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Flex-Ed: How to fix mistakes with FSA funding and reimbursements
Mistakes are common. But when you make a mistake with your FSA reimbursements or funding, you need to be able to fix them ASAP, so you're not caught paying for them later. As in, you want to be sure that you're using your FSA correctly so that you're not required to pay your reimbursements back or stuck with money you can't use.
Sure, you can have the best-laid plans, but stuff happens. Instead, take a look at the following scenarios in case you made one of those mistakes, and what you can do about it.
Your receipts weren't clear
Just because you know what you spent your money on, doesn't mean your FSA administrator is clear on it. Yes, you have receipts backing up your purchase but that doesn't mean it automatically counts as solid proof.
Let's say you purchased got a prescription for a bunch of antibiotics at the pharmacy. You decided to submit the credit card receipt to your FSA provider. Unfortunately, that's not enough proof because the IRS requires you have an itemized receipt.
If your FSA administrator comes back to you and says your original receipt isn't acceptable proof, you should be able to resubmit. Now's the time to find that itemized receipt — whether it's your prescription with the price on it, or go back to the pharmacy if you need to and see if they'll print another one for you.
Otherwise, you can submit what's called an Explanation of Benefits (EOBs) that you'll receive in the mail from your health insurance provider -- basically, a fancy way of explaining a part of your transaction. What it needs to include is your name, date of purchase, the provider/retailer's name, price of the item, and the name of the item or service. Don't worry though - this is standard information to be included on all EOBs.
Even if you made the initial mistake, you can still fix it as long as you provide ample proof as quickly as possible.
You overallocated your FSA
Maybe you overestimated how much you'll need and you contributed a bunch of extra money to your FSA. Now you realize, you may not have enough qualified medical expenses to spend it all. The good news is that it's still your money. The bad news is that you're at risk of losing it of you don't take action.
Before assuming you don't have enough qualified medical expenses, make a list of things you may need. Perhaps it's time to replace your broken pair of glasses, or you're eyeing that foot circulator but were scared to make the purchase. Be strategic about what you want to purchase and make sure it's something you need, and you're not spending money just to spend it.
Something else to consider is looking into your FSA plan to see if there's a rollover option — typically up to $500 per year — or you may be able to take advantage of a Grace Period, if you have one, giving you extra time to spend down your funds. This way, you can still keep your cash longer without feeling like you have to buy things you don't need (which you shouldn't do, anyway).
Keep in mind that you won't have both the rollover and Grace Period option, and plans are not required to offer either so map out your purchases depending on what your plan offers.
You submitted an incorrect claim form or have no matching receipts
Don't freak out. If you submitted the wrong form, contact your FSA provider right away and see if you can resubmit. It's as simple as that. However, if you make a purchase and don't have a matching receipt, you may be able to substitute one from another qualified transaction.
Let's say you purchased prenatal vitamins and sunscreen and realized you don't have the receipt. Instead, you may be able to find another receipt for a qualified purchase to offset your original purchase. Maybe you buy additional sunscreen or more prenatal vitamins at a different store and submit that receipt, instead. Note that not all administrators will allow this, so you'll want to contact them to find out about your options.
In some cases you may not even need to submit a receipt, although we always advise that you keep them just in case. For example if you used your FSA debit card to make a payment and at a qualified merchant with the proper system in place, your expense may even be automatically approved without the need for documentation.
Mistakes happen to the best of us. The important thing is to recognize them when they happen, correct course and try not to let it happen again.
Buy with your FSA card!
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New to FSAs? Need a refresher course in all things flex spending? Our weekly Flex-Ed column gives you a weekly dose of FSA Living 101, offering tips for making the most of your tax-free funds. Look for it every Thursday, exclusively on the FSAstore.com Learning Center.
Flex-Ed: Speaking to millennials at open enrollment
Raise your hand if this sounds familiar. You spend hours preparing for a company meeting on employee benefits. But when it's time to share information, some employees are visibly less interested. By the end of the meeting, eyes have glazed over, and attention has disappeared.
Fast forward to open enrollment. Maybe it's a little early to tackle this, but this same group of employees is pretty disengaged. And they are less likely to understand what your company offers. So it's better to start now and avoid confusion later.
Millennials may be first to say, "I've got this." But the truth is, open enrollment can be confusing and stressful. Key details may be glossed over. And as a result, they may be less likely to opt in. Here are some tips on how to spark interest before the onslaught of paperwork begins.
Communication matters
If you're offering the types of benefits millennials value most — great. But do they actually understand what you offer? Communication is critical. Try going beyond in-person meetings, letters, or emails. Share the message in bite-sized pieces through texts, blog posts, or videos. Repeating what matters may be the key to boosting millennial engagement.
