Postmates Partners With Starship To Connect On-Demand Delivery Fleet To New Health Savings App

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On the heels of their recent announcement to connect more than 170,000 Postmates to open enrollment resources in partnership with Stride Health, today the company unveiled a new health savings account (HSA) tool, in partnership with Starship, for those who successfully enroll in qualifying Healthcare.gov plans to help reduce costs for medical expenses. The announcement builds on Postmates' commitment to leverage the digital real estate of its platform, during open-enrollment season, and connect a broad swath of America's flexible workforce and small businesses to tools which can help them identify the health coverage plans that best fit the needs of their families.

By teaming up with Starship, a new resource that makes saving and paying for healthcare easier than ever before, Postmates will start unveiling a no-fee HSA to members of its national fleet, upon completing enrollment in qualifying plans from today through December 15, 2018 (the end of 2018's open enrollment season under the Affordable Care Act). As healthcare remains the number one policy concern for flexible workers in America, deploying the HSA tool will let Postmates experiment with the types of healthcare benefits best fit for the way independent contractors work.

The HSA will function like a personal savings account, but with unique tax advantages for eligible healthcare costs such as vision-related expenses or health & wellness purchases. Personal contributions into an HSA are tax-free and spending on eligible medical expenses are tax-free, helping reduce healthcare costs for participating Postmates over time. The program will be paired with: (1) ongoing financial & healthcare education materials to better understand how to utilize an HSA; (2) an app that helps track health spending & savings; and (3) customer support to maximize long-term medical expense decision making.

"As Postmates helps Americans across 550 U.S. cities connect to the local businesses, brands, and tastes which power our neighborhoods, investing in the health & vitality of those communities could not be more important to our growth," said Vikrum Aiyer, Vice President of Public Policy & Strategic Communications at Postmates. "Connecting the nation's largest on-demand delivery workforce to the tools they need to make more precise healthcare decisions for their families & pocketbooks can help build more economic certainty for independent workers. While we know one benefit alone won't be a silver bullet in addressing all economic needs of the modern workforce, measuring the adoption of different benefit-types over time enables us to share data-driven insights with policymakers to ultimately inform how we can best balance worker protections, alongside flexible work opportunities, to guide the future of work."

"HSAs are the perfect companion for freelancers and individuals and are one of the most important tools to help people save for unexpected medical expenses," says Sean Engelking, Co-founder and CEO of Starship. "The changing nature of work means that promoting the right solution is absolutely critical to help people get ahead."

From career development resources, to tax filing resources, to HSAs, Postmates is committed to experimenting with connecting a suite of resources to its Fleet, and sharing data with lawmakers about how each tool suits the needs of an independent worker at different stages of their career. As lawmakers continue to politicize access to healthcare--and discussions from State Capitols to the US Congress debate how to build workplace benefits for a modern labor force--such partnerships among innovative tools, marketplace platforms, policy makers, and workers will be critical to a data-driven understanding of worker voice in the gig-economy.

 ABOUT POSTMATES
Postmates helps people unlock the best of their cities – and their lives, with a reliable on‑demand "anything" network. Launched in 2011, Postmates pioneered the on‑demand delivery movement in the US by offering delivery from restaurants and stores previously only available offline. The company now operates in 550 US cities, as well as Mexico City, and provides access to over 200,000 merchants. Postmates is headquartered in San Francisco. Learn more: www.postmates.com.

ABOUT STARSHIP
Starship is a health savings account built from the ground-up to serve the way people work today. It pairs a completely hassle-free, no-fee HSA with the industry's first automated advisory service. It hosts a suite of innovative financial wellness tools to help people manage their healthcare spend, tailored specifically for the future of work. Starship launched in 2017 and is headquartered in New York City. Learn more: www.starshiphsa.com.

SOURCE Postmates

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