For those interested in knowing if you can use your Flexible Spending Account (FSA) and Health Savings Account (HSA) for LASIK surgery, the good news is that you can!
First thing first: what are an FSA and HSA?
An FSA account provides you with the opportunity of setting aside pre-tax dollars that come from your paycheck to pay for eligible out-of-pocket expenses. By deciding the amount you want to contribute, you can manage your savings over the year.
This is a great deduction system because it allows you to use the contribution even if you have not completed the whole year; however, the contribution has to be used within the 12 months to avoid the risk of losing your balance, something that can be discussed with your FSA provider.
On the other side, but very similar, an HSA is a tax-advantage bank account that enables you to save pre-tax dollars by making a deduction directly from the payroll before you can use these for eligible expenses. To use these funds for out-of-pocket healthcare costs, you have to be registered in a high-deductible health care policy. It differs from the FSA because you do not lose your savings if you do not use them.
While you can use your HSA funds whenever you want to cover the full procedure, with FSA, you may want to plan ahead and use a different strategy because you probably will not be able to cover the complete surgery with these funds, only covering a part of it. Some FSA providers offer a “grace period” that combines the funds of a year with up to 2.5 months’ worth of funds for the next year, helping you to cover the costs of LASIK.
With either FSA or HSA accounts, you can pay a significant amount of your LASIK procedure pre-tax. If you are considering LASIK eye surgery, schedule a free consultation with our doctors to discover your options.