Highlight ways to save
Millennials may have a reputation for frivolous spending. But that's not the case with healthcare. Research has revealed nearly half of millennials have skipped or delayed care to save money. Become a trusted resource and advocate by making benefits easier to understand. Break healthcare benefits down into manageable chunks.
Oh, be sure to ditch the industry jargon. These might be common terms to some, but it always helps to decipher things like coinsurance, copayment, or out-of-pocket maximum, providing real-world examples of how each of these will impact their wallets.
Flexible spending accounts (FSAs) are another way to save on taxes. Money shifts into a special account before being paid. Explain the "use it or lose it" rules and why it requires some extra planning. There's no "magic number" that works for all employees. Everyone's needs are different. Ask these questions to guide them through the decision process:
- How much money did you spend last year? Sifting through old receipts can be a snooze, but it's helpful to have a baseline for planning purposes.
- Do you have any major health expenses planned? Time to stop putting off that root canal? Or is your family expecting a baby? You're likely to use 100% of the year's FSA money — and more. But if you're expecting routine check-ups, contributing the full amount may not make sense.
- Does your company offer a high-deductible health plan? A recent survey found most millennials don't understand how they work. To make matters worse, 70% waste up to $750 because of mistakes at open enrollment. Maybe a health savings account (HSA) is a viable alternative.
Grab attention before open enrollment
No one wants to read a stack of papers. Try delivering the information other ways. Consider which benefits are most valuable to millennials and highlight them — more than once. Helping your employees make the most of their benefits could save them a lot of money. Best of all, they may want to stick around longer.
New FSA-eligible arrivals...
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New to FSAs? Need a refresher course in all things flex spending? Our weekly Flex-Ed column gives you a weekly dose of FSA Living 101, offering tips for making the most of your tax-free funds. Look for it every Thursday, exclusively on the FSAstore.com Learning Center.
Flex-Ed: How my FSA paid for my son's birth
With a flexible spending account (FSA) it's usually required that you use your FSA funds within the plan year for which you contribute them, which can be a tough sell if you're generally healthy and don't have any planned health care needs.
But if you typically spend a lot on health care costs or you're already working on saving for a major surgery or procedure, it could be a no-brainer.
That was the case for me in 2015 when my son was born. By using an FSA to cover most of the hospital costs, it not only saved us money on taxes but it also simplified the payment process.
My story
Leading up to my son's birth, my wife and I weren't financially prepared. We had been saving up for over a year to pay for the hospital bill. But we didn't anticipate how much it would cost for regular trips to the OB/GYN and other common expenses you incur as you get ready for a new child.
As my wife's due date grew closer, I began to panic. In November 2014, however, I learned that my company offered an FSA. As I did some research, I also learned that you can use these pre-tax FSA funds to pay for certain eligible medical expenses. These expenses include the costs of my wife's delivery and hospital stay.
In 2015, you could contribute up to $2,550 to an FSA (the FSA contribution limit is $2,700 in 2019) and my employer at the time offered to match up to $1,000 in my contributions (which could be in excess of the limit, although I stuck with the $2,550).
I'd get the $2,550 up front in an account with a debit card, and I'd make my portion of the contributions over the course of the year. This meant that my employer would deduct $129.17 from my paychecks every month to "fund" the account (based on my portion of $1,550).
My son was born in February of that year, and after we drained our FSA, we were only on the hook for a few hundred dollars more. Fortunately, we had enough cash in the bank to pay the remainder of the bill.
Because of the way FSAs are designed — we got the full $2,550 at the beginning of the year — paying for my son's birth was a lot less stressful.
If we didn't have an FSA, we would have needed to get on a payment plan with the hospital. This process would have required us to shift around our budget and remember to make payments each month.
But with the FSA, I was able to pay the bill in full as soon as I got it. And while we were still technically making "monthly payments" through the FSA contribution from my paycheck, we had already adjusted our budget to accommodate the deduction.
That's not even mentioning the fact that the FSA funds were from pre-tax contributions, which saved us a few hundred dollars in taxes.
The bottom line
FSAs aren't for everyone, but the way they're designed can make it easy to manage your medical bills. By getting access to the full annual contribution at the beginning of the year, you don't have to worry about how you're going to cover unexpected health care costs. And if you're already anticipating some health care costs, it can make it easier to plan for them.
In the end, the important thing is that you can afford your medical bills, and an FSA can help you do that.
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New to FSAs? Need a refresher course in all things flex spending? Our Flex-Ed column gives you a dose of FSA Living 101, offering tips for making the most of your tax-free funds. Look for it every Thursday, exclusively on the FSAstore.com Learning Center.
Raybaby Non-Contact Sleep and Breathing Baby Monitor with Video
Track your baby's sleep and breathing from a distance.
Boogie Wipes Saline Nose Wipes
A gentle, easy alternative to dry tissues.
