With the year coming to a close and with the holidays approaching, it is the perfect time of year to give yourself and your family the gift of health for the New Year by checking your flexible spending account (or FSA) and taking advantage of important medical services. While many patients are aware when they meet their deductible, some do not understand that, in most cases, services such as allergy testing and allergy vaccines and shots are covered by insurance if a patient has met their deductible.

Understanding Your Flexible Spending Account

A Flexible Spending Account is a plan that allows you to utilize pre-tax dollars in order to pay for eligible medical expenses for you, your spouse, and other eligible dependents. If you have one of these plans through your employer’s health plan, it is important you take action and take advantage of these before the end of the year since they expire if they are not used.

Understanding What Expenses are Covered by FSAs

Flexible spending accounts can only reimburse expenses as defined by the Internal Revenue Service. Eligible expenses include any deductibles that you pay throughout the year and out of pocket expenses paid for prescription drugs and doctor’s visits. Expenses must incur during the plan year they are reimbursed from the account. To qualify for FSA reimbursement, allergy and sinus medications, must be prescribed by your doctor.

For this reason, people who suffer from sinus problems or allergy related issues should seek help from Center for Allergy and Asthma of Georgia right away. Our team can help you beat allergies and asthma before the next year even starts! The sooner you begin treatment, the more likely you can be symptom-free by Spring!

Have you met your deductible? Need to use your Flexible Spending Account before the end of the year? Schedule an appointment now and see your Allergy provider before the end of 2016!