special circumstances health care

[Guest blaird]

There is an employee of my company who has a speech impediment. He may go into a sort of marketing role (working at tradeshows)in the future (he is an engineer). The president has told him that we will pay for him to have speech therapy. My concern is that this may be preferencial treatment and we may face problems in the future if someone wants us to pay for similar treatment. The only other what-if scenarios I can think of would be physical therapy or paying for hearing aids. The question is- should we offer to pay for this person's speech therapy? Thank you for any help on this.

[Guest]

I think you run the risk of every body else asking for this treatment. I don't think speech therapy for someone who already has speech is a section 213 deductible medical expense, so it will be taxable. But there's no reason you can't say no to anyone else who requests it since it shouldn't be paid under your medical plan.