5 Back-to-School Expenses You Can Cover with Your HSA or Health Care FSA
What do reading, writing, and arithmetic have to do with your reimbursement account? You may not know that you can use the funds you’ve been squirreling away in your Health Savings Account (HSA) or Health Care Flexible Spending Account (FSA) to cover some of the back-to-school expenses that hit all at once this time of year. To mitigate those costs, here are five things you can use your account to pay for:
- Vaccinations: Need to get up to date on immunizations before school starts? They’re eligible for reimbursement with an FSA or HSA. And when flu season follows, don’t forget you can also use your account for your annual flu shot.
- School and sports physical exams: You can take care of this standard checkup with the funds you’ve saved in your FSA or HSA. For children heading back to school or onto a sports field, these annual exams are necessary to assess their physical well-being, build their medical history and gather the necessary paperwork to ensure they’re up to date on state-required vaccines.
- Eye exams and corrective eyewear: Speaking of physicals, your child’s physician will likely check their eyesight during their physical. But should he or she need the services of an optometrist or ophthalmologist, you can also turn to your reimbursement account to cover the cost of both the eye exam and any corrective eyewear, including prescription glasses and contacts.
- Certain medical and orthopedic supplies*: With back-to-school germs and boo-boos (acquired both on playgrounds and sports fields) on the horizon, you’ll be happy to know that you can use your FSA or HSA to stock up ahead of time on things like bandages, children’s pain relievers, first-aid kits, lice treatments and thermometers. Likewise, certain orthopedic supplies for student athletes are also eligible for reimbursement, including ankle, knee and back braces/wraps, athletic tape and arch supports.
- Acne treatments*: The most common skin condition in the U.S., acne, is extremely prevalent in pre-teens and teenagers especially. Eighty-five percent of people ages 12 to 24 experience at least mild acne. Acne is considered a disease, so the cost of treating it, whether with OTC meds, topical prescriptions, antibiotics or other medicines, qualifies as an eligible expense for reimbursement accountholders.
Need to submit a request to be reimbursed for any of these expenses you've already paid for? Submit a claim for reimbursement on your Member Account or by using the Surency Flex mobile app. Just make sure you keep your receipts!
Not seeing what you need? View more eligible expenses by clicking here.
*Some items listed may require a prescription from your physician or a Letter of Medical Necessity to be considered eligible for reimbursement from an FSA or HSA.