Webinar on Lifestyle Spending Accounts (LSA): The Launch Anytime Benefit

Discover immediate and actionable ways to support employers in giving their people the freedom to choose with inclusive Lifestyle Spending Accounts (LSA). The fully customizable, launch anytime and off-cycle benefit. Watch the video, and read the transcript.

(Modified to remove superfluous language for readability)

Sarah Claxton, Marketing Project Manager, Espresa //

We’re excited you’re here with us! First of all, thanks for joining us today.

We’re about to dive deep into Lifestyle Spending Accounts, commonly referred to as LSA. Most of you are familiar with reimbursement benefits.

Before we launch into our launch anytime and off-cycle agenda for LSAs today, we want to introduce your speaker, Ryan Ramsey. Ryan leads our Strategic Alliances team here at Espresa. For the majority of his career, he’s [been] focused on employer benefits in the HR space, so we’re really excited to have him speaking today.

Thank you for joining, Ryan. We’ll hand the floor off to you, and come back online for a Q+A at the end.

Ryan Ramsey, Head of Strategic Alliances, Espresa //

Awesome, thank you, Sarah. Wonderful to know we have such high attendance! Not surprising to many of you, this is a topic that I’m passionate about, and we’re going to be together for about the next 30-ish minutes. We’re going to hit on a couple of key topics that we’ve been talking about a lot, and we’ve been getting a lot of questions on, and hopefully, you’ll leave today knowing more than you started with.

We’ll hit some insights around this overarching market trend towards personalization of benefits. We’ll talk about LSAs and some of the unique advantages they really bring to the table and, ultimately why they have become the hot benefit for employers to consider offering this year.

And then we’ll also talk about making the case for offering and launching LSA off-cycle. This is incredibly easy to do, and it’s a trend that we’re seeing accelerate in the market. And there are a lot of good reasons that employers are thinking about it and considering it.

And then we’ll also talk about making the case for offering and launching LSA off-cycle.

We’ll touch on a couple of examples of why they’re doing it, how it’s working, some of the potential benefits, and some of the things you need to consider if it’s on your list of potential things to do. With that, I’m going to go ahead and dive in.

I want to start with this idea of why we are here. And no, I’m not talking about the meaning of life. I think that’s probably better suited for a more extended conversation perhaps with a cocktail involved.

Trends driving the push for more inclusive, personalized benefits

Why are we even talking about LSAs? The short answer is that employers continue to face significant challenges around talent every day. And no, these are not new challenges. I would argue, as we get into this, that they’re increasingly difficult. Employers are under constant pressure to address these challenges in a very dynamic and uncertain market, and they really need help.

Creative, impactful solutions can help address these problems in new and different ways. What you’re seeing on this screen here is a snapshot from a recent poll survey that Espresa conducted across benefit consultants we work with. And this really represents concerns that they’re hearing from the clients that they work with.

I don’t think there are any major surprises here. However, it is worth calling out that attraction and retention, enhancing the employee experience, and meeting the diverse needs of employees are still at the top of the list, and I think that’s despite this increasingly uncertain economic environment.

Now despite that kind of economic environment in the employment market in some industries, they’re starting to shift. What we’re seeing broadly is that employee expectations have not shifted, they’re continuing to increase. Ultimately, employees want and expect and continue to demand more personalized support from the organizations that they’re considering or that they work for today.

And these are just a couple of data points from some external surveys that reinforce the themes that we hear from employees pretty much every single day when we’re talking to employers out on the market. It’s this idea of ‘give me greater choice, give me greater control, allow me to personalize my benefits in a way that’s truly meaningful to me.’ And what I would say about this slide is this is not new, but I would also say it’s really important to point out that it’s also not going away.

So as we think about starting to address this problem as an employer or as a consultant working with employers, we really need to start thinking about how we meet employee expectations and how to attract and retain the diverse talent that we want to make our businesses successful, to create a user experience that resonates with all of our employees, to create programs that meet all of our employees where they are.

