health spending acccount?

I think you would have to call them. Never hurts to ask.

Its your money tucked away, but I believe there are guidelines determining what you can use it for as in conventional medical treatments vs non-conventional.

Supplements / herbs are typically considered non-conventional.

I think it's a Canadian thing, isn't it where an employer puts money in an account for you?

See https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p969.pdf for info. There are a variety of these types of accounts, and I'm not sure which you are talking about.

Yes, there are restrictions on what you can spend the money on, although I think some are more strict than others. Mostly, medical supplies (bandages, crutches, special medical pillows, etc.) and doctor/dentist visits are covered; not sure about naturopathic, chiropractic, acupuncture, etc.

You may need to contact your Human Resources representative if your health spending account is through work, as there may be specific guidelines they impose in addition to the IRS guidelines.

Its American tax free savings account, astroman described it perfectly. A lot of employers are heavily promoting it now as a way to "supplement" insurance (that is inadequate). I have used it in the past for dental work I knew I would be having, to make sure I didn't lose the balance.

I was just wondering if anyone had experience using it to cover some of the lyme treatment expenses and if there were special hoops to jump through to use it correctly. You actually get a separate debit card that is linked to the savings account. But it is possible for them to retro deny a charge (or at least it was)...anyway, it was just a random thought. The savings of taxes on $1500 isn't significant, but the habit of putting that money away and to use can be helpful in budgeting treatment.

Would anyone be able to share what they think the cost is monthly for Buhner's herbal protocol?
I know it varies by supplier, and individual treatments etc. I am working on a spreadsheet to calculate the cost at full dosage, but it is going to take me a couple days.

MistyLaird said...
Its American tax free savings account, astroman described it perfectly. A lot of employers are heavily promoting it now as a way to "supplement" insurance (that is inadequate). I have used it in the past for dental work I knew I would be having, to make sure I didn't lose the balance.

I was just wondering if anyone had experience using it to cover some of the lyme treatment expenses and if there were special hoops to jump through to use it correctly. You actually get a separate debit card that is linked to the savings account. But it is possible for them to retro deny a charge (or at least it was)...anyway, it was just a random thought. The savings of taxes on $1500 isn't significant, but the habit of putting that money away and to use can be helpful in budgeting treatment.

Would anyone be able to share what they think the cost is monthly for Buhner's herbal protocol?
I know it varies by supplier, and individual treatments etc. I am working on a spreadsheet to calculate the cost at full dosage, but it is going to take me a couple days.

If you dont use it all in that year, what happens to it nowdays? Lose it all, or taxed and then distributed back to you as part of your normal income?

Thank you PeteZa!

Astroman - I am not sure, I didn't sign p for it this past year. But I am talking to my HR benefits person later today, to get info on the "managed" portion we have. I will find out what I can about the general rules that apply to all and approval process (for charges).

Does it have to be done through an employer? I thought one could put money in an account that is used just for health expenses? We have to get individual insurance because my husband is self employed.

Girlie said...
Well we do have a tax free savings account option in canada ...where the interest earned isn't taxed.
Not limited to health spending though.

Girlie- American HSA is non taxed income from work, (part of your paycheck if not self employed) otherwise all work income is taxed..

Most peoples money was taxed income before it goes into any savings account.

If you regularly have over a certain amount of money appearing into a savings account with out a paper trail, IRS can audit to find where that money is coming from so they can tax it or throw you in jail if from illegal activity.

I think people might be confusing a FSA and an HSA. HSA is health saving saccount. FSA is a flexible spending account.

FSA is a pretax account that you opt into. You can do this in addition to an HSA or traditional health insurance. You can choose the amount you wish to put in, I have done between $300 and $1200 in the past, depending on how many health expenses I think I will incur. The FSA can be used for a lot of things, Copays, coinsurance, rx, teeth whitening, glasses, OTC items like Advil or bandages. Pretty much anything health related, but you have to save receipts and once in a while they will request proof of the expense. Usually the full amount is available to you on the 1st of the year, but you pay it out over each paycheck. At the end of the year, you can rollover a portion usually. For us it used to be ZERO but now it's $500. That depends on your particular plan.

