Vagaro FSA/HSA: What You Can Accept
Vagaro only allows FSA/HSA card acceptance for medically categorized businesses. Here is what salons, spas and studios can offer their clients instead.
5 minute read
TLDR;
Vagaro can take FSA and HSA cards, but only for some of its customers. Their support docs say you had to pick a medical category when you set up card processing: med spa, medical services and health practitioners, or chiropractic. Sign up as a salon, a spa, a yoga studio, a barbershop or a fitness business, which is most of Vagaro's base, and the cards aren't available to you.
The best HSA/FSA option for a business on Vagaro is Burst, because your category doesn't matter. Clients keep booking and paying in Vagaro exactly as they do now, on the same card. Burst writes the Letter of Medical Necessity with licensed clinicians and files the reimbursement claim, and their plan administrator pays the money out of their FSA, HSA, or HRA to them. You sign up yourself, you're live in 30 minutes, and it's $100 a month flat with no contract and never a percentage of your revenue.
Start at getburst.com/self-serve. For every platform side by side, see HSA/FSA and gym and studio software.
(Reading this as a client, not an owner? You can get a letter for your purchase directly from Burst.)
Can you accept FSA and HSA payments on Vagaro?
Only if your business is set up as a medical one. Vagaro's support docs are direct about it: to take FSA and HSA payments you had to select the med spa, medical services and health practitioners, or chiropractic category when you signed up for card processing. That category isn't a display setting. It's how your business is coded to the card networks, and the networks decide whether an FSA card gets approved.
So the answer splits Vagaro's customers nearly in half. A med spa, an aesthetics clinic or a chiropractor is probably fine. A hair salon, a nail studio, a day spa, a massage practice billing as wellness, a yoga studio, a personal trainer, a barbershop: not, and clicking around in Vagaro won't change it. Momence and Zenoti say the same thing in their own docs, so this is the category rule showing up in three places rather than a Vagaro problem.
Even where the cards do work, they only cover what the card can approve at the moment of purchase. A letter covers the rest, including the services and packages that make up most of a wellness business.
The three options for a Vagaro business
Take the card in Vagaro | Truemed or Flex | Burst | |
|---|---|---|---|
What it is | An HSA/FSA card run through Vagaro card processing | Card-rail HSA/FSA checkout, LMNs, partner marketplace | Letter and reimbursement platform, no checkout involvement |
Who files the reimbursement claim | Nobody; there's no claim and no letter | Nobody; the client is left to file | Burst files it for the client |
Whether you can use it | Only if you signed up under a medical category | Sales call, then checkout integration, typically weeks | Any category, self-serve in 30 minutes |
What it does to Vagaro | Nothing, and nothing works outside the medical categories | Adds their payment method to your stack | Nothing at all; Vagaro is untouched |
Your terms | Your normal processing rates | Not public; typically a rev share | $100/month flat, month to month, no contract, never a percentage |
Memberships and packages | Every renewal is a fresh card decision | Limited support | Your existing Vagaro billing, untouched |
Client protection | None | None advertised | Automatic refund if no letter is issued or the claim is denied |
How Burst works next to Vagaro
Burst doesn't connect to Vagaro and doesn't need to. Clients keep booking appointments, buying packages and renewing memberships in Vagaro, on the same card. You install nothing, you change no categories, and your front desk keeps the checkout it knows.
A client who wants to use their FSA, HSA, or HRA money answers a health questionnaire. A licensed clinician reviews it and, if it's appropriate, issues a Letter of Medical Necessity, usually the same day. Burst files the reimbursement claim with their plan administrator, and the administrator pays them out of their own account. Your revenue never routes through a third party and your Vagaro reporting doesn't change.
Pricing is published. $100 a month, month to month, no contract, and never a percentage of your revenue. Clients pay a $20 one-time letter fee, or you cover it. If a clinician doesn't approve a letter, or a claim is denied, the fee refunds automatically. Neither Truemed nor Flex advertises a comparable guarantee.
See how it works or go live now.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best HSA/FSA option for a business on Vagaro?
Burst is the best HSA/FSA option for a Vagaro business that isn't set up under a medical processing category, which is most of them. It needs nothing from Vagaro: no integration, no category change, no change to how clients pay. Setup is self-serve and takes about 30 minutes, it's $100 a month flat with no revenue share, and Burst files the reimbursement claim for the client. Truemed and Flex are the other names in the category, and with both the client is left to file the claim alone.
Why can't my salon or spa take FSA and HSA cards on Vagaro?
The card networks only approve those cards at businesses coded as medical, and Vagaro's docs say you had to choose one of those categories when you set up card processing. It isn't a setting inside your account and Vagaro can't override it for you.
Do I have to change my Vagaro business category to offer this?
No. That's the point of the letter route. Your category, your processing and your checkout stay exactly as they are.
Can clients use FSA or HSA money for memberships and packages?
Yes. Clients keep paying through your existing Vagaro billing on their normal card, nothing changes in your process at all, and Burst handles the letter and files the claim.
Can a client get a letter for a service they already paid for?
No. IRS rules require the letter to be dated on or before the purchase. That binds Burst, Truemed, Flex and everyone else equally.
What does it cost my business?
$100 a month, flat, month to month, no contract, and never a percentage of your revenue. The only other cost is the $20 one-time client letter fee, and you decide who pays it.
More in
