Employees with flexible savings accounts will be given an additional 2.5 months to use the funds, according to a rule finalized by the Treasury Department Wednesday. [@@]
Health insurance and benefits industry lobbyists had been pushing the agency for some time to allow employees to roll over the funds indefinitely.
The existing regulation says employees must use the money deposited in FSAs during the calendar year in which the money is deposited or lose it at the end of the year. FSAs allow workers to use pre-tax dollars for medical expenses.
A staff official at America's Health Insurance Plans says the trade group supported the change and has been lobbying the agency for some time to change the rule to allow workers to completely roll over their funds in the accounts from year to year.
People with health savings accounts already have that authority, the AHIP official noted.
