this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2023
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Privacy
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I've seen this in banking too. I have my health savings account with a provider that charges a percentage of your holdings as the admin fee. That can add up. My old one is a flat rate per month. I have been transferring the money every year to the flat rate provider and the process is completely arcane.
Find the document on their site. The correct document isn't named clearly like the document you use to pull other providers into your account.
You have to print it and write by hand (not an editable PDF)
Assuming you've done this correctly you must mail them the document, like he said, with a stamp like a fucking caveman.
Behind the scenes the process is even more arcane, because again they claim they PHYSICALLY MAIL A CHECK to the new provider like fucking cavemen.
It's really clear that this is in bad faith. Banking "innovation" is a joke in the US. I know that everyone hates crypto up in this bitch (I get it), but a little self custody would go a long way in situations like this.
Those HSA accounts are thinly veiled state legalized theft for political cronies. At least they are in my state.
Money goes in. Administrator determines if money goes out. Money (by law) does not roll-over from one year to the next and the administrator keeps the balance.
Just don't use them.
Anecdote: A coworker of mine secretly had cancer. He was putting tens of thousands of dollars each year into his HSA. They denied him use for his chemo or whatever and it rolled his funds into the wood chipper. Tens of thousands of dollars.
You're thinking of FSA
HSA is a health savings account. It doesn't go away unless you're using some unheard of vulture one. I had one from an old employer that I stacked up thousands in and it took me 5 years after I left to use it all
There are deposit restrictions, like you need to be on a high deductible plan
FSAs, Flexible Spending Accounts don't have those same deposit restrictions. But you lose it after a year minus a usual $500 carryover
I find it hard to believe they denied actual chemotherapy treatments, though. They're annoying to deal with but I've never once had a claim denied other than trying to buy an ankle brace at Walgreens
Even an electric toothbrush at the dentist was covered
The other commenter is comparing FSA to HSA which is right I think. I think FSAs work for some people (I never understood who though) but there's literally no downside to an HSA. It basically can end up as another tax sheltered investment account, if you have enough money/luck to be able to pay off your healthcare costs out of pocket.
Like everything in the US, it's amazing for people with money. Less useful for those that don't. But at the very least it provides a buffer for the insane deductibles that US persons need to pay to keep living.