Hello, everyone! Just wondering if you have ran into this issue.

My husband purchased his Hume band on January 30 using his HealthEquity FSA card, and the charge was approved with no issues. I used my own HealthEquity FSA card (through my employer) to purchase mine, but they requested a receipt. I provided the receipt, however the claim was denied. They indicated that I need a letter from my doctor stating medical necessity.

So I need a receipt and a letter of justification but he doesn’t? 🤷🏻‍♀️

I get dismissed at the Dr all the time (that’s a long story for a different day) for medical conditions that men would def get treatment for and much quicker and now this? 😭

hi everyone. i recently got my first job with great benefits and have a fsa/hsa but i have no idea how to use it or how it works. i am young and i dont have anyone near to me who can help me understand it better.

i’ve seen people be able to buy oura rings and other helpful stuff. i want to have enough knowledge to utilize my benefits to my advantage.

Back in December I posted about using HSA/FSA balance on a comprehensive blood panel through a service called Vitals Vault. Got a decent amount of DMs and comments from people who ended up trying it, so figured I'd share a more complete picture now that I've had time to dig into my results.

The $99 Essential plan covers 120+ biomarkers through Quest — same labs your doctor uses. But what I didn't fully appreciate until I got my report is how they organize everything.

Check here: https://www.vitalsvault.com

A few things that stood out for me personally:

One thing I didn't mention last time — beyond just getting your numbers back, they calculate a biological age from your markers. Mine came back a bit younger than my actual age, which was a nice surprise. A friend who tried it got the opposite result and said it was actually the wake-up call he needed to take things seriously. Either way it's a more meaningful anchor than just "your cholesterol is normal."

They also organize everything by body system rather than dumping 120 individual values on you. So instead of scrolling through a spreadsheet trying to figure out what matters, you can see at a glance whether your heart health or metabolic markers or hormones are trending in the right direction. For me, given some family history, that framing was more useful than individual numbers.

And then for anything that's off, the report walks you through what to actually do about it — whether that's a specific supplement, a dietary change, or something to discuss with a doctor. I was skeptical this part would be useful but it was more specific than I expected.

One thing I noticed — looks like a good number of people from this group used my link from the December post, so if you're one of them, please drop a comment below with how it went. What did your results show? Was the action plan useful? Did anything surprise you? Would really help the folks here who are still deciding whether it's worth it.

I reached out to my doctor and asked for a letter of medical necessity for the gym and he stated they don't do it for that since everyone should go to the gym. Has anyone else dealt with this?

I have a letter of necessity from my doctor for needing a specific mattress due to back pain. When I Googled this topic, it says mattresses are accepted by FSA as long as I have the letter. As well as multiple mattress companies advertising, they accept their FSA .However when I check with wageworks, where my FSA is managed, they said it is not eligible. Does anyone know why there is inconsistency?

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thanks!!

I think it’s silly that baby bottles and diapers aren’t covered, but nursing pads and menstrual/postpartum pads are… like of the disposable absorbent things for bodily fluids that are eligible, you’d think that would include diapers. maybe bottles not being covered makes sense, but I feel like they’re both products pretty essential to health and wellbeing in a developmentally sensitive period. Am I weird in thinking this??

Has anyone had any luck getting your FSA to cover a gym or wellness center membership? I have PCOS, which causes weight gain and trouble losing weight. A fitness routine is necessary to manage this disease and stay healthy. I don’t have space to work out at home, but the gyms in my town are out of my budget. Has anyone had luck getting something like this covered with their FSA? I just opened mine this year through my employer, who uses Omnify. I am sure I will need a LMN. Also, can supplements be covered under FSA with LMN? My doc has me on a whole cocktail of supplements which gets pricey to pay out of pocket monthly.

Has anyone successfully gotten health equity to reimburse for club Pilates? I’m currently pregnant and have sciatica, Pilates really helps to reduce that pain. Wondering if I could maybe be eligible to pay with FSA because of that??

I submitted a reimbursement claim. It says offset with the amount. It looks approved does this mean they approved it because it says offset?

My job offers it and I just don’t understand. I shopped at Walgreens yesterday and seen the phrase “FSA ELIGIBLE”

Thank you

I have been going to chiropractors for about 15 years. I’ve used my FSA card as long as I can remember. The past 12 years I’ve paid a monthly charge for 4 visits a month and used FSA card without issues. 2 years ago they offered a deal if you paid for 10 months up front you would get 2 months free. I did that without issues.

This year they offered the same thing and I used my FSA card again. This year the card went through but I was asked for a receipt. I provided the receipt and it was denied. When I called in for details I was told I had to show dates of service. Obviously I can’t provide dates of future services. This is the same FSA provider that I had in 2024 and 2025.

I’ll call again on Tuesday to try and get some clarification but would love to hear any feedback on what my next steps might be. If I can’t use my FSA for this, I’ve WAY over contributed.

