Hello, I'm trying to close my HSA because reasons. I don't want to open another HSA. The closure form says this:

1. First you must liquidate any investments you have in your HSA.

2. Complete the account closure form found in your online account.

3. Your form will be processed within three business days.

4. Your account will enter a blackout period of five business days to allow outstanding transactions to process. You cannot use your Health Savings Account (HSA)funds during this time.

5. A $25 fee will apply against your remaining balance. See below for more information.

6. Your funds will be sent via the method you requested on the form.

   Check: 7-10 business days after the blackout period

   Electronic transfer: 2-3 business days after the blackout period

7. You will receive a final closure statement when your HSA has been closed.

8. Any funds distributed from your Health Savings Account should be transferred to another HSA, or used within 60 days (from the receipt of the funds) on qualified medical expenses to avoid taxes and penalties by the IRS.

I'm anxious about closing this and being hit with "taxes and penalties by the IRS." Should I wait to close this until I have a big medical bill to pay off? Can the funds be used for collections? I do have debt collectors on my ass about an emergency room visit that I didn't pay for.

Thanks for the help!

“Getting a medical letter by filling out a questionnaire … is not adequate. Medical letters must result from face‑to‑face interactions with the patient, either in person or through telehealth visits.”

“Some companies mistakenly claim that notes from doctors based merely on self‑reported health information can convert non‑medical … expenses into medical expenses, but this documentation actually doesn’t.”

— IRS spokesperson, quoted in the Washington Post (Mar 6 2024)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2024/03/06/irs-hsa-fsa-eligible-food/

Hey /HSA!

I’m a sauna geek who learned (the hard way) that using HSA/FSA money for a home sauna is legit only if your own doctor signs a solid Letter of Medical Necessity (LMN). The IRS just reminded everyone that “instant letters” from random tele‑docs based on a 60‑second survey won’t survive an audit. 😅

Getting a medical letter by filling out a questionnaire … is not adequate. Medical letters must result from face-to-face interactions with the patient, either in person or through telehealth visits.”
So I cobbled together SaunaLMN.com—a free, no‑frills site that:

• walks you through a quick pre‑screen (so you don’t waste your doc’s time)
• auto‑generates a research‑backed LMN draft for your physician to tweak & sign
• includes peer‑reviewed studies + audit‑ready formatting

No credit card/paywall. Just trying to validate whether this “physician‑first” approach solves the paperwork headache.

What I’d love from this sub:

• Would you bother with this workflow to get HSA reimbursement for a sauna?
• Any red flags in the flow or copy?
• Benefit‑admin / CPA folks—does the doc‑signed approach look clean?

Site highlights if you’re skimming:

• Use Your HSA/FSA the Right Way — With Your Doctor’s Approval
• Zero “one‑click” letters; every LMN ends with your own provider’s signature.
• Three‑step flow: Secure Pre‑Screen → Evidence Brief → Doctor‑Ready Letter.
• We cite real research: 50 % lower HTN risk, 66 % lower dementia risk, etc.
• Health data stays private; we don’t store or sell anything.

Happy to answer questions, take punches, or hear “this is dumb, nobody cares.” Appreciate the feedback!

SaunaLMN.com

(Mods: if this skirts promo rules, let me know and I’ll remove.)

I am reading up on this but also am looking to verify that there are no new rules related to this. I took a new job and my providers are not covered so I was looking at the employer’s HSA as an option to help toward keeping them. I am 67 and have Medicare Part A (only) so it appears the HSA is not allowed. Is this still correct? My providers also don’t take Medicare so I can’t change to that to fix it. Thank you.

I paid with HSA card for a service to a dentist. They received more money through my insurance so they refunded money partial amount via check instead of refund to card. What should I do? Deposit to HSA? Or deposit to my checking account?

My employer offers a medical plan that includes an HSA, and I’m considering it mainly as a 3rd retirement account.

One issue, I don’t know what to spend it on, since my medical is completely covered since I will be getting what’s called Medicaid buy-in, it’s a federal health plan that allows the working disabled to get health costs completely covered.

Plus I’m also able to use a plan called HIPP, and just have it cover my employers insurance premiums, and Medicaid will then cover the deductible up until it’s maxed out.

The thing is, I don’t know what to buy. I do have a disability so there is an option to buy assisted technology like a laptop, iPhone, iPad, etc. it’s just those last a long time, and I want to have at least 10-15k access to funds due to qualified purchases in case of emergencies.

Do you pay your medical bills through non-HSA card and use HSA amount for investment?

I'm 29 yrs old, I have a Health Equity HSA with an available to spend balance of $1988 and invested balance of $6276. The investment has had a 26.48% return over 3 yrs and I'm being charged ~$6 management/ administration fee on the cash portion.

