Health Care Flexible Spending Accounts

With health care flexible spending accounts, you can pay for the services and products you need. Unfortunately, health insurance plans don't always cover all of your expenses. Colds and allergy symptoms that don't require a trip to the doctor, but do necessitate over the counter medications are often left unaddressed by your health plan. Flexible spending accounts help you cover costs unique to you and fill gaps in your coverage.

Health insurance flexible spending accounts work in conjunction with your employer-sponsored health care plan. With such accounts, you can pay for co-pays, over the counter medications and dental and vision expenses not covered under your plan. Additional expenses such as adoption service costs and daycare may also be covered by such accounts.

How Health Care Flexible Spending Accounts Work

Unlike with health reimbursement accounts, individual employees own health care flexible spending accounts. Employees deposit money into their accounts monthly to cover qualified expenses. All funds contributed to such an account are not taxed, thereby lowering an employee's federal and state taxes and increasing his or her monthly savings.

Flexible spending accounts like those from take care often provide debit cards, which make it easy to use the funds you've put aside. Simply swipe your card at qualified locations to pay for approved expenses. In many cases, no more paperwork is required for reimbursement. If you've paid for qualified expenses out of pocket, simply fill out a reimbursement form to be refunded from your account.

Additional Topics

125 Plan

Account-Based Health Plans

Adoption Costs

Cafeteria Plan

CDHP

Commuter Benefit Accounts

Consumer-Directed Health Plans

Consumer-Driven Health Accounts

Daycare Costs

Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts

Employee Benefits