Reimbursement and Claims

Reimbursement is the part people get wrong, usually because they expect it to work like a card swipe. It does not. You pay with whatever card you like, you send documentation to your plan administrator, and the administrator pays the money out of your account back to you.

That direction matters. Money leaves the FSA, HSA, or HRA and lands in your bank account. Nothing gets added to the account and nothing is deducted from what you are owed.

What the administrator wants is boring and specific: an itemized receipt showing what was bought and when, and, for anything that is not obviously medical, a Letter of Medical Necessity dated before the purchase. Miss either one and the claim comes back.

These guides walk the whole path, including the awkward parts. Lost receipts. Claims that were kicked back for clarification. Purchases you made months ago and only now realized might qualify.