A Consumer Directed Health Plan (CDHP) is a type of health plan that gives you more control of your health care expenses. Here are a couple of examples of CDHPs:

• A HDHP paired with an HSA is one type of CDHP.  
• A standard medical insurance plan with a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) is another type of CDHP.

In both cases, you can use the pre-tax dollars in your health care account to pay for a wide range of qualified health care costs. 

Comparing an HSA to an FSA

• To establish an account and make contributions, those wishing to use an HSA must be enrolled in a HDHP.
• FSAs can be used with almost any traditional employer-sponsored health insurance plan.
• Both FSAs and HSAs are used to pay for qualified medical expenses with tax-free dollars.*
• FSAs are "pre-funded" by the employer, meaning the employee has almost immediate access to the full amount of funds they contribute to during the year.