Flexible Spending Account

[Guest Andrea Rose]

I have had a medical Flexible Spending Account with my company all year. So far I have had about $750 deducted from my checks.

My company was sold 3 months ago with the note that our Flex plan would be transferred to the new company which took over on July 1. Today I received an email saying the transition and transfer did not work so the Flex plan has ended and we would not be able to be reimbursed.

1. Is this legal? they have my money...don't they have to pay me back once I send bills in?

2. There was no pre-notification that this was ending and therefore bills had to be submitted before June 30.

I need some help. Do I have any recourse? This is a large national company. We were a subsidiary of Staples, Inc.

Thanks a lot.

Andrea Rose

[Lisa Hand]

You need to get out your copy of the SPD (summary plan description, you should have been given one, it is a requirement of these plans) and if you do not have one, request a copy of the plan documents (you are also entitled to copies of the plan docs). In the enrollment process, you should have been given information on the plan year and its close-out period. The close-out period is the time frame after the plan year in which participants may submit claims, it is usually 90-days from the end of the plan year. Which if the plan was terminated mid-year, would be 90-days from the date the plan was terminated. They should reimburse for valid expenses (up to your annual allocation, not just what was deposited into the acount) which were incurred during your period of participation. You should be able to submit valid claims and if they are denied, there should be an appeal process detailed in the SPD and the plan documents.