Take Advantage of Your FSA/HSA Now

As we near closer and closer to watching the ball drop in Times Square, the clock is also ticking on your Flex or Health Savings Account. While you chill the champagne and ready the noisemakers, we’ll let you know the best ways to take advantage of your FSA/HSA before time runs out on 2021 and you lose that moolah for good. 

Can I Use my FSA/HSA on CPAP?

Yes! Let those visions of Sugar Plums keep dancing in your head, because a CPAP (or APAP or BiPAP – click here to learn the difference) machine is an eligible expense as it is for the treatment of a medical condition, Sleep Apnea.  This means you can be reimbursed through a flexible spending account (FSA) or health savings account (HSA). 

However, it is worth noting that CPAP machine reimbursement is not eligible with a limited care flexible spending account (LCFSA) or a dependent care flexible spending account (DCFSA).

I Got a Bonus/Gold Mine Inheritance/Publisher’s Clearing House Check, Why Not Use That?

Well, first of all, congratulations! Second, this is a great question, and one that is based around the function of these accounts.

The deal is, these accounts both use pre-tax income for eligible medical expenses – the keyword here being: PRE-TAX. This means that your favorite uncle, Sam, hasn’t already taken his cut of your income, it’s 100% of your wage, ready to be spent on eligible medical expenses before the government has gotten their (sticky figgy pudding) fingers on your paycheck. 

Considering the price of some CPAP supplies, like machines and Sanitizers, this can quickly add up to major savings, which means using your FSA/HSA on CPAP can put some major cash back in your wallet.

What’s the Difference Between HSA and FSA?

Glad you asked. While both HSA and FSA allow you to use pre-tax income for certain medical expenses, there are actually some pretty big differences between the two. 

First, an FSA must be set up by your employer and therefore will not carry over should you land a new gig. An HSA, however, is owned by the individual (yep, that’s you!) and thus would carry over should you find a new employer or decide to finally open up your own bakery for dogs. 

And while there are a few other differences between these two “savings accounts,” the other main one concerns rollover funds. Contrary to its name, the Flexible Savings Account is actually…much less flexible than an HSA. 

Since your employer controls your FSA, they get to choose whether your funds can rollover into the next year and unfortunately the answer is generally, “no.” Should you have an HSA, you get to determine whether funds rollover, so why would you risk losing any funds at the end of the year? Yeah, you wouldn’t. 

ValuePenguin (no affiliation), has a nice visual breakdown of some of the other differences between HSA and FSA. 

I Still Have Questions. Can I Chat With Someone?

We love to chat! Feel free to call us at (866) 716-0748, email us at: sleeptight@cpaprx.com, or live chat with us right from the site. You can also join the conversation by following us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. 

Happy New Year from all of us at cpapRX!