Medication review
Also consider cleaning out your medicine cabinet, says Turney."Throw out expired medications and replace them," he says. "Look at maintenance medication. Many people now get prescriptions in three-month supplies." If you're able to refill those multimonth orders now (or by March 15), you can be reimbursed from FSA money.
In 2011, however, a former FSA benefit got less beneficial.
Previously, you could use FSA money to pay for over-the-counter medicines. That's still possible, but now a health care reform law provision requires that you get a doctor's prescription for over-the-counter treatments before you can file the expense as an FSA claim.
Overlooked FSA expenses
Some other expenses you might not have considered -- but that are usually allowed under FSA plans -- are first-aid kits, blood-pressure monitors, thermometers, and neck, wrist or other joint braces.Check your store receipts when you buy medically oriented items. Many retailers include notations as to which purchases are FSA-eligible. You also should check with your benefits manager before you buy an item if you have any questions about its FSA eligibility.
And don't forget about the cost of getting to medical offices, says Turney. The tax code rules on medical mileage reimbursement apply to FSAs, too.
Allowable transportation costs include not only mileage or actual car expenses for travel primarily for and essential to medical care (you must use one travel reimbursement calculation method), but also bus, taxi, train or plane fare, or ambulance service and parking fees and tolls.
Just be sure you don't also count your travel costs as itemized medical deductions on Schedule A. Your FSA money is not taxed, and the IRS frowns on such tax-deduction double-dipping.
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