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Tag: fsa

Rule Changes Increase Flexibility in Pretax Health Care Accounts

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As open enrollment season approaches for those with workplace health benefits, employees may want to take a fresh look at health care flexible spending accounts, if their employers offer them, because the rules for the accounts have changed.

Flexible spending accounts, or F.S.A.s, can help save money by letting people use pretax dollars to pay for costs a health plan doesn’t cover. That might include dental care, fertility treatments or equipment like blood pressure monitors. About 14 million families participate in health F.S.A.s, the federal government estimates.

While roughly 85 percent of big employers offer health care F.S.A.s, fewer than a quarter of eligible employees use them, according to 2013 data from the benefits consultant Mercer. One deterrent was the “use it or lose it” rule: If you set aside part of your salary in an F.S.A. but didn’t spend it, you would forfeit it at the end of the year. Even though many employers allow a two-and-a-half-month grace period for workers to submit claims, many employees remained cautious.

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Contact Steven G. Cosby, MHSA with questions or to request more information and to schedule a healthcare plan evaluation, savings analysis or group plan solution for your company.

CHPA Applauds Introduction Of Restoring Access To Medication Act

Bill would restore consumers’ rights to purchase OTCs with FSA and HSA dollars.

The Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA) is pleased to lend its support for the Restoring Access to Medication Act (H.R. 2835) introduced by U. S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-Kan.) and U.S. Rep. John Barrow (D-Ga.).

This legislation would repeal a requirement enacted into law as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) of 2010 that requires consumers to obtain a prescription in order to utilize their flexible spending arrangements (FSAs) and health savings accounts (HSAs) to purchase over-the-counter (OTC) medicines.

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HSA Legislation Would Authorize Spending on Dietary Supplements

Americans with health savings accounts (HSAs) and Health Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) would be eligible to spend money on dietary supplements without a doctor’s prescription under bills that have been reintroduced in the House and Senate.

The legislation would expand the term “medical care” in a section of the Internal Revenue Code to “include amounts paid to purchase herbs, vitamins, minerals, homeopathic remedies, meal replacement products, and other dietary and nutritional supplements.” Individuals covered under the health plans could spend up to $1,000 each taxable year on the products above.

Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-MN) introduced the legislation in order to simplify and improve HSAs and FSAs. The bills would make a number of changes such as allowing Medicare enrollees to contribute their own funds to their Medicare Medical Savings Accounts, permitting spouses to make catch-up contributions to the same HSA account, and removing restrictions that bar Native Americans from contributing to their HSAs if they have used the medical services of a tribal organization or the Indian Health Service.

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