Flexible Spending Accounts

Flexible spending accounts let you set aside pretax dollars from your paycheck to pay for certain health and dependent care expenses. This reduces your taxable pay and helps you save for those expenses.

King County offers two types of tax-saving flexible spending accounts:

• Health care FSAs let you set aside pretax dollars from your paycheck to pay for certain expenses not covered by your health plans (for example, deductibles, coinsurance and copays applied to covered expenses like office visits, orthodontia, etc.).
• Dependent care FSAs let you set aside pretax dollars to pay for eligible dependent care expenses for your child, disabled spouse or dependent parent while you and your spouse work.

FSAs are administered for King County by Fringe Benefits Management Company (FBMC). As you incur eligible expenses, you submit reimbursement claim forms, receipts and other required documentation to FBMC, and FMBC reimburses you by check or direct deposit.

You may submit claims for eligible expenses incurred during the calendar year anytime through March 31 of the following year, and you may submit multiple bills or receipts with one claim form. However, you must submit claims for enough eligible expenses for the calendar year to recover the full amount of your contributions – or risk losing them..

FSAs are subject to certain restrictions. The FSA Guide provides details and worksheets to help you decide if FSAs will work for you and, if they do, how much money to set aside. The guide also includes the FSA Enrollment form. You're eligible to enroll within 30 days after your county health benefits begin. Otherwise, you must wait for the next open enrollment or a qualifying status change.

Additional details are available in the regular employee plan booklet, the part-time transit operator plan booklet and the deputy sheriff plan booklet.