrollment rate across U.S. employers without enhanced support. It gives a realistic baseline to compare against Lively’s results.

Time to Resolve a Benefits Ticket

Default: 10 minutes per ticket

Why we use it: This number reflects how long it typically takes HR to resolve an HSA-related inquiry. While the time per ticket stays the same, Lively significantly reduces the number of tickets HR has to deal with.

HSA-Related Ticket Volume

With Lively (Default: 0.42 tickets per employee per month)

Source: Lively’s 2025 HR Time Spent Survey (250 HR professionals)

Why we use it: This reflects how Lively’s platform reduces support burden with in-product guidance, AI chat, personalized onboarding, and dedicated service.

Market Average (Default: 0.84 tickets per employee per month)

Source: Lively’s 2025 HR Time Spent Survey (250 HR professionals)

Why we use it: Employers without a modern HSA experience typically get more employee questions, which fall on HR to resolve. This number reflects that broader industry pattern.

Income Tax Rate

Default: 7.65%

Source: Investopedia

Why we use it: Pre-tax HSA contributions lower the employer’s payroll tax liability. The calculator uses this percentage to estimate your total tax savings.

What the Calculator Shows You

Once you enter your company’s information, the calculator estimates your potential annual savings by comparing your current setup to Lively’s typical results. You’ll see:

• Projected HSA enrollments based on your inputs vs what’s typical with Lively

• Total expected contributions and how they impact employer payroll taxes

• Time your HR team currently spends resolving HSA-related inquiries

• HR hours saved through Lively’s support, education, and AI tools

• Dollar value of that saved time based on your hourly rate

• Your total estimated yearly savings across time and tax impacts

This gives you a data-informed snapshot of how much you could be saving and how much you may be losing today.

Where Our Numbers Come From

We use the latest research, third-party benchmarks, and internal data to power this calculator.

What to Do Next

Now that you’ve seen how your current setup compares to industry benchmarks and Lively customer outcomes, you can download a personalized PDF to share with your team. It’s a clear, data-informed starting point for internal planning, budget reviews, or evaluating benefits vendors — helping you surface where time and cost savings may be hiding in your HSA program.

Disclaimer: This calculator provides illustrative estimates based on industry benchmarks and Lively’s internal data from FY23–FY25. Results are not guaranteed and may vary based on your company’s unique setup. This tool is for informational purposes only and does not constitute tax, legal, or financial advice. Lively disclaims any liability for decisions made in reliance on these estimates.