Health Care Flexible Spending Accounts (HCFSA)

Carnegie Mellon allows full-time benefits-eligible faculty and staff to put aside money from their pay on a pre-tax basis, to cover anticipated expenses for health care. This will save you 25% or more on the money you set aside - pay for $100 worth of expenses for the equivalent of only $75 after-tax dollars (depending on your federal tax rate).

Contributing to a HCFSA 

• Up to $5,000/year. (Minimum contribution is $60/year.)
• Contributions will be deducted in equal amounts each pay period. You may contribute over 12 months or 9 months (required for those paid over 9 months; no contributions Jun-Aug)
• Participation in our insurance plans is not required to participate in the HCFSA.
• Use in conjunction with the HRA that is part of the High Deductible PPO plan.  You should use your HCFSA funds before your HRA funds, since they do not carry over as HRA funds do.

HCFSA Debit Cards

See the Submitting Claims (as of 1/1/10) page for detailed information about Ceridian's HCFSA Debit MasterCard.

Ceridian provides a pre-loaded MasterCard Debit Card that you can use to pay for eligible HCFSA expenses.  This eliminates the need to pay for the expense up front and file a claim for reimbursement.  In many cases, it eliminates the need to provide supporting documentation as well.

For more information:

• Ceridian HCFSA Debit Cards FAQs (.pdf)
• Ceridian Extra Debit Card Request (.pdf)

Eligible Expenses

• Qualified medical expenses not otherwise covered by medical, prescription, dental or vision insurance may be reimbursed.  Examples include: copays, coinsurance, and deductible expenses, over-the-counter medications, some procedures not covered by your insurance plan.
  • See Ceridian's Eligible Expenses for Health Care FSAs (.pdf) or the IRS publication Health Care Reimbursement IRS Publication #969 (.pdf).
    
  • The FSA Contribution Calculator can help you determine how much to contribute.
• Expenses incurred by you and your IRS-qualified dependents may be covered by the HCFSA.  (Note: the law only permits you to reimburse claims incurred by dependents listed for federal tax purposes. Most domestic partners do not meet the IRS dependent definition.)
• Expenses must be incurred during the plan year, while you are contributing.
  
  • If you initiate a reimbursement account mid-year, you can only use the contributions to reimburse you for expenses incurred AFTER you enrolled.
  • If you increase the amount of your contributions due to a life change, you can only use the additional contributions to reimburse you for expenses incurred AFTER the event.
  • If you stop contributing to the account, you can only use the funds to reimburse claims incurred during your participation.  To use HCFSA funds for expenses incurred AFTER your participation ends due to a loss of benefits-eligibility, you must enroll through COBRA. However, you will be using post-tax funds after your eligibility ends, and so will lose the tax advantages of the HCFSA from that time on.