Benefits - New Employees - Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs)
Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) are accounts you can set up with pre-tax dollars for reimbursement of eligible medical and/or dependent care expenses. FSAs are similar to Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and Health Reimbursement Accounts (HRAs) but are
not connected to specific health plans. You must be eligible to enroll in a Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) plan to be eligible for an FSA. (Certain temporary, intermittent and seasonal employees, if working a full time schedule, are eligible
for FEHB and also for an FSA.)
As a new employee, you have 60 days from the effective date found on your hire/confirmation letter (not necessarily your first day at work) to enroll in an FSA; however, you must enroll no later than October 1 of any plan year. If you are hired on or
after October 1, you cannot participate for the current plan year. You can elect an FSA for the next plan year during the Benefits Open Season, which begins in November. If you are hired after the Benefits Open Season ends in mid-December, you can
still make an election for the next plan year. Elections made are valid for the entire plan year. If you experience a Qualified Status Change, you may be permitted to change your FSA election outside of Open Season.
There are three types of FSAs available:
- Health Care FSA (HCFSA)
- Dependent Care FSA (DCFSA)
- Limited Expense Health Care FSA (LEX HCFSA)
You should be conservative when estimating how much money to allocate to an FSA. You are only permitted to carry over up to $500 for the following year if you do not spend all of the allocated funds in your Health Care FSA or your Limited Expense Health
Care FSA during the current year.
The DCFSA includes a "grace period" from January 1 to March 15 of the following year. You may continue to incur eligible expenses and be reimbursed for them during the grace period. You will forfeit any money in your DCFSA not claimed by midnight Eastern
Standard Time (EST) on April 30 following the end of the benefit period.
You can enroll in the Flexible Spending Account Program on the FSAFEDS website or by calling 1-877-372-3337.