And it really starts with understanding the target audience that we’re going after. There’s a realization that needs to happen of how truly diverse this group really is. As diverse as this population is, what I would tell you is that their needs are even more diverse. And so when we look at the spectrum of diversity, and I think this is a great representation on our screen that really exists across our employees, we realize how important and how challenging it is to support them in a way that’s personally relevant. Today’s employees are seeking benefits that are inclusive of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

Today’s employees are seeking benefits that are inclusive of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

That’s ultimate and why we see so many employers making this a priority. But at the same time, we really realize how complex and how difficult this task really is. That is what kind of brings us to the heart of our conversation today around Lifestyle Spending Accounts and why so many employers are starting to think about making these a part of their benefits strategy. And this is a stat from late last year and I’ll tell you that we continue to see this trend come to life, but 70% of employers are looking at LSAs as a potential opportunity to help address these challenges that we’ve been talking about in new and different ways.

What is an LSA, and how does it work?

Now at this point, I would imagine all of you probably have some level of familiarity with what an LSA is and how it works, otherwise, you might not be on this call. But just to make sure that we’re all kind of on the same page and working off the same playbook, let’s just do a quick refresher on what they are and how they work. An LSA is essentially a flexible wallet of money that an employer gives to an employee. Typically employees can pick and choose how to spend that money on things they want based on the program plan design and the eligible expenses that are included.

An LSA is essentially a flexible wallet of money that an employer gives to an employee. Typically employees can pick and choose how to spend that money on things they want based on the program plan design and the eligible expenses that are included.

And from an employer’s perspective, the employer sets the eligibility, they set the funding, they create the plan design, and those plan designs are totally customizable and they don’t live in the same bounds as other traditional spending accounts like HSA and FSA. They don’t have the same regulatory requirements, which makes them incredibly flexible and incredibly customizable. And so what does that look like in practice?

They don’t have the same regulatory requirements, which makes them incredibly flexible and incredibly customizable.

Here’s a really simple example, in this case, an employer gives an employee $600, and that can be done all upfront. It can be done with monthly or quarterly allotments depending on your objectives. But the employee now has the ability to take the $600 and choose how to use those dollars in a way that’s personally relevant to them. They can use it for whatever they want within the parameters that an employer sets.

What we’re seeing typically in the market is that employers more and more often are offering a broad selection of total well-being options. But again, this is totally customizable. What you’re seeing here on the screen is pretty representative of what we see amongst many of the employers that we work with.

Unique capabilities of an LSA

1. Inclusivity of an LSA

This idea of total well-being includes physical, social, emotional, career, and financial, and we even see some employers expand that out to elements of more specific care to support corporate values like climate impact. So again, tons and tons of flexibility, which kind of brings us to the next point of now that we know how they work, what are the advantages that they really offer for employers?

These things that you’re seeing on the screen are really the kind of key value drivers responsible for making these programs so popular, and it starts with this idea of inclusivity. This ability to provide broad choice and benefit options to truly support all employees in their lives, at work, and at home.

A considerable aspect of inclusivity for employers that have employees outside of the country is the fact that you can make these programs available anywhere around the world, which gives a tremendous opportunity to create equitable benefits and work towards benefits parity across your population.

2. Flexibility of an LSA

The next is probably my favorite, and I feel like I say it about a thousand times a day, but it really comes down to flexibility. And we’ve touched on this a bit already. Still, ultimately at its core, these are flexible from an employer perspective in the way that employers can really customize the program and the plan design to align with a very specific need or their organizational goals, and employees can personalize them in a very real way in how they consume and use these benefits.

3. Engagement of an LSA

Next on the list would be engaging. These programs are incredibly engaging, and at the end of the day, that’s not rocket science. You know, start to give people free money that they can use to spend on things they really want, and they tend to spend it as long as they know about it. It’s easy to use. LSA drives participation and engagement more than any other benefits program.

When we look at our best practice programs across the clients we work with, it’s typical to see the participation of 85 to 95%. And I would challenge you in the audience to think about any other program you offer or worked on that drives that kind of participation and engagement.

Potentially even more impactful is not only do we get high participation, but when we talk to employees or the employers that employ them, these employees feel cared for and supported by those that they work for. That makes a tremendous difference in their daily lives and how they feel about work in general, their productivity, their satisfaction, and how likely they are to recommend the place of work to another possible candidate down the road.

4. Adaptability of an LSA

Then finally, it is all about adaptability. These programs are scalable, and they’re easy to add people, add new populations, and add new countries. They’re also very adjustable, and we talk about this a lot as we’re engaging with clients, but the program we start with at launch is rarely the program we end with.

So what I mean by that is that employers really have this opportunity and flexibility to adjust programs as their strategy changes, as the landscape changes, and to do so in a way that’s much easier than many other total rewards programs that we’re used to dealing with.

