The Health Care Spending Accounts (HCSA) are tax-free vehicles for financing the healthcare costs of business owners and employees. It is a comprehensive benefits plan that provides flexible coverage, and is a management tool that controls cost for business owners and their employees.
It provides the security of a benefit plan without expensive premiums or restrictions. HCSA are self-funded plans, endorsed by the Canada Revenue Agency. Today, they are popular forms of health spending accounts in the Canadian market.
HCSA Offers:
- 100% reimbursement
Employees are reimbursed for 100% of their health, dental and vision expenses (up to the plan maximum), with tax-free dollars.
- Flexibility of coverage
HCSA - Employee Health Spending Accounts can be used for medically necessary health, dental or vision expenses. Employees use Health Spending Account credits on the services they need, when they need them.
- Tax savings
As a business owner, you realize tax savings when you purchase health and dental expenses with before-tax dollars - an immediate saving equal to your personal tax bracket. Health expenses become a tax-deductible business expense, and reimbursements are paid to you personally, tax free.
- Low administration costs
Not only are there no premiums to pay, but also our PHSP offers the lowest administrator fees in the industry.
- Cost control
Employers decide how many credits / dollars will be applied to employees' Health Spending Accounts each year. Therefore, the employer knows the maximum amount to be spent on the employee benefit plan in a given year.
HCSA's can pay health, dental and vision care expenses not reimbursed under other benefits plans. CRA interpretation bulletin IT-339R2
The following eligible expenses can be claimed through a Health Care Spending Account (HCSA):
| MEDICAL SERVICES | |
| Acupuncturist (qualified) | Optometrist |
| Chiropodist | Orthodontist |
| Chiropractor | Osteopath |
| Christian Science Practitioner | Orthopedist |
| Dental Hygienist | Pediatrician |
| Dental Mechanic | Physician |
| Dentist | Physiotherapist |
| Dermatologist | Plastic Surgeon |
| Dietician | Podiatrist |
| Gynecologist | Practical Nurse |
| Massage Therapist | Psychiatrist |
| Naturopath | Psychoanalyst |
| Neurologist | Psychologist |
| Nutritionist | Radiologist |
| Obstetrician | Registered Nurse |
| Oculist | Speech Therapist |
| Occupational Therapist | Surgeon |
| Ophthalmologist | Therapist |
| Optician | Tutor for Impaired (if prescribed) |
| DENTAL SERVICES | |
| Crowns & Bridges | Periodontal Gum Treatment |
| Dental X-Rays | Oral Surgery |
| Dental Repair and Replacement | Orthodontics |
| Examinations | Root Canals |
| Extractions | Straightening Teeth |
| Filling Teeth | Veneers |
| Hygienist |
| PRESCRIBED VISION CARE | |
| Eye Glasses | Eye Exams |
| Frames & Fittings | Laser Eye Surgery |
| Contact Lenses |
| LABORATORY SERVICES | |
| Blood Tests | Spinal Fluid Tests |
| Cardiographs | Stool Examination |
| Diagnostics Fees | Urine Analyses |
| Metabolism Tests | X-Ray Examination |
| HOSPITAL SERVICES | |
| Anesthetist | Use of Operating Room |
| Hospital Bills | Vaccines |
| Oxygen Masks, Tent | X-Ray Technician |
| MEDICATIONS | |
| All Prescription Drugs | Liver Extract - injectable for pernicious anemia |
| Birth Control Pills | Oxygen |
| Chinese Medicine (if prescribed) | Vitamin B12 - for pernicious anemia |
| Insulin or Substitutes | Viagra (if prescribed) |
| Over the counter medicines, if prescribed by a qualified medical practitioners and recorded by a licensed pharmacist | Tapes or Tablets-for sugar content tests by Diabetics, if prescribed |
| PRESCRIBED TREATMENTS | |
| Alcoholism & Detox Treatments | Nursing (by Registered Nurse) |
| Blood Transfusion | Organ Transplants |
| Bone Marrow Transplants | Out of country Medical Care |
| CAT Scans | Pre-Natal, Post Natal Treatments |
| Diathermy | Psychotherapy |
| Drug Addiction Therapy | Radium Therapy |
| Electric Shock Treatments | Speech Pathology or Audiology |
| Fertility Treatments | Sterilizations |
| Healing Services | Ultra-violet Ray Treatments |
| Hearing Aids | Vasectomy |
| Hydrotherapy | Whirlpool Baths |
| Insulin Treatments & Injections | X-Ray Treatments |
| MRI Scans |
| PRESCRIPTION APPARATUS |
| An external breast prosthesis |
| Any device designed to assist walking where the individual has a mobility impairment |
| Devices designed to assist a person to use bathtubs, showers, or toilets |
| Devices designed to enable individuals with a mobility impairment to operate a vehicle |
