Flexible Spending Account (FSA) and Health Savings Accounts (HSA) are both accounts that allow you to save and spend pre-tax money on healthcare costs.
In order to contribute to an HSA, you must have a high-deductible plan. With an HSA, there is an annual maximum you can contribute to the account, but any money you contribute to your account is yours to spend on healthcare costs at any point in the future. Additionally, you can only spend money that has already been contributed to the account.
On the other hand, an FSA has a lower annual maximum, but unused funds may or may not roll over from year to year, depending on how your employer has set up the plan. A big benefit of an FSA account is that you can spend the total amount for the year at any point in time, whether or not you have contributed that amount yet. Additionally, as long as your employer has established an FSA, you do not need a specific type of insurance plan (like a high deductible) to participate.
Yes! LASIK is considered a cosmetic or elective procedure, making it an ideal procedure to use the funds in your FSA or HSA, which could amount to a 20-30% discount. Read more about using one of these accounts to pay for your procedure on our blog.
