What Your Employees Need to Know about Their FSAs Right Now

It’s been a roller-coaster of a year for employees, with some health-related expenses dropping and others rising. Now is a good time to remind them to check their flexible spending account (FSA) balances before December ends to make sure they spend any unused balances instead of forfeiting them after December 31, if your cooperative does not offer the carryover or grace period feature.

Employees who have an FSA as a participant in the CBA-administered 125 Plan can check their balances on cooperative.com by logging into the Employee Benefits website and clicking on My Benefits > My Insurance > 125 Plan and HRA.

Help them find out what’s covered by an FSA
People sometimes think of FSAs as covering any product or service related to health care, but that’s not exactly true. Before they run out to buy family packs of ibuprofen, they should know that expenses need to be qualified—that is, eligible for reimbursement. In most cases, items like over-the-counter medicines and vitamins are not on that list. For details and examples of expenses that are and are not qualified, check out the flier FSA Eligible and Ineligible Expenses.

What if we offer the carryover or grace period feature?
If your co-op offers one of the features that provides an exception to the December 31 “use-it-or-lose-it” rule, you can share a different, new flier with them that explains how your plan works:

The FSA Carryover Feature shows how they can carry over up to $550 of unused funds, from one plan year’s FSA to the next.

Likewise, The FSA Grace Period Feature explains how participants have two and a half extra months—until March 15—to incur expenses that their 2020 FSA will pay for.

Help make sure your FSA participants start the new year right by sharing this information!