There Are Ways to Spend Your FSA or HSA on a Smartwatch

The American secretary for health and social services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. recently praised his program so that all Americans use a laptop over the next four years. This vision is very wrong, at best. However, although portable devices do not replace real health care, understand how to take advantage of your FSA / HSA funds for fitness trackers has never been so relevant. The reality is that yes, you can use these health dollars before taxes for fitness trackers and smart watches – but it is not as simple as marketing suggests.

How to use your FSA / HSA funds to buy portable devices

According to the FSA store, if a device is necessary to treat or monitor a specific medical condition (and not just general well-being), it could be eligible to buy with your health dollars.

However, there is a catch. You need a Letter of medical necessity (LMN). The IRS have judged that fitness trackers and other devices of their type are used to promote its “general health” and are only medically necessary in special circumstances. Your LMN is essentially a doctor’s note required to classify certain purchases such as qualified medical expenses according to IRS directives, proving that the device will be used to treat a legitimate medical condition, such as obesity or heart disease. As long as you submit an LMN to your service administrator, it will most likely be covered.

Certain health monitoring devices are eligible without LMN because they are clearly essential: think of glucose monitors, fertility trackers or blood pressure cuffs. On the other hand, you may find it difficult to have your FSA administrator approved to approve a new Fitbit. Intelligent watches which are intended to follow or simply to contribute to general health and general well-being do not quite respect the threshold to qualify for the purchase with dollars before taxes. That being said, you might be surprised to know which types of devices are indeed eligible HSA / FSA – assuming that you put your hand on an LMN.

When it comes to securing your LMN, you may not even have to make an appointment with the doctor, thanks to third-party players like Truemed. When you browse sites like Coros or Amazfit, you will see the option of “paying with TrueMed” at the checkout. From there, as TrueMed explains, you will have asked yourself a few questions about your health situation, and you will be twinned with a supplier to determine your eligibility. If you are eligible, you will get an LMN that will allow you to use your HSA or FSA funds to finish your purchase, all without ever having to meet your main doctor.

Fitness trackers that you can buy with HSA / FSA funds

Here are some of the main brands with eligible HSA / FSA eligible fitness trackers.

Garmin

Unfortunately, no Garmin watch is eligible for HSA / FSA. However, the following products are eligible for an HSA / FSA purchase:

You can filter by HSA / FSA eligibility and browse all the Garmin items eligible here.

Coros

Coros offers eligibility for FSA / HSA to all their watches and monitors of heart rate thanks to their partnership with TrueMed.

Amazfit

Amazfit recently launched its Helio strap, the third of the three Whoop trackers to be officially announced.

Amazfit is another brand in partnership with TrueMed, which means that as with the coros above, it could be easier for you to get this LMN proving your need for a smartwatch, a sleep tracker, a stress monitor or another strip of screenless fitness. For example, here are some of the eligible FSA / HSA articles in Amazfit:

You can filter by HSA / FSA eligibility and browse more Amazfit options here.

Cry

Although Whoop does not accept FSA / HSA direct payments to the checkout, you can submit complaints for reimbursement for their 12 -month subscription subscription, the WHOOP 4.0 battery and the wireless power supply pack and the basic WHOOP 5.0. The emphasis on Whoop on tension and recovery data can help support medical necessities. There are several ways to file a complaint / submit a refund –See them all here.

Ultrahuman

The air of the Ultrahuman ring – designed to follow the biomarkers in deep health such as the variability of the heart rate (VRC), the sleep stages and the recovery models – is marketed as an eligible HSA / FSA, as well as their traveling ring charger and the cardio adaptability electric tray.

Ultrahuman is associated with SIKA and FLEX payment processors. However, according to the Ultrahuman site, their intelligent rings offer continuous health data which is always eligible for FSA / HSA, which means that it is not necessary for a LMN to buy.

With

With place their smart watches as FSA / HSA, emphasizing medical functionalities such as ECG surveillance and sleep monitoring. Their approach is strongly based on the angle of medical devices, which can strengthen LMN justifications. Eligible watches include:

HSA / FSA eligibility filter and browse more options with it.

The bottom line

The eligibility for FSA / HSA with portable devices is real but restrictive. Some employers’ FSA administrators may take a closer look at portable purchases. Companies like Coros are the most transparent to facilitate the required medical consultation, while others were walking eligibility without clearly explaining the LMN barrier. For consumers, this means budgeting not only for the device, but for the process of consulting and documentation of health care required to justify the purchase. However, the promise to use dollars of health before taxes for portable devices is real.

And remember, the most important aspect of shopping with HSA funds is the holding of files. Make sure to keep each receipt and LMN – for each HSA purchase you make.