The new online store, which features medications and over-the-counter (OTC) products eligible for FSA reimbursement, automatically tracks the purchases and manages the substantiation process of FSA-eligible products utilizing a Motivano-issued SmartFlex card. More than one million employees nationwide whose benefit plans are administered by Motivanos partners and who participate in the FSA program can shop at the drugstore.com FSA store. When a cardholder shops online at the FSA store with their SmartFlex card, eligible and ineligible products are automatically separated and put into separate baskets during the check out process. FSA-eligible purchases are then automatically applied to the SmartFlex card, and customers are asked to provide another form of payment for ineligible products. All FSA-eligible products are tagged with an easily identified FSA icon, eliminating any confusion about which types of OTC purchases are eligible for reimbursement. Background on FSAs FSAs allow consumers to take pre-tax dollars from their paycheck and deposit those dollars in an FSA with their employer. Consumers then either submit receipts, or use an automated program like Motivanos SmartFlex card, to be reimbursed for health-related expenses up to a specific amount set by the employer under IRS regulations. FSAs are financially advantageous for consumers because pre-tax dollars are used to pay for health care-related expenses. For example, a person in a 33 percent tax bracket would save $660 in federal taxes if he received $2,000 in reimbursement through an FSA. Nearly 23 million Americans in the private sector have access to an FSA, according to the 1999 U.S. Department of Labor Employer National Compensation Survey. The value of FSA programs was greatly enhanced in September 2003 when the IRS added certain OTC medicines to the list of products eligible for coverage under FSA programs (IRS Revenue Ruling 2003-102). Under the new IRS regulations, OTC products are reimbursable if they are used to alleviate or treat personal injuries or sickness, and are generally accepted as falling within the categories of medicines or drugs.
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