Torsella announces new treasury partnership with Einstein Healthcare Network

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ABOVE PHOTO: State Treasurer Joe Torsella  (Photo/joetorsella.com)

Pennsylvania Treasurer Joe Torsella has announced a new partnership with Einstein Healthcare Network® in Philadelphia to help educate families about Treasury’s Keystone Scholars program which offers $100 starter deposits into PA 529 College and Career Savings Program plans for babies born to or adopted by Pennsylvania families.

“Partnerships, like the new one with Einstein, are instrumental in helping Treasury reach more and more growing families who are eligible for Keystone Scholars,” he said. “The success of Keystone Scholars depends on these meaningful partnerships that share Treasury’s dedication to promoting early higher education savings to help lessen student debt later. Having an account in their name and saving even a modest amount now can make an unimaginable difference in the life of a child when it comes to their higher education goals.”

Treasury and Einstein will partner to make sure families under Einstein’s care know about the opportunity to start saving for their child’s higher education as early as possible with Keystone Scholars.

Keystone Scholars provides Pennsylvania babies born after December 31, 2018, and those subsequently adopted by Pennsylvania families, with a $100 starter deposit for future higher education expenses. This $100 helps families jumpstart their savings. If families save just $25 per month from birth until their child is 18, their investment could grow to approximately $10,000. Families must open a separate PA 529 account by the time they seek to use the funds.

Einstein’s healthcare offerings make them an ideal community partner for outreach to new and growing families due to their ongoing efforts to serve low- and moderate-income families. Einstein staff, including nurses and social workers, will undergo training through Treasury to give details on Keystone Scholars to patients at the network’s birthing hospitals and affiliated obstetrician-gynecologist and pediatric offices. 

The combined efforts of Treasury and Einstein will use pre-natal visits and education classes, new parent orientation programs and materials, well-child visits, home visitation programs, healthcare system video and television systems and patient newsletters and email updates as opportunities to share information about Keystone Scholars.

“Einstein, through both our nursing and office staff, is excited to get the word out about the Keystone Scholars program to families who are expecting a child, as well as the families of our pediatric patients. The ability to receive $100 to start college savings plans will allow the families we serve to start thinking, early on, about higher education for their children. We applaud the Treasury Department’s efforts.”

The Einstein Healthcare Network® is a not-for-profit health system servicing the greater Philadelphia region. Einstein operates three hospitals located in Philadelphia, Elkins Park and East Norriton along with multiple locations of MossRehab offering in- and outpatient rehabilitative services. The health network also offers multiple primary care providers and outpatient services throughout the Philadelphia area.

In 2018, Treasury administered the Keystone Scholars pilot program giving $100 PA 529 starter deposits to newborns in six Pennsylvania counties including Delaware, Elk, Indiana, Luzerne, Mifflin and Westmoreland. An external evaluation of the pilot revealed that families in pilot counties were twice as likely to open a PA 529 account as families in non-pilot counties during the child’s first year of life — this was observed across all demographics.

Treasury also partners with Pittsburgh-based Fund My Future to offer monthly prize-based savings incentives through Treasury’s PA Savings Pledge for children from birth to 18 years old. 

For more information about the Keystone Scholars and PA 529 plans visit www.pa529.com/keystone and follow all of the department’s news on Facebook and Twitter.

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