Just think about pay as an example. It’s probably one of the firmest examples. Not very easy to make adjustments to pay, especially if you need to consolidate that pay or make changes. But when we start adding Total Rewards, the ability to add program parameters, adjust funding, benefits, and eligibility – those are all things that can quickly be done as part of an LSA.

But when we start adding Total Rewards, the ability to add program parameters, adjust funding, benefits, and eligibility – those are all things that can quickly be done as part of an LSA.

LSA, Launch Off-Cycle, Anytime

Let’s talk a little about breaking the cycle of launch. I would say here it’s really common for employers to launch benefit programs in January. In our experience, employers are always looking for opportunities to launch programs off-cycle where it makes sense.

In fact, I always liken this one to off-cycle programs that are a little bit similar to this idea of a mythical beast. Often players are looking for them, but they’re rarely found. And I would say LSA is an awesome candidate for this, and we’re seeing this in the market. 50% of Espresa’s off-cycle clients launched those programs very intentionally.

In fact, it’s something that is what I would classify as kind of an accelerating trend. The stat you’re seeing on the screen now represents portfolio data from Espresa. But when we look at clients last year that launched new LSA programs, over 50% of those clients launched those programs in a month outside of January and did so very intentionally.

There’s a variety of reasons that they’re not only doing this but considering it, and it starts with eligibility. So when we talk about LSA being an inclusive program, a big part of that is that often, these programs are being extended out to employees that go beyond those that are eligible for benefits here in the US.

So it could be non-benefit eligible employees, or it could be employees around the globe. And so, really, this kind of need to stick to the calendar starts to go away based on that because not everyone’s tied to those benefits.

The positive messaging of launching off-cycle

LSAs often hold a very positive message and spotlight a program without the distractions of other benefits or communications. See, the next big thing that we hear from employers is that for employers that are starting to launch these programs, LSAs are often a very positive message for employees. Employers really want to emphasize or spotlight that program, and they want to do it in a very focused way without the distractions of other benefits, communications, and messages. So that message and that impact don’t get diluted. And so that’s again probably one of the top reasons we see employers start to look outside of January to launch these programs.

The budgetary impact of launching off-cycle

The next one is really all around the budget and the impact of dollars, and this can look and take a couple of different shapes.

Sometimes, it’s about having a limited budget and making those dollars go further. So some employers will opt to pro-rate programs and launch mid-year to limit their budget exposure in year one. So, in other words, if you launch a program in July, you spend half of the LSA budget that you would in a full-year program, and so it is a creative way to start to really expand the impact of those dollars. LSAs amplify employee experience by allowing retroactive claim submissions.

So, in other words, if you launch a program in July, you spend half of the LSA budget that you would in a full-year program, and so it is a creative way to start to really expand the impact of those dollars.

Now the opposite of that, we see employers do this quite regularly as well, is to amplify the employee impact and the excitement by allowing employees to submit claims retroactively.

And so imagine yourself as an employee who gets a new benefit in June or July, and all of a sudden, your employer now says not only are you getting this great new benefit, but you can go back and actually get reimbursed for the money you’ve already spent.

Again, when we see feedback from employees who have experienced this, the excitement and appreciation are tremendous.

And then the last one that I know will resonate with many folks on this webinar today is the Q4 burden. It is an exceptionally busy time of year for everyone in the industry, and the reality is, in many cases, there’s no real opportunity to shift or make changes. We just have a lot to do and it has to get done in Q4 and early in Q1.

And when we have opportunities to launch programs and spread out that work, often it’s a huge release on that pressure valve of how much we have to get done in a very short time, especially when we start taking into consideration things like holiday schedules, other benefit strategies, other implementations we might be dealing with as benefits professionals.

Employers launching off-cycle case studies

1. FinTech

So what I thought I’d do in the next handful of minutes before we move to Q+A is really wrap things up by highlighting a couple of quick examples of clients that we’ve had launch off-cycle over the last year.

And each of these clients launched at different times of the year and generally had a different driver for why they launched off-cycle, but they’re all achieving great results, and I’ll talk a little bit about that as we go. As you start to think about potentially launching an LSA for yourself, so I’ll hopefully give you some insights and some ideas, some things to think about based on what we’ve seen with other employers.

This first organization is probably clear to say, but I’ve changed the names to protect the innocent. This is a large organization, financial services, and insurance technology company, and they very intentionally launched a new LSA program to their US-based population in July of last year. It’s about 14,000 total employees. Now, the main driver behind the decision to launch in July was all about spotlighting the benefit and really creating a buzz, building incitement and doing it without the distractions of other benefit changes.

