• Matt Phillips is an assistant VP in AT&T's benefits department.
• He shared 5 tips for making the most of your employee benefits.
• He touched on how to avoid redundant dependant coverage and utilizing HSAs.

This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Matt Phillips, 45, the assistant vice president of benefits, health operations at AT&T, from Dallas. Business Insider verified his employment with documentation. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

The benefits enrollment process is a two-way street. My department spends a lot of time on our package, but employees also need to understand and engage with those benefits so they can make the most of them.

I've worked in the HR benefits department at AT&T for over 10 years. We spend a lot of time trying to educate and inform employees on what they need to know about their benefits.

Prior to that, I worked as an actuarial consultant, where I consulted on post-employment benefits, such as pension and retiree health, and also worked for a nonprofit.

Since joining AT&T in 2013, I've worked in multiple areas of our benefits department, including in strategy and in running savings plans. Five years ago, I moved into my current role, overseeing all health and well-being operations.

Here are some of my top tips about benefits enrollment for employees:

1. Ask yourself key healthcare questions and consider virtual options

Asking yourself key questions can help you pick the best health plan during enrollment season.

For example, do you want to pay more or less now for your health plan?

Choosing a high-deductible plan that's cheaper in terms of what comes out of your paycheck exposes you to higher out-of-pocket costs throughout the year. I think a good idea is to pair a plan like this with an additional ancillary medical plan, like a critical illness, hospital indemnity, or accident insurance plan.

For example, my son runs cross country, and in 2022, he fractured his tibia. There were significant costs for urgent care, imaging, and a specialist appointment, but through my accident plan, I got a payment from the insurer to provide more financial security at this time.

Also, virtual care has come a long way. I often hear employees say they don't have time for preventive check-ups with primary care physicians. However, it's possible to establish an ongoing relationship with a primary care physician virtually, so I'd encourage employees to look into virtual benefits options.

This can also include virtual mental health counseling. If you feel you don't have time in your day to go see a therapist or coach, you may be able to do it over the phone.

2. Go beyond a medical plan

I spend a lot of time telling employees not to just focus on their medical plan but to ensure they're taking advantage of all the other benefits available to them.

For example, at AT&T we offer employees a robust legal plan. If you may need to do something like write a will or set up an estate plan, a legal plan can help provide services around that.

My family has also benefited from an elder care planning service under my benefits plan. The company paid for a professional to come and meet with my wife, her cousin, and me about making a plan for caring for my wife's aging aunt.

While you do have to specifically enroll in something like a legal plan, companies may give other benefits to all employees automatically. Our dependant care and mental health benefits are given to all employees without a need for enrollment, for example. Ask the HR or benefits person at your company what you're entitled to that you don't even have to enroll in.

3. Max out your 401(k) contributions and use retirement planning tools

My advice for those thinking about retirement is to make sure you're not leaving any free money on the table.

Look into your company's 401(k) match and make sure you're maxing that out.

Many employers also have a retirement planning tool that can help you. We have an online one where you can say, "I want to retire at this age, I want this much money in retirement," and it helps you build a plan for how much you should contribute to hit that goal by the time you retire.

People should also be thinking about healthcare expenses for retirement. That's likely to become a larger share of your out-of-pocket expenses once you leave a company, especially if you retire before you become Medicare-eligible. Make sure you speak about this with your advisor and think about leveraging a Health Savings Account for that.

You don't lose your HSA when you leave a company. You can contribute tax-free, interest is tax-free, and if you use it on qualified healthcare expenses, it comes out tax-free. Plus, your employer might offer to contribute to or match your HSA contributions as part of a benefits plan.

4. Avoid redundant dependant coverage

When both spouses work and have children, it doesn't make sense to cover the children under both benefits plans. You'll end up paying double out of your paychecks but not necessarily getting double the benefits out of it.

If one parent's insurer agreed to cover or make a payout for a claim, then the other parent's insurer likely wouldn't, on the basis that the family has already received coverage and potentially a payout for the claim. Insuring dependents under both parents' plans could cover potential gaps in one parent's coverage, but it's often not worth it.

Instead, parents should compare potential costs under each plan and pick the best option.

5. Reach out to people in your company who can help you

There's usually someone in your company you can contact to talk about benefits options. If it's not your direct HR person, because you're at a really large company, they will have hired resources to help you. Call that phone number, download that app, or chat with that person.

