Opinions Please! abt Flexible Spending Accts

[meriface11]

my employer also offers an HSA option, and there is no employer contribution--just the money the employee choses to put into the HSA. it is not available unfront like on the FSA, so if you have medical expenses before the HSA is funded pre-tax, you have to pay it OOP. however, you can change your contributions at any time during the year (unlike the FSA), so if in February you have a $1000 medical bill and haven't reached the deductible, you can pull the money pre-tax from your paycheck into the HSA to fund the account. this is the reason why i chose to stick with the PPO plan, despite the fact that we are pretty healthy and typically spend far less in medical expenses than our insurance costs. however, if you have some liquidity, the HSA plan can work out nicely as you can fund your HSA with the rollover and will have it forever. DH and i are working at building our savings account, so i am hoping that by next year's enrollment time, we will have a bit socked away so that we can try out the HSA option at that time. i think HSA/high deductible plans are the insurance norm for the future, so my guess is we'd be best off starting sooner rather than later and build the HSA with the difference between the very low cost premiums for that plan vs. the high cost premiums of our current PPO.

 

[nursears]

I am totally going to jinx myself for saying this, but IF the rest of the year goes smoothly, we're going to have about $400 left out of the $900 we put in.

Any suggestions on bigger items or needs to use that up with? I really don't need THAT many bandaids... And I just had all of our eyes checked as well.

 

[georgina]

Got any cavities to be filled? I can't imagine having money left, we put in $5000 and use it by July. Lots of family members with glasses, contacts, prescription co-pays, dental payments, husband uses Commit to not smoke. Our plan lets you carry the money over and use it in January and February of the following year, that was a recent change for us.

 

[Green Tea]

I am totally going to jinx myself for saying this, but IF the rest of the year goes smoothly, we're going to have about $400 left out of the $900 we put in.

Any suggestions on bigger items or needs to use that up with? I really don't need THAT many bandaids... And I just had all of our eyes checked as well.

Are any children in braces? You can pay some extra on the contract. More contact solution for the new contacts you got after eye exams? The full year's supply of lenses rather than just a box at a time? Refill prescriptions as soon as you are able.

 

[Shmily1]

We've had an FSA for several years now and we love it!! I monitor the amount I'm putting in since our children are getting older and I don't want to loose any of it. If you are going to have extra at the end of the year, you can always go buy aspirins, bandaids, etc with the rest of it to keep from losing it.

Our only con is that we can only buy over the counter items at Walgreens with our FSA Visa. We can get reimbursement from anywhere though. The other problem is we can't use the FSA Visa to pay the copay on our prescriptions if we buy them at Walmart. Something about their system won't let it work. These aren't really problems with the FSA, just the Visa portion of it. It's really ok about Walmart though since they have snooty people there anyway!!! Not sure what they've got to be snooty about though!!!

 

[StitchandPooh'sMom]

I am totally going to jinx myself for saying this, but IF the rest of the year goes smoothly, we're going to have about $400 left out of the $900 we put in.

Any suggestions on bigger items or needs to use that up with? I really don't need THAT many bandaids... And I just had all of our eyes checked as well.

I can't imagine having money left, so I've never had that problem! You can stock up on winter cold supplies - Tylenol, Robitussin, Motrin, etc. You probably don't want to spend $400 on that, though. Have you gotten your flu shot if you get one? Any appointments you can move up to this year - physicals, etc.? If you have saved your Target, Wal-mart, CVS receipts, there might be things you have bought OTC that you haven't claimed yet. OTC Allergy medicines? Any prescriptions you can refill by December 31 even if you don't quite need them? We always find ourselves trying to wait to January 1 to fill DH's medicines since we run out of money - we need to add some more for next year!

 

[tammy1210]

We've used this for the past 6 or so years - we use both FSA and Dependent Care - the max on dependent care. I am the only one in an office of about 25 people that use either! I've always been amazed at that - I think the "use it or lose it" idea scares a lot of people. I did start small on the FSA, and I still underestimate every year - but it's still worth it. With dd being in the hospital twice this year it was used up by August!

I'd recommend it to anyone.

 

[dreamin_disney]

I am totally going to jinx myself for saying this, but IF the rest of the year goes smoothly, we're going to have about $400 left out of the $900 we put in.

Any suggestions on bigger items or needs to use that up with? I really don't need THAT many bandaids... And I just had all of our eyes checked as well.

1st aid kit
allergy medicine
cold medicine
lactaid if you lactose intolerant
advil
etc..
RX's
taxes on items that qualify

Don't forget to add your mileage to Dr. appt, dental appts, vision appt etc
It's 16.5 Cent per mile count miles round trip.

co-payments

my lil items add up for FEB/MArch just with co-pays, rx's mileage, over the counter med I sent in a claim for $325

In Feb i ended up getting sick with sore throat and cough turned in to bronchtis 4 1/2 weeks sick didnt expect that .


I keep track using excel. I make a list of all my expenses, date, visit, taxes, total. It helps me stay organized since there are 3 of us.

 

[swilshire]

We've had one for years. I'm very conservative with what I deposit and usually run out of money by June or so. If I get to the end of the year with money left, I either buy eyeglasses for one of us or stock up on expensive over the counter needs like Prilosec.

Ours changed a few years ago to let you spend the year's amount through sometime in March of the following year. I've used that feature once in a year when nobody ever got sick.

The only annoyance is they disallow a lot of our CVS purchases where I used Bonus Bucks earned from other things, but I've never fought about it since we always use the total up.

Sheila