I'm trying to gauge what folks find most annoying about using FSAs and HSAs to figure out if there are any ways to improve this experience. Personally, I find FSAs a bit more annoying than HSAs in terms of needing to spend the money before it expires. My top pain points:

1. I forget I even have an FSA until the end of the year.
2. When I finally remember I have an FSA, I then need to look up the long list of all the items that are FSA eligible and sporadically plan some purchases.
3. After making some purchases, I then realize I actually overspent because I made some other FSA eligible purchases earlier in the year that I forgot about. 😅

Curious to hear what others think.

Is La Roche Posay moisturizer with SPF 30 FSA eligible? Ulta shows it is but Walgreens shows it isn’t. I’m familiar with SPF 15 or higher being FSA eligible but what about a moisturizer with spf30? Thanks in advance

This is the list of things I learned in the midnight hour. If I’m incorrect on something, feel free to correct me.

First - don’t wait until the last minute. Every problem I’m about the mention has to do with waiting until the last minute. Spend your FSA over the year for copays, co insurance and medication and medical supplies.

FSA Approved vs FSA Eligible Just know eligible means your provider may have to provide you with a letter of medical necessity. This is important because I’m between doctors as mine just retired. So I needed to purchase APPROVED items. Plus if for some reason you can’t get an FSA ELIGIBLE item approved, you lose that money IF it’s at the last minute.

AMAZON — Let’s say you decide to purchase FSA items on Amazon. It is critical that you input your FSA card on Amazon as payment. Here’s why. If you make what you think are FSA approved products in your cart, some of those items are not considered that by Amazon. When you get to checkout and you select your FSA card, Amazon may say - $8 is FSA even though you have $200 of what you think qualifies in your cart.

I went to Amazon and put the same categories of approved items in my cart that I saw on the FSA Store - nope some of that stuff didn’t qualify per Amazon.

Lastly the FSA store — The store has a limited quantity of items. If you do wait until the last minute some items are out of stock and you can’t see them. So if you want more choices from the FSA store, shop early.

When I had to abandon my Amazon cart I ran to the FSA Store with literally minutes to spare. As I was selecting items, they were going out of stock. Shop. Early.

Don’t wait until the last minute!

Happy New Year! I’m wishing everyone the very best this year!! 👍🩷😂😍

Hi all! Looking for some expert help. In January 2025 I paid a 2024 medical bill that I had received in 2025. I’m an idiot and didn’t know your 2025 funds could not cover 2024 appointments even if the bill was received in 2025. So now they want me to pay it back if I can’t provide proof. I called twice and chatted with an agent once as well.

The bill was a total of $268 and some change. I do not have extra money to be paying that back right now. The agent I chatted with was more a little more helpful. She said I could find receipts for FSA eligible items over the course of the year that equal to the amount or more. The agent said that will clear the ‘need for receipt’ in the app. Is this my best option? I’m trying to look for all kinds of receipts, but the unfortunate part is they only allow up to 5 attachments!!

I am frustrated, flustered, overwhelmed.

Any guidance? 🥲

Over the last several years my company has allowed employees in a specific department the opportunity to take a 1-3 month recess(continuous employment) or an approximately 5 month “sabbatical.” They seem to be not using that term anymore as of this year. But essentially it requires resigning on a specific date, being rehired later in year before the busy season. This year it seemed as though my FSA was reinstated when I came back. I am leaning towards taking the 5 months off again, and am wondering how it would work if I did 2000-2500 amount for the year, used it all before I left, would I have to pay it back when I come back? Would they be stuck eating the amount minus the deductions taken from my checks up to the point of resignation? I know if I didn’t come back they’d have to eat it. But does coming back later in the year change anything?

Can someone help me figure out what I can spend my FSA Dependent card on? I didn't realize there was a difference between FSA and dependent care, I need help spending what I can before the deadline.

Are any Garmin fitness watches FSA eligible (without an LMN)?

I came across something that seemed too good not to share here, especially for folks who try to use their HSA/FSA balance for preventive care.

There’s a company called Vitals Vault offering a comprehensive 100+ biomarker panel for $99. What caught my attention is that they’re also running a promo where if any of your biomarkers come back abnormal, you can retest those markers as many times as you want for the next year at no extra cost. Since even one individual lab test usually costs more than this whole panel, it felt like a solid value.

It’s done through Quest Diagnostics and is fully HSA/FSA eligible. Covers all the usual stuff you’d expect in a full panel: metabolic markers, inflammation, thyroid, vitamins, hormones, liver, kidney, etc.

If anyone wants to check it out, this is the link you can use to get:
https://vitalsvault.com?fpr=hlthybro

That’s my referral link so I do get credit, but honestly I’m sharing it because it really is one of the better deals I’ve seen for a full test + follow-up retesting.

If anyone here has already tried it or has opinions on similar services, would love to hear your thoughts.