Your company will hopefully have invested in those resources to help you navigate the process; you just need to reach out and take them.

Are you a professional or consultant with advice for employees to maximize their employment? Email Charissa Cheong at [email protected]

• Andre Nader switched from an EPO health insurance plan to an HDHP to get access to an HSA.
• Nader found the mental burden of managing healthcare costs outweighed HSA tax benefits.
• He plans to switch back to an EPO plan in 2025 for simplicity.

Andre Nader spent years on Meta's growth team, where his work involved experimentation and testing to determine how to improve specific products.

"I like to use that same testing methodology in my own life," the 37-year-old founder of financial independence blog FAANG FIRE told Business Insider. After getting laid off in 2023, Nader didn't have to job search thanks to the seven-figure net worth he built after years of investing in index funds and transitioned to writing on Substack full-time.

In 2024, he decided to put the popular, triple tax-advantaged health savings account (HSA) to the test. One requirement of using an HSA is that you must have a High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP), so he switched his family from an EPO health insurance plan, which he'd used for most of the past decade.

Nader said the EPO plan would be the simpler choice for him and his family — he wouldn't have to think about deductibles, the co-pays would be low, and all major hospitals were in-network — but he couldn't help but wonder if the savings from having an HSA would outweigh the extra hassle of having an HDHP, which offers a lower premium but comes with a higher deductible.

The benefits of using an HSA, which he describes as a "magical account," were obvious to him. It is a unicorn in that it offers a triple tax benefit:

1. You can contribute pretax dollars, which reduces your taxable income.
2. You can invest your HSA funds (the investment options vary by provider), and your contributions and earnings grow tax-free.
3. You can withdraw your money tax-free to cover qualified medical expenses (including things like copays, lab fees, and vaccines). After 65, you can use your HSA money to cover any expense without incurring a penalty, but the funds are subject to income tax.

Consider other tax-advantaged accounts. With a Roth IRA, you contribute after-tax money (and eventually withdraw it tax-free); with a traditional 401(k), you contribute pre-tax money (and eventually pay taxes when you withdraw).

"It's very rare to have an account where you're putting money in pre-tax and then also taking it out without paying taxes on it — and the entire time it's there, it can grow tax- and penalty-free," said Nader.

To maximize HSA gains, investors will invest their funds (rather than letting their HSA money sit in a cash account) and avoid touching it so it can grow and compound over time. Not touching your HSA funds means covering your medical expenses out of pocket, which is what Nader did throughout 2024. He saved all of his receipts from health-related expenses, so he'd have the option to reimburse himself later if he needed to (there's no time limit on when you can reimburse yourself from your HSA).

"In a spreadsheet, this is very lucrative," he said of taking full advantage of an HSA. Some companies will even contribute a certain amount to their employees' HSAs, which is essentially free money. "However, life isn't always about what happens in a spreadsheet."

Changing his coverage in 2025: 'I don't want to be living a life where I'm thinking about the cost of my healthcare'

As Nader's year of experimentation comes to a close, he's confident that an HDHP is not the right fit for his family and is switching healthcare plans in 2025. He says he'll likely go back to using an EPO.

"Even though the HSA is an amazing account that I can grow tax- and penalty-free forever, for me, the incremental benefit wasn't there," he said.

His main issue with using an HDHP and HSA was the mental bandwidth it required.

"The reason you're saving so much is you need to actually be thinking about your medical expenses more," said Nader. "Every single time that you go to urgent care, you're paying out of pocket until you hit a deductible or your out-of-pocket maximum. Every single time you go to a specialist, you're paying out-of-pocket until you hit your out-of-pocket maximum. So there was a lot more mental overhead in thinking about my healthcare decisions."

He felt like he couldn't be on autopilot like he was with an EPO plan, where an urgent care visit may cost him $10. With an HDHP, that same visit may cost hundreds of dollars, enough to stop and think about whether to get care.

"What's been happening over this year is, every single time I've needed to go to urgent care, I've thought about it a little bit, and I really didn't like that my health decisions were intersecting with my financial decisions," he said. "I didn't want to think about whether I should go to the emergency room if I had a cut; I should just go to the emergency room and not factor in the expenses."

At the end of the day, "I don't want to be living a life where I'm thinking about the cost of my healthcare."