An HSA is part of a health insurance plan. Usually it's a cheaper plan with more out of pocket expenses. With an HSA, your employer will give you an amount in an account to help cover the out of pocket costs. For example, let's say it's $100 a month premium (much cheaper than traditional plans), then there's $2000 deductible, the employer may give you $1500 in the HSA to help with the deductible. If you do not use it for that, you can use it for other medical expenses. I have not had one of these plans but I believe the full amount rolls over. If you get $1500 a year, you could quickly have it add up to $3000, then $4500, if you're healthy and you don't use it, but for people like us, with chronic health issues, these plans tend to come up short. They benefit the corporations and health insurance companies, not the individuals, and that is why they exist.

That's my whackadoo interpretation. I have an FSA and traditional insurance without HSA.

I notice companies are offering HSAs to save themselves money these days. There used to be fantastic traditional plans where employees paid a reasonable amount out of their check and everything was covered. Now all the plans have such high premiums, and the deductibles and coinsurance are too high, they are unaffordable.

I guess ultimately it doesn't matter if you have an HSA, it just matters if you can afford what you have. I used to really shy away from the HSA because, with chronic illness, the expenses can get quite high, but now that all the traditional plans have high expenses as well, you can probably do okay with the HSA, especially considering some of companies subsidize the costs by putting money in an account.

I've heard other people say they have used the HSA money for expenses unrelated to health. I have only used an FSA, and ours has rollover, so it works for me. With the FSA, i usually put enough to pay for a good part of the deductible, but this year I didn't bother since last year I barely used my health insurance. Hopefully nothing terrible happens. I agree, you can not really plan for health expenses, but in reality, the max is what it is. Worst case you have to pay out the max. Might as well have an HSA to help toward the max & pay the lower premiums, plus it rolls over, so if you don't use it, you will have more when you need it. I just prefer the old traditional plans (that don't seem to exist anymore) where you don't need to worry about budgeting and everything is covered within the cost of the premium.

I think you can have both HSA and FSA. Our FSA has a $500 rollover and that works OK for me at the moment. I don't know what HRA is.

I don't know a ton about HSA plans. I guess they are all different, just like any PPO or HMO plan? I just know the company i used to work for gave us the option of an HSA plan and the costs were all higher, aside from the premium, that was lower. I didn't mean you could use the HSA money for the premium though, I meant if you don't use it year after year, the account will grow and you can use it for deductibles, copays and coinsurance.

The people I knew who used the HSA for expenses other than health were doing it against the policy rules. I have no idea how that works, or what happened with it. I've never done it myself As I said, I've never had an HSA. I've only had the FSA and I've had to provide receipts on that a few times for expenses that were clearly health related.

it seems like many of us have a bit of confusion about HSA plans. The one I was offered, it was basically a very watered down version of my PPO plan, but with low premiums, high deductibles, high out of pocket costs, and the company for which I was employed gave about $1000 in an account to use to cover costs. That money rolled over. This is great for healthy people, but not so great for people who are definitely going to use the $1000 and then some.

I guess the question is, can you get an HSA in addition to any PPO or HMO plan? Or is the HSA an adjunct to certain plans? That's what I don't understand. If you can opt for the HSA over the FSA, I understand the benefit and it would make sense, but the only place i was offered an HSA, it wasn't an equal plan to the more expensive PPO plan that had a higher premium and much lower out of pocket costs. I opted for the more expensive plan without the HSA in that case.

1000Daisies said...
..........FSA (Flexible Spending Account) - pretax
You can put in money through your job/wages (pretax) up to a limit. I believe we submitted a form with receipt.
However, whatever you don't use, you lose by the end of the year. It was terrible. How can you "plan" for most of your medical expenses? Well, let's see... this year I'm going to foresee breaking a leg and maybe having an appendectomy? (Yes, I realize you can plan for some things, but with medical, I'd argue there is a lot that you can't foresee.) I am personally not a fan.....

Thats it. I confused them. Thanks.

What I was describing as HSA was actually FSA.

I had FSA, but 10 years ago, and you could NOT roll over the balance at the end of the year, so you could lose it. My employer was touting it for people who knew they would need monthly chiropractic or a child who would need braces next year ect. It was worthless for unforeseen illness. I had to keep recipts. Since it was company sponsored and managed, I think I had to turn in recipts to HR! - no hiding illness then either. That was also 10 years ago.

Post Edited (astroman) : 1/2/2018 11:58:55 PM (GMT-7)