Wife had a costly surgery in October. I called the hospital to pay the bill in December to use my FSA card before the end of the year. They said it had not made it to billing yet so no way to pay.
I called the FSA company and they said no problem you have until March 31st before you loose the 2020 money.
Bill comes on February 1st so I pay it right away using the FSA card. Provide the receipt as required.
They deny the receipt because the service was provided in 2020 and the card was used in 2021. So I call and say I was told it would not be a problem as long as it was before March 31st.
She says that only counts if you pay cash and request a reimbursement. Any charge on the card in 2021 is 2021 money.
Then the card should have been declined because we only signed up for $10 in 2021 because we are part of a medical reimbursement plan this year so we will have no out actual out of pocket expenses.
She says well you can just submit 2021 receipts to make up the money that was charged.
I said no I can’t because on my Medical Reimbursement account for 2021 it specifically says monies cannot be reimbursed and payed out from an FSA.
The lady was not helpful at all. I asked for a supervisor and she said she was the supervisor.
I said then I’ll take whoever your supervisor is.
They are supposed to call me tomorrow.

I am tempted to have the hospital refund the card and pay cash. Then submit the reimbursement through the FSA. But I foresee that getting goofed up somehow.
Hopefully the supervisor will just be able to manually accept the receipt.

Yep. That’s super aggravating. I had a FSA card once and I used it at my eye doctor. Say the company name was something like of Ophthalmologist Group of the Mid South....got a notification...sir you need to explain this charge at the Ophthalmologist Group or your card will be cancelled. Umm it was an eye exam, I wasn’t buying freaking tires!! Since then I now use a HSA and it’s amazing and nobody has ever asked me to explain myself, even buying OTC meds at the grocery store.

I had a FSA for 2 years and thought it was the dumbest thing with the way you had to rush to spend the money before you lost it at the end of the year. My employer switched to an HSA which I like FAR better, none of the “use it or lose it” silliness. Whatever you don’t use just rolls over to the next year and I like how I can buy things like vitamins and OTC meds as well as use it for prescriptions and doctors visits.

Yep. HSA is where it's at. I've had the option of an FSA for years, but I hate the use-it-or-lose-it concept behind those accounts, so I've never opted to pursue one. The HSA has it's drawbacks, too, but it at least allows you to make long-term financial decisions with your money. Since obamacare has pretty much destroyed the ability to have a decent PPO plan, they're pretty much a necessity to meet the huge deductibles of the currently available health plans.

Used to have an FSA at one place I worked.

I could never figure out how, with all the bureaucracy and rules, most of which had to do with making more likely that your deducted money would lapse rather than be useful, they got away with labeling it a 'Flexible Spending Account.'

Hope you can get some straight advice soon.

I always wondered who got the money once it *poofed* at the end of the year.

I still use one though, taking the max out every year. Unfortunately I’ve never had any money left over.

I think the HSAs require high deductible plans. I pay out the wazoo for a PPO plan still.

Mrs. Flash and I have high end PPO Medicare Supplement plans and they're really fairly inexpensive for what we get. No deductibles, no co pays, haven't paid out a dime of our own money to doctors, anesthesiologists or hospitals since we got them.

Had to buy our own lunch at the hospital, though, but they did give a senior discount.

quote:

Originally posted by chongosuerte:
I always wondered who got the money once it *poofed* at the end of the year.

Me, too. But there were a couple of times when I left the company early in the year and was able to spend up to the maximum of the year's amount I signed up for. So there is that.

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:
Mrs. Flash and I have high end PPO Medicare Supplement plans and they're really fairly inexpensive for what we get. No deductibles, no co pays, haven't paid out a dime of our own money to doctors, anesthesiologists or hospitals since we got them.

Had to buy our own lunch at the hospital, though, but they did give a senior discount.

Because high end means high premiums.
I've boned up on medicare supplements for the past year since my wife will enroll this year. We're going to go with a high-deductible Plan G. I save money on the premiums if we don't go enough to have to reach our deductible. But if we do, then at least, we're capped at that amount.