They really wanted this positive message to be heard loud and clear by employees and ultimately appreciated. And this is a great example of a company that decided to amplify that impact by allowing employees to submit claims all the way back to January. So this is just a five-month snapshot, this is the first five months of their plan. They actually achieved 89% participation in the first five months of their plan, which is just incredible.

Actually, I sat in the most recent business review not too long ago, and their most recent participation is already up at 92% with several months left in the plan. So we fully expect to see that jump up to 95% before the plan wraps for the year.

2. Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences

Now this next example is a little bit different. This company is a pharmaceutical company, life sciences. They have 3,000 global employees, and they actually launched their program across 18 different countries.

And it was interesting. I was actually personally involved in this deal, and what was interesting about conversations we had is they were really aiming towards a January start. But as they started looking at their other priorities and calendars, they realized how tough it was to fit all of the necessary things into their schedules. They were really concerned that the message around this new program was going to get lost and get diluted. They also started to have conversations with benefit leaders in their various countries, and the feedback they got was that it’s because not all of our employees are on the same benefit cycle. It doesn’t matter when we do this.

And so they actually just extended the launch out to February to give everyone a little bit of breathing room, to give it a little bit more attention and a little bit more space to be communicated. And this just launched this past February, so we’re just barely two months in, and they’ve already exceeded 30% participation in two months.

Now if you think about that number, 30%, think about all the other benefits programs you work on or have delivered over the years. In many cases, to get 30% across the entire year, it’s a tremendous outcome or tremendous result, and they found it in the first two months of the program.

3. Hospitality

This last one is one of my favorites, and I’ll explain more about this in a second, but this is a hospitality company, and they also are a global organization.

Just over 7,000 employees in over 20 countries, and they launched on April 1st. Similar to example two, some of the rationale and the driver of this was the global nature of their population. But the bigger thing for them is they really wanted time to promote, and they also had a lot of pressure. They were making a lot of changes in their benefits here in the US this year, and so there was just ultimately a constraint on time.

So they launched April 1st, and when you think about that, that’s only three weeks ago, and already in just three weeks, they have over 20% participation. And so, just a tremendous start. The feedback has been awesome. In this particular instance, they put a lot of emphasis on offering a marketplace that adds convenience for employees worldwide, gives employees access to discounts, minimizes out-of-pocket experience, and the feedback has been phenomenal.

So that really gives you a sense of how employers are thinking about this, why they’re doing this, and what kind of results they’re seeing when they do make this decision to implement LSA off-cycle.

That really sums up some of the key things I wanted to make sure that we got through today, and I want to make sure that we leave time for Q+A. And I think what I’m going to do, Sarah, is bring you back on, and I know you’ve been fielding questions along the way, wanting to see what we’ve got cooking.

Q+A

Sarah Claxton, Marketing Project Manager, Espresa //

We’ve heard a lot of buzz around off-cycle benefits. It’s been really good for us to dive deep into this, and we do have a really engaged Q+A, so I’m really excited.

I’m going to get the first question we’ll talk to is kind of about bundling benefits. So it’s a little bit of a long one.

We currently have a separate well-being provider. How do you wrap programs into one, and how involved are you in the handover from the current provider?

And there was another question on the same note: Do your clients’ organizations still offer well-being programming such as classes or webinars with an LSA? So two questions, kind of the same thought.

Ryan Ramsey, Head of Strategic Alliances, Espresa //

All right. Sarah, I’m going to count on you to keep me honest, and make sure that I actually address all the components of that question.

Where I’ll start with on that one is touching on another trend that we’re seeing almost every day in the marketplace and it’s this idea of not only are LSAs themselves exciting, but how do LSA move beyond this kind of transactional account-based idea and really become a strategic tool that can enhance other benefit strategies?

And this really gets to this idea of well-being. So more and more, we are seeing employers start to think about LSA as a center point and a connector for their total well-being program.

I think there was a question in there about whether I have an existing well-being platform and how does that work? So two versions of that. In one case, we’re starting to see employers actually launch an LSA with Espresa and also take advantage of our own well-being and challenge solutions that we make available.

And, of course, there’s a seamless connection between those and all of a sudden, you can start to really create and connect programs in some really new and exciting ways, like creating challenges that reward well-being-type behaviors and actually create incentives that then turn around and fund LSAs.

