Health Spending Account

How Much Does a Health Spending Account Cost for a Small Business in Alberta?

A Health Spending Account has two costs: the medical expenses you reimburse (which you control) and an administration fee. Frank Cover sets up HSA/PHSP plans through GoKlaim, a Canadian benefits platform, which charges either $5.95+tax per employee per month, $59.40+tax per employee per year, or 10% of reimbursed claims + tax — no group insurance premiums, no coverage you're not using.

If you've priced out a Health Spending Account (HSA/PHSP) for your Alberta business and found vague answers like "a small admin fee," here's what that actually means in dollars, using GoKlaim's published pricing.

The Two Things You're Actually Paying For

• The medical expenses themselves — dental, vision, prescriptions, and other CRA-eligible costs your employees (or you, as owner-employee) actually incur. You control this by setting the annual allowance per person.
• The administration fee — what you pay GoKlaim to run the plan: process claims, host the mobile app, and maintain CRA-compliant records.

There are no monthly insurance premiums, no underwriting, and nothing paid for coverage that goes unused — which is the core reason a HSA/PHSP usually costs less than group benefits for small teams.

GoKlaim's Three Pricing Options

The two flat-fee options work well if you're setting a predictable annual allowance at or near the $5,000 cap — the fee doesn't move whether an employee claims $500 or $5,000. The percentage option makes more sense for lower or more variable allowances, or if you want to offer more than $5,000 per employee per year with no ceiling.

Worked Example: A 4-Person Alberta Business

Say an incorporated business owner sets a $2,000/year allowance for themselves and 3 employees — $8,000 total potential spend, and the team actually claims $6,200 of it by year end.

• Flat monthly option: 4 employees × $5.95/mo × 12 = $285.60/year + tax, regardless of how much is claimed.
• Flat annual option: 4 employees × $59.40/year = $237.60/year + tax — slightly cheaper than the monthly option at this size.
• Percentage option: 10% of the $6,200 actually claimed = $620 + tax — more expensive here because claims were high relative to the allowance.

In this example, the flat annual fee is the cheapest choice. But if the team had only claimed $1,500 total, the percentage option ($150 + tax) would have won instead. This is exactly the kind of comparison Frank Cover runs before recommending a tier — it depends on how close to the allowance cap your team typically claims.

How This Compares to Group Benefits

A basic group health and dental plan for a small Alberta team typically runs $400–$800/month regardless of how much staff actually use it — often more once disability and life coverage are added. For a 4-person team, that's $4,800–$9,600/year in fixed premiums, whether claims are high or low that year.

An HSA/PHSP through GoKlaim, by contrast, costs whatever is actually reimbursed plus a fee typically well under $1,000/year for a small team. See the full breakdown: PHSP vs. Group Benefits — Which Wins for a Small Alberta Business?

What's Not Included in These Numbers

Frank Cover's advisory and setup service is free — it's not part of the GoKlaim fee. There's also no separate setup charge from GoKlaim beyond the ongoing admin fee you choose. The only variable cost is what your team actually claims, which is the point: you're not paying for unused coverage the way you would with a fixed group premium.

Frequently Asked Questions