[quote]Because high end means high premiums.
I've boned up on medicare supplements for the past year since my wife will enroll this year. We're going to go with a high-deductible Plan G. I save money on the premiums if we don't go enough to have to reach our deductible. But if we do, then at least, we're capped at that amount.
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Unfortunately even though you have a high deductible there is A LOT of time involved in paying all the charges. You can expect your medical costs will increase as you age. Drug costs add up as well.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
....But I foresee that getting goofed up somehow.
Hopefully the supervisor will just be able to manually accept the receipt.

I'll be interested to hear what you learn when they call you back. I would think this is a pretty common occurrence.

If it's not worked out super quick, you might want to file for a reimbursement. I don't think there is flexibility in the March 31 cut off but there is certainly some way to prevent/correct a double payment.

Work was busy and missed the Supervisors call today. I am off Monday so I’ll call her back then.

Got an email at 3:26 am this morning telling me that me receipt and claim were now approved and accepted.
Never did get a chance talk to the supervisor. Though after I talked to the initial
Phone call I got one of those survey links of how did we do? I was polite but pretty scathing.
Noted that I had no control of the medical billing timeframe and I even called before 2021 and they just needed to accept claim.

quote:

Originally posted by chongosuerte:
I always wondered who got the money once it *poofed* at the end of the year.

It poofs back to your employer.

not sure wich one my wife has. But it isnt worth it to save tax. They have denied the same claim tice for a 1800 dental work. My wife is so frustrated.

Will never do it again after this year@!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:
Mrs. Flash and I have high end PPO Medicare Supplement plans and they're really fairly inexpensive for what we get. No deductibles, no co pays, haven't paid out a dime of our own money to doctors, anesthesiologists or hospitals since we got them.

Had to buy our own lunch at the hospital, though, but they did give a senior discount.

Because high end means high premiums.
I've boned up on medicare supplements for the past year since my wife will enroll this year. We're going to go with a high-deductible Plan G. I save money on the premiums if we don't go enough to have to reach our deductible. But if we do, then at least, we're capped at that amount.

We pay $475.75/month for both of us and I don't consider that to be high premium cost at all.

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:

Because high end means high premiums.
I've boned up on medicare supplements for the past year since my wife will enroll this year. We're going to go with a high-deductible Plan G. I save money on the premiums if we don't go enough to have to reach our deductible. But if we do, then at least, we're capped at that amount.

We pay $475.75/month for both of us and I don't consider that to be high premium cost at all.

It's all relative of course, so it's high premium compared to the other options.

I'm not trying to change your mind because with insurance, we're all buying peace of mind and that's a personal choice of how much we want to spend for it. But I went through the numbers for two reasons: 1) to show you and 2) someone can point out if I got something wrong with my understanding. Because, as I said, I've boned up for the past year preparing for my wife and if I'm not understanding correctly, better to know now to avoid any mistakes.

So I took your $475.75 for 2 people and just averaged it for one person which makes it $237.88. I'm assuming you're with Plan F as I heard that's most popular since it pays for everything. It's no longer available for new Medicare patients in 2020.

I looked at the Plan F rates for the first zip code in your area for a 66 year old male, non-smoker. I took the ratio of where $237.88 is on the standard Plan F range and applied it to the High Deductible premium range to get a comparable premium of $49.84. Where $238.75 falls on the standard premium range, it's the same spot where $49.84 falls on the high deductible premium range.

The annual difference in premiums between the two is $2,256. I would have to be in the hospital for 63 days before the standard plan would have been a better choice for me by $113. Looking at Part B, I would have to incur more than $10,930 of Part B Assigned Billing before the standard plan would have been a better choice for me financially also by $113.

That's what I meant by high premium and how I understand things so far. And, like I said, if anyone sees I'm not understanding anything correctly, please let me know because that's how I'm choosing between the Plan G and Plan G High Deductible plans.