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Post by alissa103 on Nov 30, 2015 1:31:11 GMT
Contact solution & stock up on DH's disposable contacts.
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katybee
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,378
Jun 25, 2014 23:25:39 GMT
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Post by katybee on Nov 30, 2015 1:54:25 GMT
What is the difference between an HSA and an FSA? I have an HSA and can accumulate finds from year to year until I need them. What happens to unused money in an FSA at the end of the year... Who gets it? I don't really know the differences (I don't have an HSA) but the money left in the FSA account at the end of the year or rollover period or grace period is just forfeited. Thanks! But I still don't get who ends up with the money… Is it the insurance company? Is it your employer? Does the $ just float around in oblivion?
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Post by Eddie-n-Harley on Nov 30, 2015 2:11:21 GMT
I don't really know the differences (I don't have an HSA) but the money left in the FSA account at the end of the year or rollover period or grace period is just forfeited. Thanks! But I still don't get who ends up with the money… Is it the insurance company? Is it your employer? Does the $ just float around in oblivion? Google says the employer gets it, but it can only be used for expenses related to FSA accounts, like paying the administrator. Something else: when you make an election for an FSA account, you get access to the full amount at the first of the year, even though your contribution is spread out over the year's paychecks. If you allocated, say, $520, that's $20 per paycheck if you're paid biweekly. You could spend that all in the first month, where you've paid in $40, but if you then leave that job, you don't have to pay the remaining that you pledged. So the forfeited funds often off-set "losses" from employees who spend all their flex dollars but leave before making all their contributions.
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Post by M~ on Nov 30, 2015 2:12:21 GMT
From an OPM article:
OPM: FSA participants can rollover $500 in unused funds
By Michael O'Connell | @moconnellwfed
September 4, 2014 4:05 pm
Federal workers who participate in the Federal Flexible Spending Account Program (FSAFEDS) will now be able to rollover up to $500 from one year to the next in unspent funds from their limited expense and health care flexible spending accounts (FSA) thanks to a recent decision by the Office of Personnel Management.
FSAFEDS allows workers to set aside as much as $2,500 of their pay, before taxes, to pay for out-of-pocket medical expenses. For many years, however, workers were barred from carrying funds over from year to year. Previously, federal workers had a 2-1/2 month grace period when they could be reimbursed for eligible expenses from the previous year’s balance.
“Health care and limited expense flexible spending accounts (FSAs) will no longer have a grace period; instead, qualifying participants will be able to carry over up to $500 of unused funds to the next plan year,” wrote John O’Brien, OPM’s director of health and insurance, in a release. “Dependent care FSAs will still have a grace period and will not have carryover to the next plan year.”
OPM also lowered the minimum annual election for all three types of FSAs from $250 to $100.
In October 2013, the Treasury Department issued new rules giving U.S. employers the go-ahead to allow workers to rollover as much as $500 in unused spends.
“The IRS restricts carryover to health care FSAs that are not using a grace period,” O’Brien wrote. “Programs must eliminate the grace period for their health care FSAs before they can implement carryover.”
There will be no grace period during the first 2-1/2 months for employees with health care and limited expense health care (LEX) FSAs. Instead, these employees will be able to incur expenses for reimbursement from Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, 2015, from their 2015 account. Then, they’ll be able to submit reimbursement claims up to April 30, 2016, for the 2015 account.
FSAFEDS participants who are eligible will still have the 2-1/2 month grace period at the beginning of 2015. They will have until March 15, 2015, “to incur eligible expenses for reimbursement” from the previous year’s account. In order to take advantage of the grace period, employees must be employed by a participating agency that is making allotments from the employee’s pay through Dec. 31, 2014. The deadline for submiting reimbursement claims from 2014 accounts is April 30, 2015.
“Participants can carry over up to $500 of unused 2015 health care or LEX elections to 2016,” O’Brien wrote. “Carryover funds can be used for reimbursement of eligible expenses incurred in 2016. Carryover funds can also be used for reimbursement of eligible expenses incurred in 2015 until the claims submission deadline of April 30, 2016.”
Four D.C.-area senators — Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) — praised OPM’s decision.
“Allowing Federal workers to rollover some FSA funds into the next year just makes sense. ‘Use-it-or-lose-it’ was a wasteful practice that I have fought to end,” said Cardin, who is a member of the Senate Finance Committee.
Cardin and Sen. Michael Enzi (R-Wyo.) introduced the Medical FSA Improvement Act of 2013 (S. 966) in May 2013 to reform FSA laws. The Treasury Department issued a ruling last November based on their bill. Treasury gave private sector employers the go ahead to let employees roll over up to $500 in FSA funds to the next year or to establish a grace period for rolling over funds to the following year.
Cardin, along with the entire Democratic caucus, followed up Treasury’s decision with a letter last December to OPM Director Katherine Archuleta, asking for OPM to make the changes it ended up announcing on Aug. 27.
In the December letter, the lawmakers said nearly 10 percent of the employees participating in FSAFEDS forfeited an average of $392 annually because they weren’t able to rollover the funds.
“I’m pleased that OPM has answered our call to give federal workers in Virginia and across the country peace of mind that they can rollover their unspent FSA savings from year to year,” said Kaine, who is a member of the Senate Budget Committee. “Our nation’s hard-working public servants should not have to fear losing the unspent funds they have worked so hard to earn.”
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FurryP
Drama Llama
To pea or not to pea...
Posts: 6,976
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Jun 26, 2014 19:58:26 GMT
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Post by FurryP on Nov 30, 2015 2:47:35 GMT
I've used up FSA funds on glasses and eye exams. But I have until March 2016 to spend the rest of this year's funds.
In the past I have purchased items from drugstore.com They have a whole section pre-labeled as FSA-eligible so it saves me time having to figure out what I can buy, and what I can't. If I rememeber correctly, it was also free shipping.
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Post by kellybelly77 on Nov 30, 2015 4:46:27 GMT
I don't really know the differences (I don't have an HSA) but the money left in the FSA account at the end of the year or rollover period or grace period is just forfeited. Thanks! But I still don't get who ends up with the money… Is it the insurance company? Is it your employer? Does the $ just float around in oblivion? The employer gets any money leftover. But in reverse, if an employee uses all the money they elected in January but leaves employment in February, they basically get free money since they obviously won't be contributing anymore. It evens out for us.
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Post by zuke on Dec 2, 2015 0:26:57 GMT
I went to CVS yesterday and asked about what is eligible and what is not. He said that most items need a prescription to be covered but some plans allow certain brands of things to be eligible without a prescription... just as we all said. I think we will just go for glasses being that we will be moving in the next year and may not have eye coverage like we do now.
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