DON'T FORFEIT YOUR FSA MONEY

Still have money to spend from your 2022 health care flexible spending account? Here are some ideas to use it up.

- LISA GERSTNER

Flexible spending accounts, or FSAs, allow employees of companies that offer the accounts to set aside pretax money from their paychecks for out-of-pocket health care or dependent care expenses. A little less than one-fourth of FSAs require accountholders to spend all the money by the end of the plan year, forfeiting their funds if they miss the deadline, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute. The rest offer some wiggle room, with 42% of FSAs permitting employees to roll over a certain amount of unused funds to the following plan year and 36% offering a grace period of 2.5 months to use up the money.

For FSA plan years that ended December 31, 2022, and have a grace period, you have until March 15, 2023, to spend the funds. And depending on your plan, you may have until March 31 to file claims for reimbursement of eligible purchases that you made before your FSA's spending deadline.

Spending down your FSA. If your health care FSA has a grace period and you still have 2022 dollars to spend, review your options among qualifying purchases. Health-insurance co-payments and deductibles and prescription drugs are common ways to spend FSA money.

But many other products qualify, too.

"FSA eligibility is much broader than most people realize," says Rachel Rouleau, chief compliance officer at Health-E Commerce, the parent brand of FSA Store (www.fsastore.com), a seller of FSA-qualifying products. "FSA Store estimates that the average household spends $1,600 a year on everyday health products that are FSA-eligible."