The Clorox Company

A health savings account, or HSA, is a tax-advantaged personal savings account for your healthcare expenses. If you enroll in the Partnership in Health (PIH) plan with an HSA, Clorox will contribute an annual amount based on your coverage. You can also contribute money on a pre-tax basis. You can then use these funds to pay for eligible healthcare expenses, including doctor’s office visits, deductibles, and prescriptions, now or down the road. These HSA funds are yours, even after you retire or leave Clorox.

The HSA provides a way for you to set aside money to pay for future healthcare expenses, such as in retirement. It isalso flexible and has a number of tax advantages that are available in most states. Here are just a few of them:

• Tax-deductible: Contributions you make to the HSA are tax deductible (up to the annual IRS limits), just like a 401(k) or IRA.
• Tax-free: As long as you use the money in your account to pay for eligible healthcare expenses, the money you take out of the account is never taxed.
• Tax-deferred: Interest and investment growth earnings on your account are not taxed if you use them to pay for qualifying healthcare expenses or Medicare premiums.

Be sure to consult your tax professional to determine which tax advantages apply to your state. (E.g. California does not recognize HSA as pretax contributions.)

Yes. The IRS requires you to be enrolled in a high deductible health plan (like our PIH plan) to contribute to an HSA.

Once you enroll in the PIH plan with an HSA, Optum Financial will open an account in your name.

After your HSA is activated, you’ll receive a welcome kit with details and a debit Mastercard.

Click here to learn more about how this works with the Diabetes Health Program.

The HSA is yours to keep if you leave Clorox, including all Clorox-funded contributions.

Both medical plan options offer the same medical coverage, and Clorox makes an annual contribution to help cover your medical expenses. Here’s how they differ:

• Ownership – You own the health savings account (HSA) and can take with you when you leave Clorox. With the health reimbursement account (HRA), Clorox owns the account, and you can’t take it with you.
• Contributions – You can contribute to the HSA on a pre-tax basis each year (up to IRS plan limits), similar to a 401(k). Clorox will also make a tax-free contribution to your HSA. With the HRA, Clorox makes all contributions, and you cannot add to the account.
• Account Growth – With an HSA, your account earns interest and, once you have $1,000 or more in savings, you can invest your funds to potentially grow your savings. With the HRA, there are carryover limits, the account doesn’t earn interest and there are no investment features.  
• Year-End Rollovers – Any funds remaining in your HSA at year-end will continue to roll over until you spend them. With the HRA, you can carry over up to 2 years of unused funds, up to these maximums:
  o Employee only - $1,000
  o Employee + spouse/partner or children $1,500
  o Employee + family -$2,000

Both accounts are flexible and allow you to set aside pre-tax dollars to pay for healthcare expenses. But there are several differences between these two accounts.

• Eligibility - You must be enrolled in a high deductible health plan like Clorox’s Partnership in Health with HSA medical plan to take advantage of an HSA. With a healthcare FSA, you can contribute to the account regardless of the type of medical plan you’re enrolled in—even if you’re not enrolled in a Clorox medical plan. However, due to IRS regulations, you cannot participate in both a Healthcare FSA and an HSA at the same time.  
• Company Contribution – If you enroll in the PIH plan with an HSA, Clorox will contribute to your HSA account. Clorox does not contribute to the healthcare FSA.
• Access to Funds - With an HSA, you must have enough funds in your account to pay for any eligible healthcare expenses. If you don’t have the funds to cover an expense, you’ll need to pay out-of-pocket or wait until the funds are available to pay or reimburse yourself. A Healthcare FSA allows you to use all of your funds at the beginning of the year, and then you’ll gradually pay it back through payroll deductions through the end of the year.
• Rollover of unused funds – When you contribute to an HSA, any unused funds roll over each year and you take your account with you when you retire or leave Clorox. If you have unused funds at the end of the current year in Clorox’s healthcare FSA, the IRS allows you to carry over up to $550 to use in the following year. If you don’t spend the carry over funds, you will forfeit all unused funds.  If you leave Clorox, you will lose any balances you haven’t used.
  

If you enroll in the HSA plan for 2022, you will have until March 31, 2022, to submit eligible medical, dental and vision expenses you incurred in 2021. If you have unused funds, your healthcare FSA balance will be automatically transferred to a Limited Purpose FSA in April 2022. The Limited Purpose FSA can only be used to pay for eligible dental and vision expenses incurred as of Jan. 1, 2022.

No. Once you enroll in the Healthcare FSA, you cannot change to the PIH medial plan with an HSA in the same year even if you have a qualifying life event (i.e., marriage or birth of a child). IRS rules prohibit an employee from enrolling in both a Healthcare FSA and an HSA in the same year. You may elect to change your plan to the PIH with an HSA during the next annual enrollment.

No. If you enroll in the HSA option in 2022, you will not be able to carry over any unused funds from your 2021 Clorox-funded HRA.

You can use the HSA to reimburse yourself for eligible healthcare expenses, including out-of-pocket expenses for doctor’s office visits, lab fees, prescription drugs, certain over-the-counter medications, acupuncture, chiropractic services and some dental and vision costs. See a list of qualifying expenses.

Once your HSA your is activated with Optum Bank, you’ll receive an HSA debit card in the mail. You can use the HSA debit card to pay for eligible expenses as long as you have enough funds in your account. You can also reimburse yourself after you’ve already paid an expense by filing a claim online. Always save your receipts.

No. Most premiums are not considered a qualifying medical expense by the IRS. Exceptions are premiums you pay for qualified long-term care insurance, health insurance while you are receiving unemployment compensation, continuation of medical coverage under COBRA and Medicare premiums.

The IRS limits the amount you can contribute on a pre-tax basis to the HSA each year. Here are the limits for 2022:

Yes. You can change your payroll contributions at any time (up to Nov. 30) through the Clorox Health & Welfare Service Center. On or after Dec. 1, you can make additional contributions to your HSA from your personal bank account up to the IRS limits shared above.

Yes. In addition to the HSA contribution you make through payroll deductions, you can also contribute funds directly to your HSA through Optum up to the IRS limits.  You will receive a tax form1099 from Optum the following year to claim your direct contributions on your taxes.

The Clorox contribution will be deposited to your account the week following your first paycheck in January 2022.

Before you enroll in the HSA, review the PIH plan to understand things like the annual deductible, co-insurance and out-of–pocket maximums. You’ll want to think through how much you expect to spend in the coming year and compare that to Clorox’s annual contribution.  In general, it’s a good idea to consider making your own contributions to your HSA to cover any unexpected medical expenses. Plus, any unused funds are still yours and can help cover future healthcare costs. To help with this choice, check out our HSA decision tool [LINK TO TOOL].

Yes. Once your HSA is activated with Optum Financial, follow these instructions to get started.

Yes. If you are receiving short-term disability or parental leave payments, you can continue to contribute towards your HSA via paycheck deductions (similar to 401(k) contributions).

Yes. Once you have at least $1,000 in your account you can decide if you want to participate in any of Optum’s investment options. Your account will also earn interest.

As we age, most of us will likely need more healthcare services, especially, in retirement. Having money set aside to cover those expenses is always a great idea. Think of the HSA as a tax-savings partner to your 401(k). You can use the HSA to save for future medical costs and the 401(k) to save for the rest of your retirement expenses. And, if you’re already maxing out your 401(k) contributions, you have one more way to lower your taxable income.