The other element I see on well-being is expanding that view of well-being to include more traditional rewards and recognition type programs and starting to funnel that recognition and rewards that they’re giving employees often in a point-based environment today back into LSA funds.

In those instances, we often will work with existing providers and employers. As I alluded, we have solutions for well-being and recognition that make for that seamless connection. So from a transition perspective, what it comes down to is what, as an employer, you want to accomplish.

And pairing us with your provider to understand how those rewards and incentives are being given today, how we can take in those points, consolidate, and often convert them to LSA funds.

Or ultimately, what ends up happening with many of our clients is they start looking to consolidate their ecosystems, experiences, and platforms. As contracts come up from renewal, they migrate over and put that in a single place with Espresa.

Sarah, let me ask, did I get to all of the key questions of that one? I know there were two sides.

Sarah Claxton, Marketing Project Manager, Espresa //

You did. And if we missed it, just put it in the chat or the Q+A, and we’ll make sure that we go a little more in-depth on that.

That ties into another question that we had, Ryan, about how employers fund LSA. Where are they getting the money to fund employee accounts or the programs?

Ryan Ramsey, Head of Strategic Alliances, Espresa //

Yes, this is a very different conversation between the start of last year and where we are this year, and as you might imagine, there’s two primary drivers.

One, the adoption of these programs is expanding, so we’re getting further down the adoption curve. People would create new investments and write checks for new programs from scratch in the early days. That’s far, far less common.

In fact, I would say kind of 80% or more directionally are repurposing existing funds that they have in place in other programs today. Some of the most common sources we see are well-being incentives that aren’t engaging employees in the way employers want anymore. So they’re looking at repurposing them to get broader engagement, broader impact in a different way.

We also see things like HSA and medical contributions get reevaluated, where an employer may shift from those they’ve historically made and move them into LSA funds.

Platforms and point solutions, other things that you’re offering, this idea of consolidation, and looking at these various solutions that may individually get really low engagement today but still come in in a financial cost, an administrative cost. They’ve got to be contracted, managed, and communicated.

We’re seeing more and more employers start to streamline those back out of the system and now replace those with an LSA-type program where they can give that money back in, repurpose it, and give employees more choice in how they leverage those dollars.

The last one, I think, it’s worth calling out. It’s pretty interesting, and we saw more of this last year, but particularly with COVID, as many employers were starting to shrink their office space footprint.

In some cases, offices were closing. Some were shrinking to smaller offices. We had many senior HR leaders work with leadership to say, “Hey, look, when we had office space, physical space for our employees to be in, those were benefits to our employees.”

Now that we’re realizing savings from some of those programs, how do we take a portion of that savings that we realized in real estate or onsite perks and lift that backup, and put it into an LSA program?

I think those are some of the top ones. There are others, but those are the big ones.

Sarah Claxton, Marketing Project Manager, Espresa //

So we have a few other questions that, again, link together, and then we’ll shift over to answering the employee experience and more of the tax questions we’ve been getting.

But the first one before we go that way will be more about the budgets again, so what amounts are you seeing companies budget for the LSA benefit? Have you seen it change recently?

And then I’ll transition to another question we got on that same line.

Ryan Ramsey, Head of Strategic Alliances, Espresa //

Yeah, this is a common one. I’m glad we got this one because I do think it’s something that’s shifting a bit.

Last year when we had this conversation, it was still a fairly broad range, but we would say $500 to $1,500 was really the sweet spot of what we would see employers offer. And if you start thinking about that in kind of monthly amounts, $50 a month up to a hundred dollars a month or even more. And it really depended on budget constraints and talent issues you were facing.

Now, one of the things that shifted pretty dramatically, particularly in the last eight to ten months, as we all know and it felt, is really the economic environment. And again, the pressure that we’re feeling from employees has not changed. In fact, it’s increasing. And so, employers feel the need and want to add in the flexibility that comes with LSAs, but the conversations around funding are different.

And so what we’re seeing for more and more employers is really stepping back and starting with smaller amounts where today, I would say the most common kind of funding we see is somewhere between $500 and $1000. The majority is definitely about $1000 these days.

And we’re even seeing more and more employers saying, “Hey look, I know I can grow this thing quickly over time, so we’re just going to dip our toes in. And we’ll even see amounts down to kind of that $300 to $500 range as folks look to start the process of offering LSAs with this mindset of we’re going to grow it, we’ll expand it over time as opportunities to present themselves.

