Shipping- reimbursable expense?

[Guest rachd]

We have an employee who turned in a receipt for a bunch of prescriptions that included shipping charges. Can we reimburse this shipping charge along with the prescriptions as a medical expense? Does anyone have any documentation saying one way or the other? Thanks for your help!

Rachel

[Sandra Pearce]

No documentation to provide other than the fact that a medical spending account reimburses participants for the cost of services and supplies which are used to treat or relieve a medical condition. I would not reimburse tax or shipping.

[Guest Compliance questioner]

No documentation, but Harry Beker of the IRS Office of Chief Counsel stated at a 1997 ECFC conference that tax is reimbursable under a health FSA to the extent that a tax is imposed on reimbursable medical care or products.

I believe that the same would apply for shipping, and I know this was discussed at another time, but I cannot find where.

In my opinion shipping would be allowed given that the expense is primarily for a medical purpose and would not have been incurred but for the medical condition. No documentation, just my interpretation of IRC Section 213.

[GBurns]

Included and not usually itemized on a receipt for a precription drug is a dispensing fee. Are you saying that you would want to exclude this also?

Shipping and delivery or Shipping and Handling are the same as the dispensing fee (a charge imposed for handling etc) and are a component of the cost of the item prescribed and for which the expense was incurred. It also is a cost incurred for the treatment, cure and mitigation etc etc. Nothing says that the item has to be anything specific.

[Sandra Pearce]

A dispensing fee is part of the prescription cost when you go to the corner drugstore to purchase a prescription. I would reimburse.