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Flexible Spending Account
and Health Savings Account
HSA
Health Savings Account
FSA
Flexible Spending Account
Available only if you choose Medical Option 1
Available for either Medical Option
1. You put money in through payroll deduction.
Minimum of $5 per check ($130 per year)
Maximum of $6,750 per year if you have
family coverage or $3,400 if you have sin-
gle coverage.
Employees over the age of 55 can contrib-
ute an extra $1,000 per year.
1. You put money in through payroll deduction.
Maximum of $2,600 per year total con-
tributions.
2. The account builds as you put money into it each
paycheck.
2 The full amount for the year is made available at
the beginning of the plan year.
3. When you have a qualified expense, you use your
Health Equity VISA to pay for it on the spot (up to
the amount you have available in the account), or you
can be reimbursed later.
If you have an expense before you have
enough money in the account, you can pay
that expense out of your regular funds and
then be reimbursed later, after you have
accumulated the money in the HSA.
You can use the money for medical
(prescriptions, doctor visits, hospital fees),
dental, or vision expenses. See IRS Pub
502 for details.
3.When you have a qualified expense, you use
your FSA debit card or you can complete a form
and be reimbursed later.
The money is available up front, so it
doesn’t matter if it has already been
deducted or not.
You can use the money for medical
(prescriptions, doctor visits, hospital
fees), dental, or vision expenses. See
IRS Pub 502 for details.
4. If you don’t use all of the money you’ve allocated
to this year, it just rolls over to the next year and
keeps growing.
4. If you don’t use all of the money you’ve allocat-
ed to this year, it is lost. There is a two and a half
month grace period to try to prevent this.
HOW YOU CAN SAVE MONEY WHILE SAVING MONEY:
Example 1:
if income taxes usually take about 15% of your paycheck, and you decide to put $25 per check into the FSA or HSA,
your net pay will only change by about $21. But the full $25 still ends up in your account! So, over the course of the year, there's
actually an extra $97.50 ($3.75 x 26 checks) in that account which has been rescued from the IRS and is now available for you to
use for qualified healthcare expenses.
Example 2:
if income taxes usually take about 15% of your paycheck, and you decide to put $60 per check into the FSA or HSA,
your net pay will only change by about $51. But the full $60 still ends up in your account! So, over the course of the year, there's
actually an extra $234 ($9 x 26 checks) in that account which has been rescued from the IRS and is now available for you to use
for qualified healthcare expenses.
Example 3:
if income taxes usually take about 15% of your paycheck, and you decide to put $100 per check into the FSA or
HSA, your net pay will only change by about $85. But the full $100 still ends up in your account! So, over the course of the year,
there's actually an extra $390 ($15 x 26 checks) in that account which has been rescued from the IRS and is now available for you
to use for qualified healthcare expenses.