Sarah Claxton, Marketing Project Manager, Espresa //

That was great, Ryan. Maybe the last part of that budget question is another question we’ve gotten.

How are employers making the dollars available? And then are there strings attached, or what is the incentivizing for employees look like?

Ryan Ramsey, Head of Strategic Alliances, Espresa //

LSAs, in general, I would say as they started, the most common approach was really making a chunk of money available with no strings attached.

Every employee in the organization gets $500 a year, which may be monthly, quarterly, or annually, depending on the employer’s preference and profile.

Now the opposite end of that spectrum that we don’t see as common, but it does come up, is a totally incentivized LSA. Employers in this category may have well-being activities, like getting your annual physical, get your biometric screening, and annual health assessment and those activities actually drive what the LSA amount will be for the following year. So a totally incentivized plan, in other words.

What you do this year dictates how much you’ll get. Now what’s really interesting about this, and I think it’s the trend that we’re seeing most common this year, and where I think the market’s ultimately going to end up being is kind of this hybrid approach where employers are giving a fixed bucket of money to all employees.

I’ll use an example, a hypothetical example of $500. But what they’re doing on top of that is creating challenges and other ways for employees to earn additional LSA dollars. We call it earned allowance or incentivized reimbursements.

It’s really, “Here’s your base amount. Do what we think is important as an organization and support our values and encourage positive behaviors. Healthy behavior is an example that we want to see, and you can earn more money in your LSA.”

And that kind of hybrid approach is absolutely something that’s picking up steam in the market today. So I would say those are the primary three flavors we see.

Sarah Claxton, Marketing Project Manager, Espresa //

Thanks, Ryan. So we’ve had a few questions about the tax implications or tax ramifications.

So I’ll go with the first question I saw in the chat. What are the tax ramifications of an LSA?

Ryan Ramsey, Head of Strategic Alliances, Espresa //

That’s a big question, Sarah, but it’s pretty easy. I think there are a couple of different answers there. I think what’s important to really start with is this idea that most expenditures that go through LSA are taxable, but not all of them.

And in fact, we regularly administer both taxable and non-taxable benefits. But the way that works practically speaking is in our system, we code expenses based on their tax status, and there’s a variety of ways to administer these programs.

Most common is being reimbursed through payroll, but the way that works is we gather that information, we improve based on planned parameters, and based on the types of expenses that flow through these programs, we share that taxable information back with employers.

It either gets automatically applied at reimbursement through payroll, or we share imputed income type information in an automated way back to the payroll system so that tax implication can be recorded for employees and put into their paychecks where appropriate.

Now, some programs out there are non-taxable. And a great example of this that we see pretty commonly is tuition up to a certain level or even working from home in some cases.

And again, we share that information back, but there is no additional tax implication either in that advice to pay file where we reimburse or from an imputed income perspective.

Sarah Claxton, Marketing Project Manager, Espresa //

And then Ryan, I know you addressed this in your presentation, but one of the questions we also got with the funds for the annual amount is what happens if there are unused funds at the end of the benefit year. What happens from the company’s perspective with that funding?

Ryan Ramsey, Head of Strategic Alliances, Espresa //

The short answer is employers are only on the hook for what employees use.

Again, this varies a bit administratively based on the mechanism you use to administer these programs.

So in a reimbursement environment, these are notional accounts. We never, as the administrator, actually have employee or employer funds in our hands, and so there is no need to exchange dollars. Employees are only getting reimbursed for what they use.

Now when we have things like marketplace or debit cards where we often have some level of pre-funding and maintain a minimum balance to help facilitate some of those transactions, we actually take some employer funds and hold onto them. Kind of like an escrow account is probably the best way to think about that.

At the same time, employers are still only on the hook for what their employees use, and those funds roll over into the next plan year, or we ultimately give the money back if it’s unused.

So no matter what mechanism you use, the outcome is always the same. Employers only pay for what employees use in the program.

Sarah Claxton, Marketing Project Manager, Espresa //

Thank you, Ryan. People had a lot of questions for you. It was great. All right. I think that we hit them all. And if there’s something that comes up after the fact, please feel free to send us an email. And Ryan, thank you so much. That was an excellent presentation.

Ryan Ramsey, Head of Strategic Alliances, Espresa //

Very welcome. Super grateful to be here and hope everyone has a great rest of their week and a great weekend.