From: Gores, The [mailto:thegores1@cox.net]
Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2007 10:15 AM
To: All Local Chairmen BLET UP Southern Region
Subject: DEADLINE OCTOBER 26, 2007 for Flexible Spending 2008 Enrollment
Brothers,
As a follow up to my message below regarding the flexible spending option of the 2003 BLET National Agreement, I wanted to provide this additional message of encouragement for our members to enroll in this program. The pertinent language of side letter 8 is quoted and annotated below for your ready reference. It is imperative that we encourage our membership to enroll for at least the minimum amount offered ($120) which can easily be covered by over the counter medication purchases for your family during the year. With the rising costs of healthcare, this program will become more valuable to our membership as time goes on. We must get them to engage in order to preserve the benefit for all members for the future.
We have received several questions regarding what procedures qualify for reimbursement. Those rules are governed by the IRS regulations on Flexible spending. A good rule of thumb is if the procedure is medically required, then it is covered under the IRS rules. If the procedure is cosmetic only, it might not be covered. I have attached a PDF printout that contains the limited list of covered procedures from the UHC website. If you are considering a major procedure that is not covered by our health insurance, I suggest that you make direct contact with UHC (regardless of who handles your benefits) at 877-311-7849. With the use it or lose it provision in the agreement, you don’t want to make a maximum commitment ($3600) guessing if the procedure is covered or not. I know the purchase of prescription eye glasses not covered by our vision plan is covered by Flexible Spending as my family has used that provision to reach our maximum benefit a couple of years when we were a little short of our $2400 yearly goal.
Your assistance in encouraging our members to participate in this program is appreciated.
Fraternally,
Gil Gore
Click HERE to view a PDF copy of Side Letter 8 of 2007 National Agreement covering Flexible Spending
Click HERE to view a PDF copy of Flexible Spending Information from UHC
Click HERE to view a PDF copy of flex spending qualification info from UHC
From: Gore, Gil [mailto:gilgore1@gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, October 07, 2007 10:02 PM
To: All Local Chairmen BLET UP Southern Region
Subject: Flexible Spending 2008
Brothers,
Enrollment opportunity for a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) should have arrived in your mail box from United Health Care. This program is set up to allow you to pay for co-pays and other medical expenses with pretax dollars. Below is a partial list of items that qualify for this type of payments:
Doctor Co-pays
Drug Co-pays
Dental Co-pays or other dental expenses not covered in our dental plan.
Vision Co-pays or additional cost for eye care not covered under the national plan
Over the counter medications, IE cold medicine, decongestant medicine, aspirin, Tylenol or their generic brand, etc.
With the recent increase in Dr and Drug Co-Pays, this benefit can put real dollars in your pocket. As an example, if you have some major dental work scheduled (such as braces for your kids) up to $3600 of that expense can be paid with pretax dollars. If you are in a 25 – 33 % tax bracket, that amounts to as much as a $1200 reduction in the federal taxes that you pay. Your payments to the plan are spread out over 12 monthly payments (ie: if you elect the maximum you would place $300 per month into your flex spending account). If you elected the minimum $120 deduction you would have $10 per month deducted from your pay and placed into your flex spending account. You can receive payment from the account when you present a bill via the attached claim form. You must furnish receipts to be reimbursed for the expense. The plan also has a use it or lose it provision, ie, if you sign up for $2000 in flex spending deductions and only have expenses equal to $1900 then you would only be able to collect $1900 of the $2000 you put into your account. If you were in a 33% tax bracket, that would still net you $533 in savings for the year ($633 tax savings minus the $100 left in the account = $533 net savings).
While I know the use it or lose it function of the plan can be scary, you can easily meet the minimum deduction of $120 for the year just on over the counter medications which would yield you a net savings of $40 for the year if you were in a 33% tax bracket. My wife and I have put the maximum in her flex spending account for the last 8 years ($2400) and been able to provide receipts to receive a total refund every year. Our over the counter medicine for our family in the year 2006 came to $217. If you are on maintenance medications this program can put real dollars into your pocket allowing you to pay your co-pays with pretax dollars.
There is also a plan that will allow you to pay for dependant care (DCAP). I am not as familiar with this plan. The major difference as compared to the FSA plan is that you cannot collect more money than you have in your DCAP account. .
Additionally, I have attached Side Letter 8 of the 2007 BLET National Agreement. We must reach at least 5% participation by the year 2009 in order to retain this benefit. We need to reach this threshold. This is a benefit that will put real dollars into our members pockets and I encourage you all to enroll at an amount you are comfortable with to see how the plan works.
If you have any specific questions, I encourage you to contact UHC at 877-311-7849. Also please note that you must make this decision and return the form and HIPPA authorization no later than October 26, 2007.
Hoping you find this information useful and decide to participate, I remain.
Fraternally,
Gil Gore
