Health FSAs Have Until June 30, 2011 To Amend for OTC Reimbursement Changes

Employers will have until June 30, 2011, to amend their tax code Section 125 cafeteria plans to reflect a change in policy for reimbursing expenses for over-the-counter medications from health flexible spending accounts, a senior counsel at the Internal Revenue Service said Oct. 25.

“You can amend retroactively back to Jan. 1, 2011,” Alan Tawshunsky, deputy division counsel and deputy associate chief of IRS’s Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division, said at the American Bar Association’s Annual National Institute on Health and Welfare Benefit Plans, sponsored by the Joint Committee on Employee Benefits.

To qualify under the Patient Protection and ...