Flexible Spending Accounts

• May be used by employees who are not enrolled in the Health Savings plan option.
• Helps offset out-of-pocket health care expenses, such as copayments, deductibles, coinsurance, and certain over-the-counter medications
• Full amount of annual contributions available after your first paycheck of 2026

For more information:

• Flexible Spending Account Quick Start Guide
• Full Healthcare FSA
• Healthcare FSA Qualified Medical Expenses

• Available for Health Savings participants only
• May be used for out-of-pocket dental and vision care expenses only; may be used in combination with a Health Savings Account (HSA)
• Consider whether this will be of benefit to you before enrolling. May be beneficial if you are already maxing out your HSA contribution for the year and wish to set aside more money pre-tax, but keep in mind the limitations - can only be used for dental & vision out of pocket expense and is use or lose. You cannot drop or change this account after enrolling.
• Full amount of annual contributions available after your first paycheck of 2026

For more information:

• Limited Purpose FSA

• Funds become available as contributions through payroll deduction are deposited in your account

  • Funds are not available upfront/ in advance of deposit and cannot be front-loaded.

• For low-income families, the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit typically offers more benefits than a Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account (FSA). Please consult a tax professional for an assessment of your personal situation.

For more information:

• Dependent Care FSA FAQs

In general, to be eligible for FSAs (including Dependent Care Reimbursement Accounts), you must be a full- or part-time UVA employee, and regularly scheduled to work at least 20 hours/week. To be eligible for FSAs, you must be:

• Faculty
• Classified Staff
• Medical Center Team Member
• Postdoctoral Research Associate
• Senior Professional Research Staff
• University Staff
• Housestaff

Mandatory Direct Deposit: For all paper claims, direct deposit is required. If you are a new enrollee, you must provide direct information on your personal Fidelity account for reimbursement of all non-debit card transactions. 

UVA offers two types of FSA: Full and Limited. Your UVA Health Plan option determines which type of FSA you are eligible for.

• Choice Health or UVA PPO participants, or employees not enrolled in a UVA health plan, may enroll in the Full FSA, which can be used for eligible medical, dental, and vision expenses.
• Health Savings participants may enroll in the Limited FSA, which can be used for eligible dental and vision expenses only. See more information on this above. 

To be eligible for a Dependent Care Reimbursement Account, your dependents must meet one of the following criteria:

• Are under age 13 at the time of service and are claimed as dependents on your taxes
• Are unable to care for themselves, such as adult children with disabilities or elders (these dependents are eligible regardless of age)

All dependents must live with you for more than half the year for you in order to use funds from a Dependent Care Reimbursement Account for their care.

Note: For low-income families, the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit typically offers more benefits than a Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account (FSA). Please consult a tax professional for an assessment of your personal situation.

For both Limited and Full FSAs, the following annual contribution minimum and maximum is the same:

Minimum: $120

Maximum: $2,500

The following are the annual contribution limits:

Minimum: $120

Maximum: $7,500 (household limit)

When choosing how much to contribute, try to anticipate dependent eligibility changes. For example, if your child will be turning 13 mid-year, plan your contributions accordingly so you don’t over-contribute for a full year of care.

The Full FSA contribution amount you choose for the year is available as soon as the account is open. Payroll deductions for the FSA would continue through the remainder of the year.

Dependent Care FSA (Reimbursement) Account (DCA) funds are available after they have been deposited in your account by payroll deductions each paycheck. It takes a few bank days after payday for payroll-deducted funds to show in your account.

These funds must be used by the end of the calendar year. However, UVA has a grace period of 2 1/2 months. This allows you to spend FSA money through March 15 of the following year. After the grace period ends, you will lose any remaining money in your FSA account. 

Mandatory Direct Deposit: For all paper claims, direct deposit is required. If you are a new enrollee, you must provide direct deposit information to Fidelity for reimbursement of all non-debit transactions. You can enter your direct deposit information on your personal Fidelity account beginning Jan. 1, 2026.

