Defying predictions, employees and families are rushing to open HSA accounts with earlier projections of a million or more by the end of the year now seemingly conservative.

The first 10 days of May saw one of the biggest jumps in HSAs ever, according to reports compiled by HSAfinder.com. While most of this surge came from individuals and families seeking healthcare cost relief, many companies have started to put together efforts to reduce overall costs by adopting HSAs. This process is expected to peak in October and November when a majority of companies make changes.

Requests for quotes by small and medium size firms have grown each month and right now, some insurance companies are reporting large backlogs.

The announcement by some of them (for example, Empire Blue Cross in New York) of significant rate cuts, has further fueled demand. Industry expectations are that by September, rates for HSAs will settle about 30% lower than rates in mid-summer, 2004.

Surveys by www.hsafinder.com of representative samples of consumers shows that interest is growing. Much of this growth is attributed to word-of-mouth, as projected 2005 advertising expenditures so far for HSAs has been well below the $20 million estimated at the end of 2004.

However, it is clear that changing to an HSA requires more time and effort than it has previously. Individual users are spending on average more than four hours looking at various options, versus the industry accepted standard of about 2.5 hours.

More details will follow as additional respondents complete the 2005 HSA Study being conducted by www.hsafinder.com in conjunction with Fortune Magazine.