| Devices used by individuals suffering from a chronic respiratory ailment or a severe chronic immune system dysregulation |
| Electronic or computerized environmental control systems for individuals with severe and prolonged mobility restrictions |
| Electronic speech synthesizers for mute individuals |
| Equipment that enables deaf or mute persons to make and receive telephone calls including visual ringing indicators, acoustic coupler teletyping, which makes telephone communication possible with other persons |
| Extremity pumps or elastic support hose to reduce lymph edema (swelling) |
| Heart monitors or pace makers |
| Hospital beds, if required in home |
| Inductive coupling osteogenesis stimulator |
| Infusion pumps for Diabetics, including peripherals |
| Monitors attached to babies identified as being prone to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) |
| Optical scanners or similar devices for a blind individual to enable him/her to read print |
| Orthopedic shoes or boots |
| Orthotics |
| Oxygen tent |
| Power operated guided chair installation for stairways |
| Power operated guided lifts and transportation equipment designed to allow access to buildings, vehicles, or to allow wheelchair access to a vehicle |
| Synthetic speech systems, Braille printers, and large print-on-screen devices that enable blind persons to utilize computers |
| Swelling Syringes |
| Television closed captioning decoders |
| Wigs if required as a result of disease, accident, or medical treatment |
| OTHER EXPENSES |
| Ambulance Charges |
| Any apparatus or material, paid to a doctor, nurse or hospital |
| Any device to aid the hearing of a deaf person including bone conduction telephone receivers, extra loud audible signals and devices to permit volume adjustment of telephone equipment above normal levels |
| Artificial eye |
| Artificial kidney machine, including installation, operating costs |
| Artificial limb |
| Blood sugar level measuring devices for Diabetics |
| Brace for a limb |
| Catheters, catheter trays, tubing, diapers, disposable briefs required by incontinent persons |
| Colostomy pads |
| Crutches |
| Fees for Private Health Services Plan (PHSP) |
| Fees or premiums for non government Health Insurance Plans (such as Blue Cross or Green Shield) |
| Hearing aid |
| Hernia Truss |
| Home maker service - Canadian Red Cross |
| Home care - Victorian Order of Nurses |
| Hydraulic wheelchair lifts for a vehicle |
| Illestomy pads |
| Incremental cost of gluten free food products for celiac disease |
| Iron lung |
| Laryngeal speaking aid |
| Moving expenses to a more accessible residence for mobility impaired - up to $2000 |
| Reasonable costs for adapting a residence to accommodate a disabled person (e.g. wheelchair ramp, lifts, bath facilities, driveway, new construction) |
| Rehabilitative therapy, Lip reading and sign language training |
| Rocking bed for Polio victim |
| Sign language interpreter |
| Specially trained animals to assist blind, deaf, or severely impaired persons, including the cost of its care and maintenance |
| Spinal Brace |
| Transportation, meals and accommodations. Reasonable expenses for meals, accommodation and travel costs for patient and accompanying attendant may be deductible if: 1. Equivalent medical services are not available locally; 2. The route traveled is reasonably direct; 3. Medical treatment is reasonable and distance traveled is at least 80 kilometers |
| Transportation costs to a hospital, clinic or doctor's office to obtain services not otherwise available |
| Van modifications - adapted to transport a wheelchair to a maximum of $5000 or 20% of the value |
| Wheelchair |
| NOT COVERED |
| Acupuncture treatments if they are not performed by a licensed physician |
| Antiseptic diaper service |
| Birth control devices (non prescription) |
| Health programs offered by resort hotels, health clubs |
| Illegal operations, treatment or drugs |
| Maternity clothes |
| Medical expenses for which you are reimbursed or are entitled to be reimbursed from other plans |
| Payments to a municipality where the municipality employed a doctor to provide medical services to the residents of the municipality |
| Provincial Health Care Premiums |
| Scales for weighing food |
| Special foods or beverages are not deductible expense for tax purposes. However, if said food or beverages are taken to alleviate or treat an illness and not nutritional, they may be allowed. Such claims must be accompanied by a letter from a medical doctor |
| Toothpaste |
