The HSHS benefit plan offers two flexible spending accounts:

• Health Care FSA
• Dependent Care FSA

FSAs are like a sale. Money you set aside in the accounts is taken off the top of your pay before taxes are withheld. You contribute to the account(s) with pre-tax dollars deducted from your paycheck. This lowers your taxable income, and you don’t pay taxes on the money you use from your account(s). When you enroll, you decide how much to set aside in your account(s) during the 2025 calendar year for:

• Health care expenses for services you or your dependents receive between January 1, 2025, and March 15, 2026.
• Dependent day care expenses for services you receive between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2025.

When you have an eligible expense, you file a claim to reimburse yourself from your account. For the Dependent Care FSA, it’s important to compare the tax savings you might have under the FSA to what you might save using the federal dependent day care tax credit.

• The minimum contribution amount is $5 per biweekly pay period.
• The maximum contribution for the dependent care (DCRA) FSA is $5,000 per year. If you file your federal income tax as “married filing separately,” the maximum amount that you may deposit into the dependent care FSA is $2,500 per year.
• The maximum contribution amount for the health care (HCRA) FSA is $3,300 for 2025.

Based on IRS regulations, you must use all the money in your Dependent Care FSA by December 31, 2025. For the Health Care FSA, HSHS offers a grace period that lets you use your 2025 FSA for expenses incurred up to March 15, 2026. Keep in mind that these time limits apply based on the date of service, not the date billed. For both accounts, you have until May 1, 2026, to claim reimbursement. If you do not, the money left in your account(s) is forfeited.

The HealthEquity Visa Health Account card works like a debit card for eligible health care FSA expenses. Use it to pay for eligible expenses at the pharmacy, including OptumRx for maintenance medications, hospital or your doctor or other health care provider’s office. Through the card, you access money you have elected to set aside each pay period in your health care FSA. 

When you pay for eligible health care expenses with this card, you do not have to use your own money up front and then wait for reimbursement. The card also gives you the ability to purchase qualified over-the-counter items such as nicotine gum or patches that are not eligible for reimbursement through manual claim submission.

It’s important to keep all documentation related to each expense you have in case the documentation is requested by the IRS or HealthEquity s to substantiate your claims.  

Only use the debit card for expenses that have not and will not be paid by the HSHS Medical Plan, HSHS Dental Plan, and/or VSP Vision Plan by the option(s) in which you are enrolled.

The IRS requires proof that the expense was qualified for reimbursement through a health care FSA. Receipts/proof will be need to submitted to Health Equity. They will request documentation from you in order to substantiate your claim.
 

If you are leaving HSHS you may still submit claims for both the health care and/or the dependent care FSA.

Health Care FSA:

• Claims for services received through your employment end date are eligible for reimbursement.
• Qualifying health care claims must be filed with Health Equity by May 1 of the year following the plan year in which you contributed to the spending account.
• Your debit card will be automatically canceled on your employment end date.
• You will need to submit claims directly to Health Equity for reimbursement.

Dependent Care FSA:

• Claims may be submitted for dependent care expenses up to the amount in your account at your employment end date and must be incurred prior to your employment end date.
• Qualifying dependent care claims must be filed with Health Equity by May 1 of the year following the plan year in which you contributed to the spending account.
• If you did not have any qualifying dependent care expenses as of the day your employment ends, you are not eligible to file any claims for reimbursement per IRS regulations.