Health Care Flexible Spending Accounts

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 health care expenses for themselves or eligible dependents. Contributing to a Health Care Flexible Spending Account (HCFSA) saves you 25% or more on the money you set aside, depending on your federal tax rate.

Contributing to a HCFSA 

• You may contribute up to $2,500/year. (Minimum contribution is $60/year.)
• Contributions will be deducted in equal amounts each pay period. You may contribute over 12 months or nine months (required for those paid over nine 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 page for detailed information about the FSA debit card. The carrier provides a pre-loaded 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.

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 and some procedures not covered by your insurance plan.
  • See the FSA Qualifying Expenses [pdf] and 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.