Sunday March 15 is the last day to use up any remaining dollars left in a 2014 flexible spending account, assuming that your employer is allowing the extension. Employers were not required to allow employees to submit expenses incurred from January 1 to March 15 and apply it to unused money in a 2014 FSA account, so check with your HR department before going on a spending spree.
The extension is not the same as the run out period. A run-out period is the window during which employees may submit claims for reimbursement for eligible expenses. For example, if an FSA has a Dec. 31 deadline and no grace period, but has a 90-day run-out period, you'd have until April 1 to submit receipts for expenses you had during the previous year.
The FSAstore offers the following as suggestions for using up the remaining dollars. Remember that most over-the-counter medications such as allergy drugs and headache remedies are ineligible for reimbursement unless you have already obtained a prescription or a letter of medical necessity for them from your doctor.
- Assorted Band-aids
- First-aid bags for kids
- Liquid bandages
- Mini first-aid kits for the car, or flights
- Wound treatment/gauze
- Thermometers
- Contact lens care and solutions
- Medicine organizers
- Hot or cold therapy eye masks
- Acupressure wrist bands to prevent motion sickness
- Contact lens solution and contact lens cases
- Orthopedic neck support
- Kinesiology tapes (KT Tape) for stressed muscles
- Cooling headache sheets for adults and kids
- Heatwraps to alleviate muscle aches
- Sunscreen lip balm
- Insect-repellent sunscreen
- Sunscreen (SPF15+)
- Cold compresses
- Thermal-aid stuffed animals for soothing comfort for kids
- Cold packs for neck or back
- Heatwraps for sore muscles (back, hip, shoulder)
- Elastic bandages
- Athletic treatments (knee and ankle braces)
- Migraine cooling headache pads
- A sports first-aid kit
- Blister treatment
- Shoe insoles for added support
- Breast pumps & accessories (cleaning wipes, storage bags)
- Baby sunscreen
- Thermal-Aid stuffed animals (hot/cold therapy) for kids
- Cartoon-themed Band-Aids (Mickey Mouse, Cars, SpongeBob)
- Saline solution for baby, nasal spray for kids
- Baby pacifier digital thermometer
- Nasal Cease nosebleed packings
- An all-purpose first-aid kit for the entire family
- Medicators that make it easy to administer medicine to babies, like Munchkin the Medicator