University Times

Pitt health care flexible spending account dollars will apply to certain over-the-counter (OTC) drugs this fiscal year, said the head of Human Resources (HR).

The Internal Revenue Service announced last month that health care flexible spending accounts could cover OTC drugs. Pitt is going to integrate that benefit into its employee flex spending program, but there are still some details to be worked out, HR Associate Vice Chancellor Ron Frisch told the University Times yesterday.

Unfortunately, Frisch said, the IRS “did not give any lead time for an effective date or a lot of direction on this. There still are questions about what is covered and what’s not. For example, we think vitamins are not covered. But what if your doctor says you have to take Vitamin C? Right now these things are too loosely defined. We don’t want people sending in receipts and being rejected.”

Frisch said he expected the issues will be worked out “within a month or two. Also, we believe that the flex benefit will be retroactive to July 1, though I’m still not 100 percent sure of that yet.”

Pitt’s flexible spending account “Benny” cards, which can be used like debit cards to pay for prescription drugs, will not be applicable for OTC drugs, at least this year, Frisch said. “I don’t know about future years yet, but it’s too late to re-program the Benny cards for this fiscal year.”

Instead, he said, “People should save their receipts and — this is very important — the receipts must indicate what the purchase was; it must specify [the over-the-counter drug].”
— Peter Hart