Your Member Centre is chock full of handy information about your Blended Benefits Plan, and this includes your Benefit Period!
Just like most traditional benefit Plans, HSAs also fall into a 12-month Benefit Period. For more detailed information, including examples, check out our article Health Spending Account Plan dates affect claim reimbursements.
The intent is for Benefit Period funds to be used for the reimbursement of claims dated within the Benefit Period. Not all Benefit Periods fit neatly into a calendar year, so it's a good idea to familiarize yourself with the Start and End dates unique to your Plan.
Where do I find my Benefit Period?
You can easily find this information by logging into your Online Member Centre, and clicking on Health Spending Account or Enhanced Health Blends to the right of your Dashboard under My Benefits (depending on the features your Plan offers).
Once here, you'll see your HSA balance (select features only at this time) and your Benefit Period displayed below.
If your Plan includes additional features such as Vision Care, Paramedical or Prescription Drugs, these will be listed individually with the Benefit Period displayed for each one.
That's great, but what does it mean for my claim reimbursements?
Good question! 😉
You'll notice that as well as a Start and End date, your Benefit Period also includes a Claim Submission Cutoff date, 30 days or 90 days after the end of the Benefit Period. This is the amount of time you have after the end of your Benefit Period to submit eligible receipts for reimbursement.
Note: this length of time will vary depending on the type of Health Spending Account or Enhanced Health Blend you have and on the feature type, so we recommend checking these dates before submitting a claim!
Using the Benefit Period 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31 as an example:
- With a 90 day claim submission cutoff you will have until 2022-03-31 to submit eligible receipts dated within this Benefit Period.
- With a 30 day claim submission cutoff you will have until 2022-01-30 to submit eligible receipts dated within this Benefit Period.
It's important to remember that any receipts dated within this Benefit Period submitted after your specified submission cutoff unfortunately won't be eligible for reimbursement.