Welcome to the second edition of The Gusto Benefits Brief, your quarterly guide to getting the most out of Gusto. Whether you’re exploring new plan options or just trying to keep up with changing laws, we’re here to help simplify the complex world of employee benefits.
With open enrollment around the corner, September’s edition is all about helping you feel prepared. We’re sharing smart tools, expert guidance, and legislative updates to help you build the right plan for your team—and stay compliant.
Featured update: Find the best-fit plan in minutes
Open enrollment can feel overwhelming when employees are staring at long, confusing plan documents. That’s why we redesigned our health plan cards to make comparing options faster, easier, and more intuitive.
With the new plan cards, the most important details—like deductibles, out-of-pocket maximums, and monthly premiums—are displayed upfront. Employees no longer have to dig through dense PDFs or toggle between multiple documents just to understand the basics.
The updated design also works seamlessly across desktop and mobile, with consistent tooltips and accessibility improvements like screen-reader support. The result is a cleaner, more guided experience that helps employees focus on what really matters: finding the plan that fits their needs and budget.
When the enrollment process is intuitive and straightforward, employees have fewer questions along the way—saving valuable time for admins and business owners.
What’s new in benefits
Offer HSAs and FSAs — without the admin headache
With our new partner Elevate1, you can now add pre-tax accounts like HSAs and FSAs seamlessly — whether during renewal or as a brand-new benefit. Employees get a modern experience that makes these accounts easy to use, including:
AI-powered claims adjudication for instant claim decisions
An intuitive, employee-friendly portal (the Benefits Card Hub)
Seamless integrations and faster data transmission thanks to an API-first design
The result? A better experience for your team and fewer admin headaches for you.
More carriers, more choice
New flexible, affordable options are here from carriers we just added, including Ameritas National, Eye Med, and Dental Select—expanding our already extensive network of 100+ carriers.
Benefits that run themselves
Manual benefits work is slow, error-prone, and a headache for admins. That’s why we’ve expanded automation to cover dozens of new scenarios this year alone—cutting down on copy-paste errors and reducing manual work. The best part? It happens seamlessly in the background, while you focus on what makes your business great.
Benefits education: Webinars, podcasts, videos, and beyond.
You name it—we’ve got education on lock this month.
 | Webinar | Benefits 101: Build the Right Package for Your Team (and Your Budget). Join us Sep 4 at 11:00 am PT for a live, jargon-free walkthrough of today’s top employee benefits. Save your seat |
 | Podcast | Fiscally Awesome Tune in as Gusto’s Leah Brite breaks down the ROI of employee benefits, when SMBs typically start offering them, and how to save with options like HRAs and Level-Funded.Listen now |
 | Blog | Health Insurance Guidance We’ll guide you through health benefit options, from HRAs to wellness plans, so you can build the best package—after all, it’s the #1 benefit employees look for.Read the guide |
 | Video | Health Insurance Terms… in Plain English SGHI, PPO, QLE… confused yet? This 3 minute explainer video breaks down the most common health insurance terms so your team can understand (and actually use) their benefits.Watch now |
Small businesses, big wins
How Magpie Analytics grew with Gusto Benefits
When Bil, the founder of Magpie Analytics, was ready to grow his team and offer benefits, he needed a simple solution that wouldn’t add more admin to his plate. He turned to Gusto for an integrated platform that could recommend plans curated for his diverse team’s needs. Now that he has health insurance he’s happy with, Bil is looking to expand his health benefits offerings through Gusto to become an even more attractive employer.
“Gusto is constantly adding more benefits, and I’m excited to look into offering HSAs and FSAs all managed in one single place.”
— Bil Westerfield, President of Magpie Health Analytics
What’s changing in compliance
What the OBBA means for your benefits
Benefits provisions passed as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBA) bring tax credits and increased flexibility for small businesses and employees, including:
Increasing the maximum employer-provided childcare tax credit from $150,000 to $500,000, expanding contribution limits for dependent care FSAs, and enhancing the Child and Dependent Care Credit for employees.
The expanded HSA eligibility now allows bronze and catastrophic ACA plans to qualify for HSA eligibility, and permits direct primary care arrangements to be paired with HSAs.
Rest assured that with Gusto, compliance is built in. Our platform will seamlessly adapt to all OBBA requirements across benefits, payroll, and HR. Want to dive deeper into what’s changing and how it impacts small businesses? Explore our on-demand webinar.
1This card is issued by UMB Bank, n.a. pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. See the included Cardholder Agreement for detailed terms and conditions of your Visa Debit benefits card.
