If an employer waives the deductible for a HDHP (such that employees have first dollar coverage), can the employer go back and correct this first dollar coverage by making the employees pay the waived deductibles? Or does the failure to collect the deductibles mean that the employees will have excess contributions to their HSAs and will face an excise tax unless the contributions are taken out of the HSAs?

Please let me know if you have any inisght or experience with this issue. Thanks.

I apologize if I am being dense, but I have read your question a few times and cannot figure it out. It sounds like the employer set-up a HSA plan for the employees. Contributions to the HSA are 100% vested to the employee. The deductible is part of the insurance contract. So how can the employer waive, or collect, the deductible? Could you be more specific on the situation?
Thanks.

I apologize, let me try and clarify. The employer has failed to collect the full deductible for some employees enrolled in the HDHP (i.e., the employer allowed such employees to receive a discount on their deductibles). I am trying to figure out what actions the employer now needs to take. In other words, can the employer can now go back and collect the portion of the deductible that was not paid? Or rather, is the HSA blown for those employees who did not pay the full deductible such that amounts contributed will have to be taken out of the HSA to avoid an excise tax?

Let me know if this makes more sense. Thanks.

Still confused, sorry. How does an employer collect the full deductible? I have never heard of this. A health plan has the deductible, which is paid by the employee. The HSA account accumulates monies from the employer and/or employee for use in paying some/all of the deductible. Once the monies are in the HSA, it is the employees.

By "waiving the deductible," I mean that the employer's HDHP has been providing coverage before the deductible has been satisfied (such that the employees have been receiving first dollar coverage for expenses other than preventative care). I am wondering if the employer can now go back and correct this first dollar coverage by making the employees pay the deductibles.

Now I understand, and do you have a problem. It appears to me that the plan was set-up incorrectly because a qualified HDHP would not be able to pay those types of expenses. There must be something else going on, but be that as it may, my first suggestion is to meet with the person(s) responsible for setting up this plan and find out why they did it t his way. Then I would get qualifed legal or financial advice on this right away. Sorry, but I have never seen something like this before.