Medical Flexible Spending Accounts

[Guest apribe]

I am looking for survey information or information from TPA's on where participants are spending their Medical Flex Spending Account dollars. For example - of an annual election, XX% is spent on dental expenses, XX% spent on medical expenses and XX% spent on vision expenses, etc. If there is anything out there that breaks it down further by co-pays/co-insurance vs uncovered items, supplies, etc - I would be interested in that as well? THANKS MUCH!

[SLuskin]

We see many differences by age category and by income level. For example, some of the higher paid (not necessarily highly comp) employees are doing things like lasik surgery, and using up their whole annual election in 10 minutes. We also see the participants with the $$ doing some of the more expensive dental restorative procedures. We have lots of orthodontia.

If I had to choose one category with the highest number of participants, but not the highest number of dollars, I would say that for my company it is prescription copays. We are seeing recently alot of "non-formulary" brand name, highly advertised prescriptions at much higher copays than the generics or the formulary brand name drugs.

Hope this helps.

[Jbentz]

I think your answers are going to depend on the plans that are offered to the covered employees. Copays, deductibles, etc... are going to make a huge impact. The dental and eye plans are also going to affect your findings, along with lasik, ortho, etc.... I agree with apribe about the higher comped do the extras and i would add that it also depends on how educated the employees are about the plan and what they can get reimbursed for. For instance, our rep told us during OE that we could get massages reimbursed if they were certified and our doctor had recommended it. Of course, those of us with back problems increased our amounts.