Failing to coordinate your FSA contribution amount with that of your spouse is not a qualified life event. You will not be able to change your election if you discover that your combined Dependent Daycare contributions exceed the IRS maximum. The resulting overcontribution can be addressed when filing your tax return.

Be sure your spouse does not open a Full Healthcare FSA during the same calendar year in which you are enrolled in the UVA HSA Program. If this or any other coordination issue between you and your spouse or other family members occurs, you will not be able to cancel or reverse your elections or make retroactive changes to your contributions or deductions to remedy any tax problems that might result.

The biggest difference between an FSA and HSA is that an HSA will allow contributions to roll over year-to-year, while an FSA's contributions don't roll over and must be used within the calendar year + grace period.

You can only enroll in an HSA if you are in the high deductible health plan option (the Health Savings option). 

See the video above to learn more about the differences.

Here are resources to help you learn more:

• HSA webpage
• FSA webpage
• Full Healthcare FSA
• Full Heathcare FSA FAQs
• Limited Purpose FSA
• Dependent Care FSA FAQs

• Yes, but first consider whether it will be of benefit, as it cannot be changed once you enroll. 

• Health Savings participants may have a Limited FSA (LPFSA) for eligible dental and vision expenses only. You cannot use the limited FSA for any other type of health expenses. 

• Consider enrolling if you will max out your HSA contributions and have more money to put aside, and you will have out of pocket dental and vision expenses. This would allow you to use the LPFSA for dental and vision costs instead of your HSA, keeping the HSA funds available for larger medical expenses.

• If you are not maxing out your HSA, consider whether you should contribute these funds towards your HSA instead. Remember, the limited FSA is use or lose, unlike the HSA. 

• For FSAs, the full contribution amount you choose for the year is available as soon as the account is open. For example, if you choose to put $500 in a LMT for the year, you would be able to use that full $500 for eligible dental and vision expenses after the first paycheck of the year. Payroll deductions for the FSA would continue through the remainder of the year.

For more information:

• Limited Purpose FSA

You must re-elect an FSA for 2026 during Open Enrollment. 

2025 elections for FSAs will NOT carry over to 2026.

A grace period provides you with an extra 2 1/2 months to spend last year's money. UVA offers a brief grace period into the following year, so you will have until March 15 to incur expenses. The deadline to submit claims is April 30. 

Full FSA, Limited FSA, and Dependent Care Reimbursement Accounts (DCA) do have grace periods to spend the money beyond year's end if you are enrolled in the FSA or DCA program on December 31 of the plan year. 

The expenses must be used for eligible services and the expense must be incurred during the calendar year for which the account was opened or during the 2 1/2 month grace period from January 1 to March 15 of the following calendar year. The grace period is designed to give you an opportunity to incur expenses and use all the funds in your account if you contributed more than was actually needed for the calendar year. 

Both spouses can each have a Healthcare FSA whether they work for the same employer or different employers and both can contribute the maximum amount to each account.

Dependent Care Accounts, however, have a household limit of $7,500 so if you and your spouse both have a DCA, your combined annual contribution cannot exceed $7,500.

You cannot contribute to a full healthcare FSA and an HSA in the same plan year. However, you can maintain an HSA from a previous year’s plan and continue to use the funds for eligible health, dental, and vison expenses; you just can no longer contribute to it. 

Also, your spouse cannot contribute to a full healthcare FSA if you are contributing to an HSA, or contribute to an HSA if you are contributing to a full healthcare FSA (in the same plan year). 

Employer contributions count as part of the employee’s contributions. 

You must spend down your FSA funds to $0 by 12/31/2025 to open your HSA in January 2026. If you have any funds left in your FSA in 2025, your HSA cannot be opened until April of 2026, after the FSA grace period has ended. 

We recommend that you do not wait until the last week of December to spend the funds so that there is enough time for processing payments.