Do you have one of those Medical Assurance plans for your

07/23/2010 | Bryan A. Swauger

[BoneHead]

Please post your experiences with your Flexible Benefit Provider.

[Bean Counter]

We got this notice several months ago. In addition, your FSA is now capped at $2500.

[WestwardHo]

What are the administrative costs of reimbursing you for aspirin?

[Bean Counter]

In addition, remember how on your Schedule “A”, you are responsible for the first 7% of medical expenses before you can begin deducting them on your taxes??

Thanks to Obamacare, you will now be responsible for the first 10% of your medical expenses before you can begin deducting them...yet another tax increase.

[Calm_Cool_and_Elected]

Our coverage changed as of Jan 1, 2010. Pre-2010, our copays were $10 or $20, etc. Now we pay 10% so had to take my daughter in for an office visit and they charge a $9.50 copay which I use my FSA card. I then get a notice that I must submit a receipt or the card will be turned off. This now happens practically every single time I use it because the system is programed for the $10-20 thing not odd amounts.

I spend an enormous amount of time doing the paperwork since I have a chronic illness and am constantly at the doctor office. I call the number and get a call center in India. Cannot understand the guy on the other end who keeps repeating to me that I must send in receipts. I ask for a supervisor but finally hang up because I cannot understand what he is saying.

[deport]

What are the administrative costs of reimbursing you for aspirin?

---

LOL.....

You can buy a 500 tablet bottle of 325 mg asprin at Walmart for less than $5.

[BoneHead]

Name the company....

That 2500 will be the limit next year. ours is 3500 this year.

[BoneHead]

I don't understand your question.

Are you suggesting that I should send in a reimbursement request for each little thing instead of grouping them together in larger requests?

[BoneHead]

Between insurance and FSA I don’t think we ever could accumulate more than the 7%. I’m sure we’ll never get to 10%.

[Bean Counter]

I’m sorry, I was not clear. The notice we got was for next year, ours is at $5000 this year.

[BoneHead]

Name the company.

They need to start getting public scrutiny, and maybe some ridicule.

So what you said is that when they get the electronic transaction from your doctors office they want a paper receipt too? PaperPushers!

[WestwardHo]

I’ve never heard of a Medical Assurance plan. Sounds great and reasonable for prescription drugs, etc. But, you said, “Aspirin.” Are you being reimbursed for individual items, or do you hit an over-the-counter limit and do a bulk reimbursement? Are you reimbursed for purchases that are unessential?
In my ignorance, I don’t see how your M.A plan can survive without a limit.
Here’s my judgement call, third party payment plans hide actually cost and encourage abuse.
Please take this response as a free exchange of ideas and not a personal attack.

[BoneHead]

What are the administrative costs of reimbursing you for aspirin?

LOL.....

You can buy a 500 tablet bottle of 325 mg asprin at Walmart for less than $5.

But I should still be able to claim the cost of the aspirin for reimbursement without having to get a prescription from my doctor for an over the counter medicine.

[Kieri]

We blow through our MSA by August on major medical bills — mostly our deductible — so I don’t bother with incidentals like ibuprofen, aspirin, decongestants, etc. My glasses need high index lenses so there’s a big chunk. Dental bills chew through the rest in a hurry. Putting the big ones through saves on the paperwork, too, since we can only submit four items at a time.

[DrC]

“But I should still be able to claim the cost of the aspirin for reimbursement without having to get a prescription from my doctor for an over the counter medicine.”

You’re missing the point. Your doctor can only write a prescription for a prescription medication etc. PPACA eliminated the ability to use such cards/plans for non-prescription medical items such as band-aids etc. I don’t know how much the government saves in tax expenditures, but this limitation was one of many nickel-and-dime revenue-raisers in the health reform bill.

[Calm_Cool_and_Elected]

They say the IRS needs documentation of receipts. I don't mind providing them but I never had to do that for co-pays when they were a standard amount, ie- $10, $20- but now that it isn't in $10 increments and possibly involves an amount less than a dollar, it triggers their system. Just like when I go to the pharmacy, my Rx are $5, $15, $35 copays. If I buy insulin needles for say $2.49 it sets off the system and asks for receipts.

I have asked my husband to provide me the name and number of someone in Human Resources at his company that I can get some answers from but he has yet to do that. He's been kind of busy and I'm trying to be patient.

[BoneHead]

Flexible Spending Account was truncated off the title of my post. I think that was necessary. Your response was thought full and measured.

The FSA Benefit is provided by my wife's employer. We can put pre-tax dollars to a limit this year of $3500. Currently to be reimbursed we have to provide the original receipt or Statement identifying our responsibility for whatever the medical bills are. These can be copays, deductibles, dental, Over the counter medicinals etc. And I can request reimbursement up to that $3500.

Each Company has specific lists of what they will or won't reimburse based on some regulation somewhere. Like you can't get reimbursed for a nose job. Unessential. I could document that for you later. And I expect trying to be reimbursed for $3500 worth of aspirin wouldn't be allowed either.

My main grouse is that next year they will require me to get a prescription from my doctor for even the aspirin that I currently don't need a prescription for reimbursement. What this then becomes another loss of my freedom and an added expense of another office visit to get the newly required over the counter prescription. Its just plain nuts.

[BoneHead]

We blow through our MSA by August on major medical bills — mostly our deductible —

I agree with you and mostly that is the case with us too. But if there is any money in the FBA account at the end of a year you loose it. Many young people don't even take advantage of a FBA if their company offers one.

On the other hand, With just a little record keeping you can take advantage of the benefit and reduce your taxable income by the amount to fund your FBA Account.

I have even put my reimbursement requests in a larger spreadsheet format and taped it to the printed form, and the company seems to be able to handle that.

Regards

[BoneHead]

You’re missing the point. Your doctor can only write a prescription for a prescription medication etc. PPACA eliminated the ability to use such cards/plans for non-prescription medical items such as band-aids etc. I don’t know how much the government saves in tax expenditures, but this limitation was one of many nickel-and-dime revenue-raisers in the health reform bill.

So DrC,
Your answer is that my Medical Assurance company rather than just telling me that OTC Medications are not covered in the FBA, are fabricating the requirement that I have to get some type of doctors orders for it? (See the italics in the article)

[BoneHead]

I keep a copy of everything I send to the Medical Assurance company that manages our FBA. Ostensibly for the IRS. Ah Human Resources (Talent Acquisition), Don't know how far you can trust them.

I want t clear up what I'm talking about when I say "Name the company". There are some number of these Medical assurance companies and they usually are contracted by your husbands employer to manage the program. The one my wife's district uses is in OK City and they are named in the first post. I think that when they begin making entirely asinine requirements of prescriptions for OTC drugs they should be ridiculed, pointed out, and roundly abused.

A patient wife is a good thing.

Regards