Flyinhigh

Here is a little tidbit I stumbled across just before I retired. My wife needed some dental work done for 2012 so we put $1800 in the HCSA during open enrollment in 2011. They took $75 per pay period out of my check starting in January until I retired at the end of September. I wondered about the last $450 and how it would be deducted. Called the folks up and they said it would just be covered by other funds in the plan and I would not have to pay it. So, with open enrollment coming up, if you are thinking about hanging it up in 2014 and have anticipated medical expenses coming up, try this. The only down side to this is, if you don't use the funds, they are gone.

MaydayMark

So ... you're sort of bragging about the rest of us paying for your wife's dental work?

I wonder if I can get YOU to pay for my wife's face-lift and boob-job?

FDXLAG

Nope he is passing on important information on gaming the retirement system. It costs you nothing extra. You pay 100 a month in you get 1200 to spend if you can.

Adlerdriver

Kind of with Mayday on this one. The $450 he didn't have to pay in his post-retirement months had to come from somewhere ("other funds in the plan" ).

Sounds like the classic video of an Obama supporter talking about how he's going to pay for her gas & mortgage.
Obama Is Going To Pay For My Gas And Mortgage!!! - YouTube

"Where's the money going to come from, Ma'am?"
"I don't know..... I guess from President Obama!!!"

FDXLAG

Get back to me when you can tell me where the funds come, for all I know they come from people who don't use all of their money. If I want 1200 in my account I contribute 100 a month. If I want 0 I contribute 0. Not so with Obama phones.

Perhaps it is a benefit that Alpa negotiated for us, might as well use it.

4A2B

I think what we have here is a failure to communicate. The HCSA election is all "fronted" on January 1 yet the actual money from the pilot is collected monthly. So if you elect say 1200 and spend 1200 in January then retire Feb 1 you would only have paid 100 out of the 1200 you spent. The remaining 1100 is apparently not "recovered" from the retiree. Probably will be now! and I hope it is, does seem like a loophole that the Company just writes off rather than worry about collecting,

Adlerdriver

Well, it's clear the funds aren't coming from the guy spending them. I guess I sort of see that as a problem, regardless of their source. There's no free lunch.

Someone maxing out their HCSA for the year knowing they're going to retire in Feb should raise some eyebrows. The OP didn't know and a little slack here and there isn't a big deal. I don't see this as a situation to be exploited.

Really?

TonyC

The only thing that is clear is that he doesn't know where the funds are coming from. I can't imagine our employer giving him something free and clear -- I would bet my own HCSA that the balance of his obligation to the account was deducted from other payments due him, and he just hasn't figured it out yet.


The nice thing about the benefit -- one to which we all have access -- is that it is fully funded on Jan 1, but our contributions are spread out over the course of the year, and the dollars spent are pre-tax dollars.






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Flyinhigh

I was just passing along a fact that I learned about the HCSA system. Maybe it would help some one else. The individual that I talked with said there are thousands of dollars that go unclaimed in the fund every year. They have no way of knowing when you are going to retire so it is a cost built in to the system. He said it happens every year and they don't look at it as a big deal. Of course, in typical APC fashion, the poo flinging starts less than an hour after my post.
For the guys that want to share information, maybe this will help you out. For the guys who want to pass judgement: well, it is what it is!!

TonyC

Unspent HCSA funds is a different issue than that which you presented in your first post. When an individual does not spend all of the money set aside in the HCSA, he defaults on that money. I would imagine that the defaulted money is what is used to offset the cost of "loaning" money up front to indivuduals who use the money at a faster rate than their contributions. In other words, if you spend $1,800 on January 1st but don't contribute that amount until December 1st, somebody has to pay for the "loan." If the servicing company couldn't make a profit in total by keeping the defaulted funds, they would have no incentive to be in the business of administering the funds.

Of course, the defaulted funds are income that the individual doesn't pay taxes on, but it's also money which he doesn't get to keep when it's not spent. That's silly, really, as the money can be used to buy aspirin and bandaids. If it gets to the end of the year, take a trip to Walgreens and stock up.


What you claimed in your first post is that you did not have to contribute $1,800 in order to get the $1,800 benefit. I'll bet that if you look more carefully, you'll find that the "missing" $450 was deducted from another check or bucket of money which you have received or will receive in retirement.






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