HR News – November 18, 2009

Only 1 day left to:

• Begin or re-enroll in a Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
• Begin a vision plan
• Add or drop eligible family members
• Add, drop or switch medical plans
• Add, drop or switch dental plans

Flexible Spending Account (FSA)

• Q. When will the deduction for the FSA be taken out of my pay?
• A. Your annual election (up to $5000 for dependent care and $7000 for un-reimbursed medical

expenses) for the FSA is divided by 12 and deducted from your paycheck every month.  For

biweekly paid staff the deduction is taken in the second payroll each month.

All participants’ in the medical FSA will have their accounts pre-loaded with the full amount that they have elected to use.  Under IRS law, medical expenses are reimbursable even if the employee does not have sufficient amounts withheld from their paycheck to cover the expense.

• Q. How does the FSA Consumer Card Work?
• A. Your entire annual election amount for health related expenses will be credited to your FSA at

the beginning of the year.  When you incur an eligible expense at a pharmacy or doctors office

that accepts the Visa card, you simply swipe your card and the expense is paid by debiting your  card (similar to an ATM transaction).  A record of the transaction is made at United; you do not have to submit any paperwork for reimbursement.  United Healthcare will reimburse for eligible health expenses as the expense is incurred, even if the funds have not been deducted from your salary.

Dependent care can only be reimbursed when there are sufficient funds in your account to cover the cost and they are not available through the Consumer Card program.

• Q. Do I have to use the Consumer Card?
• A. No.  There are three ways to be reimbursed for eligible expenses: consumer credit card, automatically by check or by paper submission.

Consumer Credit Card. The consumer credit card, which looks like a credit card but functions like a debit card, allows you to pay eligible expenses when you receive the product or service.  The card can be used in pharmacies and retail stores, as well as doctor’s offices, as long as the provider is an in-network, registered participant.  The credit card must be activated prior to use, but participants are not required to use the card.

Automatic Reimbursement. All FSA accounts have been set up with a feature whereby you are automatically reimbursed by check for eligible expenses as they are incurred.  With this feature, you do not have to take any action – United will automatically send you a reimbursement check.  Like the credit card, you are not required to use this feature; however, if you do not want the feature you must disable it through United’s website (www.myuhc.com).

Paper Submission. If you prefer, you can also mail receipts and be reimbursed by check. For a copy of the form to submit to United Healthcare, please go to HR’s Intranet website, click on documents and forms and then FSA.

• Q. What time period will the FSA cover?
• A. Expenses can be incurred between January 1, 2010 and March 15, 2011.  All expenses must be submitted no later than June 15, 2011 for reimbursement.

Important Reminder:

• Changes made during Open Enrollment become effective January 1, 2010.
• All of your current benefit elections, except flexible spending accounts, will automatically roll over into 2010 unless you complete paperwork to effect a change.
• You must re-enroll in the flexible spending account programs every year.
• By IRS law, your benefit elections must remain in place for one-year unless there is a change in

family status, such as the birth of a child or a marriage.