Flexible Spending Account (FSA) - Employers

• Healthcare Flexible Spending Accounts allow your employees to set aside pre-tax funds on an annual basis to pay qualified healthcare expenses such as medical, dental and vision expenses not covered by an insurance plan.
• Dependent Care Reimbursement Accounts allow your employees to set aside pre-tax funds to pay qualified dependent care expenses, such as child care, elder care, etc.
• Transportation and Parking Reimbursement Accounts allow your employees to set aside pre-tax dollars to pay work-related parking, transit passes and van pooling. The employee will designate an amount to be deducted from their gross income prior to Federal, state and FICA calculations.

Advantages of an FSA
FSAs are an important benefit to an employer as well as their employees because an employer’s total payroll will be reduced by the amount set aside by employees in an FSA. A smaller total payroll will allow an employer to save significantly on matching FICA tax contributions. In addition, FSAs are popular with employees because they are able to reduce their taxable income.

Accessing FSA Funds
Employees can access their FSA dollars in several ways:

• Self-reimbursement or manual submittals are available. Employees will be required to provide a copy of their Explanation of Benefits or copies of their receipts for prescriptions or non-covered health-related expenses with their submittal.
• An employee may also access funds by auto-reimbursement of any Blue Cross and Blue Shield company submitted claim. This process is determined by your employer-based specific plan.
• The Blue Healthcare Bank debit card enables employees to access FSA funds at any point of services (providers or merchants) that accept debit card payments for qualified expenses. This option is determined by your employer-based specific plan.