It's so easy

At the end of 2008, our insurance company started issuing flexible spending cards for use when making FSA eligible payments. It was a wonderful concept, I thought, letting us actually use the money in there directly, instead of making the payment, waiting for the claim to post, and eventually requesting a refund. I have found a couple of flaws in the past year.

First, they don't easily tie together stuff you have done through the card, and other things you did, which are available for a refund. I spent hours a month or two ago trying to reconcile claims to posts on the FSA card, to see what could be posted for a refund. I think I got it, they didn't complain about it after, I might have missed one or two, but I am not going back to get it fixed at this point.

Second, they keep somehow deciding that purchases throught he card might not be eligible for a refund. I'm not sure their critieria always is. I've gotten 4 or 5 of these letters in 2009. They want you to substantiate the card transactions... Earlier in year, they complained about something that was paid at my Doctor's office. I convinced them of the error of their ways. Today I got another letter for a post at a pharmacy. Isn't anything at a pharmacy FSA eligible?

I called up there this afternoon to talk to them about this letter. The lady looked at the notice, and explained that they wanted a verification that the thing was FSA eligible. I explained it was for a prescription, she went and looked at the claim, which showed that I should have charged $26.52 in eligible expenses to the card. I told her that was the amount the letter was complaining about. She had no explaination. No reason for the letter to be sent, but I still have to 'substantiate' the purchase. She couldn't do it for me, I had to return the letter with the documentation. She printed out the information that substatiates the purchase, and is dropping it in the mail down to me. Tomorrow or the next day, I have to take that letter out of the mail, stick it in the envelope with this letter, and mail it back up there. I love IRS regulations...

I asked the lady how much of the 2009 money was left. (We can use it up to March 15th, or something like that.) There's $69.72 in there. Should be pretty easy to use it up in two months, but I wonder what the letter will say when I accidentally post $69.73 to the account...