Advocate Health Care
Benefits
Flexible Spending Accounts

 
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Account Rules
When your flexible spending account participation changes or ends
You won't be eligible to deposit money into your flexible spending accounts based on any of the following events:

The last day of the month in which your employment with Advocate ends or you lose eligibility because you change to a benefits status that isn't eligible to participate in the flexible spending account benefit. Your pre-tax deposits to the flexible spending accounts end with your last paycheck from Advocate. You may continue to submit claims for eligible expenses which were incurred before the last day of the month in which your employment ends or benefit status changes.

If you choose to continue your health benefits through health care continuation coverage, you may continue to fund your Health Care FSA with after-tax dollars to extend your participation. You would then continue to submit claims to the Flexible Spending Accounts Administrator for reimbursements. You cannot continue to fund your Dependent Day Care FSA after you leave Advocate—even if you extend your health care coverage through health care continuation coverage.

IRS rules and guidelines
There are a few other IRS and governmental guidelines of which you should be aware:

The money in your Health Care FSA must remain separate from your Dependent Day Care FSA. This means that you may not use dollars from your Health Care FSA to pay for dependent day care expenses, or dollars in your Dependent Day Care FSA to pay for health care expenses.
The money in flexible spending accounts cannot be held in interest-bearing accounts.
You may not carry over dollars or an account balance in a flexible spending account from one calendar year to the next.

Since the IRS is essentially giving you a tax break by allowing you to use flexible spending accounts, it requires that you forfeit any money that is left in a flexible spending account each calendar year. You have until March 31 of the year following the year the expense was incurred to submit a flexible spending account claim to get reimbursed.

For more information
For answers to questions about general plan features or claims, contact the Flexible Spending Accounts Administrator, ADP — by phone at 1-800-654-6695 (7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday-Friday), or online at www.flexdirect.adp.com. See the Benefits Directory for an address and fax number for written correspondence.