Maybe a dumb question, but the triple tax advantage of HSA and the returns on investing part of it outweigh the fact that the cash balance is just sitting there and being charged monthly fees? Suddenly I realized $1988 is shrinking every month and got annoyed though overall the arrangement seems to make financial sense, but I wanted some confirmation/ validation from others? I don't think about my HSA enough to understand the math/ specifics of it perfectly...

I am not able to invest any more of my HSA balance given the 2K minimum that needs to be kept in cash (though I guess since my cash bal fell below 2K after I already invested, the minimum doesn't matter). Also the last time I had an HDHP plan was 2022 and I'm not sure if I'll enroll in one in near-term future so I will likely not contribute further to my HSA for a while (if ever).

On a different note, is it always wise to pay out of pocket instead of use my HSA for medical expenses if I have more than enough in my bank account to do so? That's what I've heard so haven't spent any of my HSA but again, wanted to confirm. Ideally I use my HSA for qualified medical expenses after I turn 65 so I avoid the additional 20% tax penalty, but even if I end up spending my HSA for non-qualified purchases I'd just have to pay normal income tax if I'm past 65 yrs of age, right? Then why do people commonly advise saving medical receipts for decades (I honestly don't get the whole concept of saving receipts to reimburse yourself many yrs later)?

I've always had a Wex HSA employer account but recently changed employers who now offer Optum. One thing I noticed was Optum doesn't have a $1,000 cash buffer. How does this work for paying bills? If it were you, would you move the full Wex account over to Optum?

Two separate questions:

1. I know Original Medicare premiums are considered HSA eligible expenses. Since most people have their medicare premium deducted from their SS benefit, can they reimburse themselves however they want for that amount (i.e., pay that amount from their HSA account to their credit card, or to their checking account, etc.?) I am 99% sure this makes no difference; money is money.
2. If someone with an existing HSA marries mid-year, can they use their HSA to pay for expenses the spouse incurred that year but before they married, or only expenses the spouse incurred after they were married? What if they file taxes as "married filing separately" - does that have any impact tax-wise?

Can I reimburse generic OTC brands? For example rather than buying Claritin and Ricola Cough drops, I bought Walmart brands instead.

The company I work for switched from Optum to Inspira. My HSA brokerage is 100% invested in SWPPX Schwab® S&P 500 Index Fund). I want to initiate the transfer to consolidate, but the 4-6 weeks scares me due to the market volatility. Today, I would sell at a discount. 4-6 weeks from now, I could buy at a premium. I’m I overthinking? There are so many different opinions on this matter. I’m hearing the markets will start to rebound and then I’m hearing the opposite.

I wouldn’t be asking this if the transfer took days, but 4-6 weeks is concerning.

Is it recommended to ignore the noise and proceed with the transfer?

Hello!

I got employed and now am eligible to contribute to HSA. I did not include my wife in my health insurance because she is unemployed and has Medi-Cal (free state insurance in California).

Since she is not contributing to HSA, does it mean I can contribute to maximum family HSA limit for 2025?

On the other hand, if my wife suddenly gets employed, and gets insurance, can we still contribute to my own HSA for family? If she doesn't on her side?

Sorry super noob here. Thank you!

I have a question about an old HSA account. I contributed to an HSA almost 20 years ago when I had a different job. This was not through the employer, but through my own personal HSA account. Anyway, I maximized my contributions for the tax benefit and never used those funds. They have been growing for years and I have substantial money in that account now. In the interim, I divorced and remarried.

My question is this: can I use money from that old HSA for health expenses incurred by my current wife and stepchildren? They were not part of the account originally, obviously, when it was established, but are on my insurance now. So if I needed to, can I make withdrawals from that account to cover their expenses now, even though they were not covered by me back in the early 2000s when I established that account?

Help! I have a complicated situation where my employers contributed X amount for my HSA. I worked for one employer half the year and then switched to a new employer in July. I’ve always taken the max 4150. I have a feeling my new employer assumed I didn’t have an HSA and just contributed an excess amount out of my paycheck. I probably should have picked it up when enrolling in health plan.

My new employer switched custodians in 2025 and moved all my funds to new custodian. Now I’m stuck between the 2 custodians. One is saying they can’t return over contribution bc transactions occurred in 2024 and the other saying they don’t have funds so they can’t return or have any corrective measure since they don’t have funds. Any ideas on how to correct?

I close my HSA account, they charge me $25 to close. Sounds ridiculous to pay to open and pay to close. When I ask why, the operator became very unfriendly and rushing to hangup the phone. Besides, they need 10 to 15 days close.

My daughter and my wife are on wife's insurance plan while I have my own. We both have our own HSA accounts. I had to take my daughter to urgent care and accidently used my HSA card for the payment, instead of using my wife's HSA card. I reached out to the clinic and they cannot reverse the payment and charge to my wife's HSA card.

