When patients visit a chiropractor, one of the first questions they have is whether or not their health insurance plan will cover the costs of treatment. If insurance does not offer full coverage, patients may wish to open a flexible spending account. Most standard flexible spending accounts (FSAs) include chiropractic treatment as eligible expenses.

FSAs are offered by employers. The benefit of an FSA is that patients can put pre-taxable income into the account. This money can then be used to cover the cost of approved medical expenses. The downside of FSAs is that the money must be used with a one-year time period. Patients should have an accurate idea of how much FSA money they will spend each year. In addition, FSAs cap out at $2,500.

Since chiropractic care serves the medical purpose of improving a patient’s health, it qualifies for most FSA plans. That doesn’t mean, however, that any type of treatment automatically covered by a flexible spending account. If a treatment is unrelated to a specific health concern, the treatment might not be covered by the FSA. For example, treatments intended to improve a patient’s appearance, such as teeth whitening or liposuction, is not covered by FSAs. However, since most of the treatments that chiropractors offer are related to a specific health concern, they do qualify. Whether or not the treatment is medically necessary plays a big role in whether or not the money in a flexible spending account can be used to cover this kind of care.

In order to determine if a treatment is medically necessary, it is important to visit a qualified chiropractor that can submit the appropriate notes and documentation. This is critical, as a patient might be required to prove that the treatment was medically necessary and the only way to do this is to provide documentation from the chiropractor himself. Patients who do not have this kind of documentation might find that their treatments are not covered.

The IRS ultimately determines what is medically necessary and what is not medically necessary. Each person’s flexible spending account will detail exactly what can and cannot be paid for with the money in that person’s account. What is and is not covered will usually vary from plan to plan and from provider to provider. What exactly is covered may even be different from one employer to the next. In order to find out whether or not a certain type of chiropractic treatment is covered or not, a patient should contact their flexible spending account administrator.

If patients do not know who administers the flexible spending account, they should talk to the provider connected to that account or their employer’s human resources department. The best way for patients to get answers to questions about insurance is to talk to the policy provider. They will be able to answer any questions the patient may have.

For more information about chiropractic care, patients should call the experts at Horst Chiropractic. Any of the staff members at the office would be happy to help schedule an appointment or answer any questions.