With HSAFinder and other organizations putting the current total at more than 685,000 accounts, the number of HSA accounts should soar past one million by the end of this year.

The number is expected to double again in 2006.

At the same time, the cost of HSA insurance is coming down at a rapid pace.

There was much back-patting at the just-completed Consumer Directed Healthcare Conference held in Chicago.

Speaker after speaker hailed the expanding role of consumer directed programs and demonstrated the ever widening circle of offerings.

However, the big story may have been in New York, where Empire Blue Shield and Blue Cross announced very low prices for High Deductible, HSA-compliant plans.

With a low point of $183 per month for an individual, these offerings are amongst the lowest in a state with community pricing, i.e. acceptance of anyone and uniform offerings.

Companies such as United Healthcare are scrambling at this time, with the changeover from Oxford giving outside groups the opportunity to poach the clients..

Empire said it was asking for the new rates as of July 1 with the hope that they will get approval faster.

While PefectHealth has already reduced their rates, they and the other in-state providers need move quickly to match Empire.

New York state is not alone in seeing reduced costs as claims experience is showing insurance companies that HSAs are reducing healthcare costs.

States as diverse as Colorado and Ohio are also seeing reduced rates.

At the same time, as reported at the CDHCC meeting, dozens of websites are expected to launch online HSA enrollment tools, including all major banks and even health plans, and it appears there will be lots of collaboration across sites. Expect to see logos like eHealthinsurance and HSABank popping up across dozens of web portals with links to sign up for an HSA or HDHP. The acquisition cost of online enrollment is a fraction of either paper enrollment or deals with health plans, and new HSA account growth is expected to exceed the million new member mark next year— over half of it through online site sales.