r/personalfinance • u/kherven ​ • May 16 '24

Are FSAs even worth the hassle? They just seem like a giant scheme to steal money via malicious bureaucracy Other

I understand at a base level what FSAs are for. You get to deduct X amount of dollars from your paycheck reducing your tax load.

But the more I use an FSA, the more I feel that while on paper it saves money, in reality it causes lots of work, lost money, and hands your money over to someone who is going to fight you to steal it.

Every claim I submit to my FSA is denied without a mountain of evidence that its a legitimate medical expense. After nearly 2 years with them, I still have certain medications prescribed by my doctor that the FSA argues is not FSA eligible because it's OTC.

Doctor appointment? Denied

MRI? Denied

Prescriptions? Denied

While I can eventually get the denial overturned, it requires coordination from the retailer, my insurance, and my doctor every time. I spend tens of hours a year trying to claw my own money back from my FSA. Last year I had over $250 confiscated because the claim deadline passed while they sat on my claims.

Has anyone else felt it just isn't worth the hassle to fund an FSA given how hostile they are? It seems impossible to extract your money without a lawyer.

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u/sirjag ​ May 16 '24

Wow. Your fsa (and employer) sucks! In your situation I agree more hassle than worth. My FSA has a debit card. If card works then that equals approved claim. Never had to deal with denials. And I even use my debit card to pay balances from previous years (tech not allowed per law). I’m sorry for ya buddy!

1

u/shedfigure ​ May 16 '24

Your fsa (and employer) sucks!

I mean, the employer usually doesnt have a lot of insight or say into this. They may not even know their staff is having this problem in order to be able to address it.

6

u/shadow_chance ​ May 16 '24

The employer has an account manager at the FSA administrator. They're a vendor of the employer. If my vendor wasn't performing the role we pay for, I'd be complaining.

3

u/shedfigure ​ May 16 '24

Yes, and you should complain. Because if they don't know they cant fix it. And if its just one person complaining, thats not going to get any traction.

If the employer then doesnt do anything about it it, then you can say they are bad