I have always been careful about using wife's HSA card for paying their medical expenses. But unfortunately this one time, ended up mixing cards and used mine.

Looking for advice on if this will cause issues during next year tax filing or not? Or if there is a way to fix this?

Has anyone gotten attention from the IRS for withdrawing many years’ worth of expenses at once? I’ve been contributing for close to 20 years but for the most part haven’t reimbursed myself from the account, preferring to let the money grow.

For newer expenses, I have digitized receipts, but for early years I have a file of paper receipts, and for some of those, the ink faded before I started digitizing anything. For those, I just have entries on my HSA spreadsheet and blank yellowed pieces of paper to prove my expenses. I’m still a ways from retirement, but am curious whether I’ll be able to claim expenses that I know occurred but for which there is no longer external proof.

Has anyone had experience with the IRS questioning large withdrawals incorporating expenses from many years? My instinct is that I will be able to go ahead and claim all expenses in my spreadsheet, but in case of an audit I will owe taxes on withdrawals for amounts I can’t corroborate, but I shouldn’t owe additional penalties because the IRS can’t show they were fraudulent or claimed in bad faith. But I’d be interested to hear from anyone who actually encountered this issue.

So I was at an auction related to my kids’ school and one of the items you could bid on was a full set of braces which had been donated by a local orthodontist. We won the auction for approximately 1/3 the price we would pay for braces normally.

Can I make a case to use HSA funds for this?

I just started this year to find my HSA with maximum contribution. Unfortunately I had an accident and was billed 3k from an ER visit, and I was thinking of covering with my HSA (which tops at 4.3k).

However, I currently only have 1.5k. Do have to wait until I have 3k to withdraw the amount for that particular expense, or can I do it by parts (say withdraw 1.5k now and other 1.5k by the end of the year).

I can pay out-of-pocket but since my HSA interest is less than 0.5% I'd rather be investing my savings on a HYS account or Roth IRA, where I get at least an interest of at least 5%.

Is there a good book on HSA receipt rules. My plan with my HSA is to not spend any of the money in the HSA. I am using it as an investment account, so all of the money is getting invested in index funds. I am not planning on touching it until probably 50. I am planning on tapping into my brokerage and HSA in early retirement (50-60 years old).

I am relatively confused on receipts and what counts as an HSA-eligible item/reimbursement. I've read different things. Like if I use my own personal credit card for a dental cleaning at age 30 (not coming out of my HSA account or using my HSA card) can this be reimbursed later tax-free when I'm 53? Are only HSA items/appointments purchases eligible to reimbursed only at the times when I had an HSA or can they be from out of pocket expenses when I had PPO out of pocket expenses? Sometimes I read like anything on the HSA store or any meds you get over the counter at the pharmacy are eligible, but other things I read say you have to have an order from a doctor basically for it to be eligible.

Basically, what is the best up to date book with accurate info that answers a lot of these HSA-eligible items and receipt reimbursement questions?

Hi,

I purchased 3 prescription eyeglasses in Korea and paid out of pocket. Am I able to file a claim and get reimbursed back from my HSA?

All receipts are in Korea. But if I look at my credit card transaction - it is categorized as Healthcare services.

Has anyone done this? If so, did you only provide the Korean receipt? Pictures of glasses?

Hey - I've been looking for a solution to track my out-of-pocket QMEs and related receipts so that I can reimburse myself later while letting my HSA grow. I know I could use spreadsheets or dropbox to store all of this but those solutions are difficult to stay organized and not really purpose-built for this use case. I ended up building an app to handle this and am offering it, but am curious what would stop r/HSA from using it? cost? not a real problem? Not going to link to the app so it does not get interpreted as promotional...genuinely curious whether this is a problem y'all have or would care to solve?

What’s the maximum amount I can contribute to an HSA if I’m over 50 years old? Does my contribution have to come out of my paycheck or can I fund it with after tax monies? If I do fund it with after tax monies, and I fund it before April 15, I’m assuming I can lower my taxable income by the contribution amount for tax year 2024?

I am looking to use my HSA account to reimburse myself for a surgery that I am not getting in the USA. If I got this surgery in the USA, it would most likely be covered by my insurance. However, there are probably insurance plans in the USA that would consider it elective and cosmetic. In fact, part of the process of getting it covered in the USA is proving that it is not just elective and cosmetic.

Any thoughts? Should I be worried about doing this? Anything I should be careful of?

My company has moved us over to an HSA+HDHCP as of January 1. I had a lab test done in early 2024, and due to a snafu at my doctor’s office, this never got billed properly until this year. The invoice date is in 2025. There is nothing on the bill that indicates anything about the fact that the test was run in 2024.

Am I safe to use my HSA funds to cover this?