All kinds of products and services are eyeing the money you have left in your FSA
All kinds of products and services are eyeing the money you have left in your FSA
If you have a flexible spending account through your health insurance — and you still have money in it — you might need to spend it by the end of year.
And with all of that extra cash burning a hole in people’s pockets, more and more businesses are working to make sure their products are FSA-eligible so they can get some of that lucre.
The online herbal pharmacy Apothékary sells drink blends and tinctures for the sober-curious, as well as sleep aids and other products. But founder and CEO Shizu Okusa wanted that FSA-eligible label for her products. And this year she got it.
“I felt very important for the customer to know that herbal medicine is legitimate,” she said. “It’s not just something that, you know, is like the woo-woo witchy kind of side of things, which tends to be historically what herbal medicine has looked like at least in the U.S.”
People with “use it or lose it” FSAs tend to be higher income and working for larger employers and almost half of them end up with money left in their accounts at the end of the plan year, said Jake Spiegel at the Employee Benefit Research Institute.
“And the average amount is about $450,” he said. “And so what these companies are doing, it’s pretty clever, because people have leftover money at the end of the year that they probably want to be spending.”
To help them spend it, there are companies like TrueMed which, for a fee, works with customers to get letters of medical necessity so people with FSA cash can use that money for gym memberships, fitness apps, herbal supplements and even meal kit delivery.
“You know, there’s no law that says medicine is a synthetic pill created by one of these big pharma companies,” said Calley Means, TrueMed’s cofounder. “Medicine is what a doctor substantiates can help prevent or reverse a condition.”
This is all new for companies like Apothékary. Okusa says she’s seen about a 10% spike in business since partnering with TrueMed and getting FSA eligibility for her products.
And she said those customers are shopping differently.
“We’re definitely seeing customers that are buying in bulk, they’re kind of spending in a way that it’s it doesn’t feel like it’s their money,” she said. “Like the average order value I would say is like closer to two hundred dollars.”
Normally, she said, the average order is half that.
Stories You Might Like
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.
