Flexible Spending Accounts

• May be used by Choice and Value Health participants
• 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 2023

For more information:

• Full Health Care FSA

• Available for Basic Health participants
• Helps offset out-of-pocket dental and vision care expenses; may be used in combination with a Health Savings Account (HSA)
• Full amount of annual contributions available after your first paycheck of 2024

For more information:

• Limited Purpose FSA
• Limited Purpose FSA FAQs

• Funds available after they have been put into your account (meaning the amount increases as additional contributions come from your paychecks)
• May be more beneficial than the federal dependent care tax credit for most individuals whose adjusted gross income is greater than $25,000 (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 Value Health participants may enroll in the Full FSA, which can be used for eligible medical, dental, and vision expenses.
• Basic Health participants may enroll in the Limited FSA (LMT), which can be used for eligible dental and vision expenses. They can also enroll in a Health Savings Account, which can be used for eligible medical, dental, and vision expenses.

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: A Dependent Care Reimbursement Account may be more beneficial, in terms of a tax benefit, than the federal dependent care tax credit for most individuals with an adjusted gross income > $25,000. Consult a tax professional for an assessment of your personal situation.

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

Minimum: $120

Maximum: $2,500

The following are the annual contribution limits:

Minimum: $120

Maximum: $5,000 (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 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, 2024.

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.

WDA offers step-by-step assistance directly in Workday. You can also review the Open Enrollment Workday Job Aid on the Workday Central webpage (behind NetBadge), "Happening Now" section.

A summary of how to review and elect your benefits in Workday is below:

• Navigate to Workday.
• In your Workday Inbox, click on the message titled "Open Enrollment Change: [Your Name] on 01/01/2024"; click on "Let's Get Started."
• Open Enrollment in Workday is organized into "tiles" for each benefit; you will see two sections, one for Health Care and Accounts, and one for Insurance. Each section has multiple tiles. You will start with Health Care and Accounts.
• You will have three edit options at the bottom of every tile:
  • Manage to make changes to a benefit you already have
  • Enroll to add a new benefit
  • View to see a benefit that is not editable in Workday (more on this further down)
• Select a tile and choose the edit option for that tile.
• Once you've selected or waived a benefit in the Health Care and Accounts section, click on Confirm and Continue -- this will take you to a separate window to select or waive eligible dependents for that benefit. Dependents previously enrolled who are eligible will show up automatically, you just need to select or waive each one of them.
• Click Save to update the benefit tile. This does NOT submit your elections, it just saves the individual benefit tile details you've selected. 
• Repeat the above process for all six Health Care and Accounts tiles.
• Workday now offers you a status update on which benefits you’ve touched: "Reviewed," "Updated" or blank if you haven't touched a benefits tile yet.

• Once you've completed the Health Care and Accounts section, move on to the Insurance section. You will see multiple tiles under Insurance.
• Select a tile and choose the edit option for that tile.
• Please note that some life insurance benefits are VIEWABLE in Workday but not changeable. Each of these tiles will direct you to where you need to go to make changes. Some of these changes may be outside of Workday.​
• Once all your benefits have been reviewed and edited as needed, attach any required documents such as birth certificate for new dependents, then click on Review and Sign -- here you can read the summary of what's you elected.
  • New Basic Health participants: Sign and submit the HSA Terms and Conditions authorization form on the Review and Sign page. This document authorizes Fidelity to open your HSA and is required to receive the 2024 employer contribution.
  • New Dependents: If you added new dependents during Open Enrollment (spouse or children), upload required documentation into Workday. You will see a Spousal Affidavit on the Review and Sign page.
• Click on the I Accept box, then click on Submit to complete your Open Enrollment process.
• Print this page or save it as a PDF.

You can make changes to your elections as long as the Open Enrollment period is open, even after you have submitted your elections.

• From the Benefits app in Workday, click on Change Open Enrollment
• You will be making changes to what has been previously submitted. Any changes made will need to be resubmitted. If you do not resubmit, the changes will be deleted and the previous submission will remain in effect.
• Move through the same tiles to elect or waive coverage.
• Once changes are complete, electronically sign at the bottom of the last page and press the Submit button.
• Print the new confirmation of benefits elections or save as a PDF.

Look for additional tasks in Workday related to your Open Enrollment elections:

• Dependents and Beneficiaries: If you changed your dependents or beneficiaries in Workday, look for possible additional action items in your Workday Inbox.

All active, benefits-eligible employees enrolled in Basic Health are able to have a Health Savings Account (HSA). Funds in your HSA can be used for eligible health care, dental, and vision expenses. Funds in these accounts roll over each year and are yours to keep for future health care costs.

If you are enrolled in a Health Savings Account, you are not eligible for a Full Healthcare Flexible Spending Account, but you can enroll in a Limited and/or Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account to maximize your savings.

A Flexible Spending Account (FSA) makes it possible for you to pay for certain expenses on a pre-tax basis, which makes your money go farther.

Here are resources to help you learn more:

• HSA webpage
• FSA webpage
• Full Health Care FSA
• Full Heath Care and Limited Purpose FSA FAQs
• Limited Purpose FSA
• Dependent Care FSA FAQs

Basic Health participants may have a Limited FSA (LMT) for eligible dental and vision expenses. For medical services and prescription costs, you must use HSA funds. Basic Health participants may not have a Full Healthcare FSA. 

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
• Limited Purpose FSA FAQs

2023 elections for FSAs and HSAs will NOT carry over to 2024. You must re-elect the FSA and HSA programs for 2024 during Open Enrollment. 

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 (LMT) and Dependent Care Reimbursement Account (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. 

If you are switching from Value Health or Choice Health to Basic Health and you have a Full FSA, then you will be closing your Full FSA. You will need to have a balance of $0.00 in your FSA by December 31 to open your HSA. Otherwise:

• Your HSA cannot be opened, and you will not be able to make employee contributions until April 1, 2024.
• You will not be able to use money in your account to cover any expenses incurred prior to April 1, 2024.

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 $5,000 so if you and your spouse both have a DCA, your combined annual contribution cannot exceed $5,000.