benefitsFOCUS: Open Enrollment Essentials – Flexible Spending Accounts & Why You Might Want One in 2024

Posted on by
Open Enrollment origami banner

Open Enrollment (November 1-15) starts next week! One of the benefits you can elect during Open Enrollment is a Flexible Spending Account, commonly referred to as an FSA. You must enroll annually if you want to have an FSA for the next plan year, and the only time you can do that is during Open Enrollment!

FSAs aren’t just a few random letters of the alphabet; they’re a way you can save pre-tax dollars to pay for eligible health and dependent care expenses! FSAs:

  • Lower your taxable salary (because your contributions are taken out pre-tax); and
  • Increase your buying power (because the funds are never taxed if you use them for eligible expenses).

About Our Healthcare FSAs

We offer two kinds of Healthcare FSAs:

  • Traditional: A Traditional Healthcare FSA can be used to pay for eligible out-of-pocket medical, dental and vision expenses (including many over-the-counter products!) and is available to anyone who is not on a High-Deductible Health Plan.
  • Limited-Purpose: A Limited-Purpose Healthcare FSA is only available to those on a High-Deductible Health Plan (like our Albemarle Choice plan) and can only be used for eligible dental and vision expenses.

Good stuff to know about Healthcare FSAs:

  • They’re pre-loaded at the start of the year. If you, for example, elect to contribute $500 over the course of the year, you actually have all $500 available to use as of January 1.
  • They come with a convenient debit card.
  • They feature a $610 rollover from 2023 to 2024. (Note: The IRS has not yet issued maximum contribution or rollover amounts for 2024. As soon as we receive this information, we will provide an update and post the amounts on our Open Enrollment info page.)
  • Any balance in your account that exceeds the allowable rollover amount after the end of the plan year will be forfeited, so plan your election amount carefully to avoid this.

IMPORTANT: If you currently have an FSA and you do not enroll in one during the Open Enrollment window (November 1-15), any allowable rollover amount you have remaining from the 2023 plan year will be available to you next year, but you will not be eligible to make further contributions into the account.

We Also Offer a Dependent Care FSA!

A Dependent Care FSA provides tax-free reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses related to dependent care if:

  • Your dependent children under age 13 attend daycare, after-school care, or summer day camp; or
  • You provide care for a person of any age who you claim as a dependent on your federal income tax return and who is mentally or physically incapable of caring for themselves.

Note: You cannot use funds from a Dependent Care FSA to pay for healthcare expenses. Please be sure to elect the correct type of FSA account for your situation!

Learn More

Want to learn more about FSA options? Check out our Flexible Spending Accounts info page or our Open Enrollment info page! REMEMBER: If you want to contribute to an FSA next year, you must enroll during Open Enrollment this November 1-15 by logging in to your ADP account and submitting your enrollment in the Open Enrollment module.

Need Help?

Whether you have a quick question or you’d like to schedule a virtual consultation with a member of our benefits team, we’re here to help! You can reach us by email at benefits@k12albemarle.org or give us a call at 434-296-5827.

For your convenience, here are links to previous articles in our Open Enrollment Essentials series: