The Health Care Savings Plan is an individual tax-free savings account used for reimbursement of post-employment medical costs, including health and dental insurance premiums or many other out-of-pocket health care cost for you, your spouse, legal tax dependents, and your children up to their 26th birthday, regardless of the child's marital status, status as a full time student, or place of residence.

The HCSP is not health insurance.

Since all contributions and reimbursements are tax free, HCSP payouts are not reportable on your income taxes.

Eligibility to receive reimbursement

You are eligible to receive your HCSP reimbursements when you:

• Leave Employment
• Retire
• Are collecting a disability benefit from a Minnesota public pension plan
• Have been on medical leave for six months or longer
• Have been on a leave of absence for one year or longer
• Elect PERA's Phased Retirement Option (PRO)

Reimbursement of spouse/dependent's expenses

You may request reimbursement of the eligible health care expenses paid by you that were incurred by your spouse, legal dependents, and children up to their 26th birthday.

A legal dependent is a person who can be claimed on your tax returns. For more guidance, see www.irs.gov.

Participants may request reimbursement for eligible expenses you paid for an adult child up to the child's 26th birthday. "Child" includes biological, adopted, step or foster children. The young adult does not have to be a legal tax dependent and can qualify regardless of martial status, status as a full-time student, or place of residence. Exclusion: You cannot request a reimbursement for a young adult who has access to their own or their spouse's medical insurance coverage or the spouse or children of a young adult who is under age 26.

Requesting reimbursements

Participant must complete a Reimbursement Request form and attach documentation of the expense.

Documentation of expenses

• Insurance premiums. The documentation must include the insurer's contact information, name of person covered, the coverage dates, and the amount payable, itemized by type of insurance coverage (health, dental, or long-term care coverage).
  
  Medicare: If Medicare Part B, provide a copy of your Medicare card and the award letter from Social Security. If Medicare Part D or supplemental insurance, provide documentation indicating the premium amount.
  
  
• Other medical or dental expenses. The documentation must include the provider's name and contact information, date of service, amount charged for the service, the insurance reimbursement amount, person for whom service was provided, and the treatment/services provided. Examples of acceptable documentation include itemized statements from a provider or an insurance company's Explanation of Benefits (EOB).

• Canceled checks and bank or credit card statements are not accepted as the sole documentation of a claim because they do not include the detail required to authenticate a claim.
  
  
• Hand written receipts (typically purchased at office supply stores) are unacceptable unless the provider/insurer/employer's name and contact name is indicated as well as all of the details described above in "acceptable forms of documentation."
  
  
• A balance forward statement, balance due statement, or an estimate of services not yet rendered are never acceptable forms of documentation.
  
  

Reimbursement types & schedule

• Monthly Insurance Premiums: refers to ongoing reimbursements of medical, dental and long-term care insurance (paid after taxes; pre-tax premiums are not reimbursable). These reimbursements are automatically paid to you the last Friday of each month.
  
  
• Other Healthcare Related Expenses: refers to the expenses that are incurred time to time including co-pays, deductibles, medical supplies, eye glasses, hearing aids, etc. A complete list of eligible items is located under Eligible Expenses. We ask that you accumulate $75 or more before you request reimbursement. The maximum annual reimbursement must not exceed $25,000 per year. This limit does not include medical, dental or long-term care insurance premium reimbursements. Requests received in good order will be processed within five business days of receipt by MSRS. Please allow additional time to mail your check or to deposit your payment in your financial institution.

Important! Reimbursements are paid directly to you; MSRS never pays the plan provider.

Payment methods

• Check
• Direct deposit to your financial institution. Important! We strongly encourage you to use this method. To set up, you will need to complete a Direct Deposit form.

Requesting changes to reimbursement of your monthly insurance premium

Time frame to deplete the balance in this account

There is no time restriction on when you must begin taking money out of this account or how long you have to take the money out of the account.

Reimbursement Suspension Election (HCSP & HSAs)

You may not request reimbursement of medical expenses (including insurance premiums) from HCSP if both of the following conditions are met:

1. You are eligible to receive reimbursements from your HCSP because you retired or terminated employment; and
   
   
2. During this calendar year you or your employer or your spouse or his/her employer contributed to a Health Savings Account (HSA) on your behalf.

The IRS considers having access to your HCSP account while also contributing to an HSA "conflicting coverage"; therefore, you must suspend your ability to request reimbursements of medical expenses (including insurance premiums) from the HCSP during the current calendar year. You may continue to request reimbursements for dental and vision expenses.

Please see HCSP/HSA compatibility for more details.

Returning to work after termination/retirement

Depending on the circumstances, participants may or may not be eligible to request reimbursement from their HCSP if they return to work. Please see Returning to work for more details.

Some health care items have a dual use and can only be reimbursed from HCSP if a written prescription or documentation signed by a qualified medical practitioner (see list in next section) specifies:

1. the name and type of treatment or expense.
2. the condition requiring the treatment or expense.

Prescriptions - qualified medical practitioners

• Medical doctor
• Nurse practitioner
• Chiropractor
• Physician assistant
• Ophthalmologist
• Dentist
• Osteopathic doctor (OD)