Managing Your Benefits

4 Things to Do to Close Out the Plan Year

Published May 28, 2024

With just five weeks remaining in the 2023-24 plan year, here four things you may need or want to do before your medical, dental and wellness benefits reset with the start of the new plan year on July 1.

1. Use up your remaining FSA dollars

If you are enrolled in a Flexible Spending Account, make sure you know the rules around any remaining money you have in your account. The money you set aside expires annually, but some employers offer rollover or a grace period, which affects the date by which you must use any remaining funds at the end of the plan year. If you don’t know your FSA deadlines, or if you are among those transitioning to SchoolCare’s new FSA partner, WEX, make sure to talk to your employer as soon as possible to get the details so your funds don’t expire.

Don’t forget, in addition to medical claims, prescriptions, dental work, eye glasses or contacts there are numerous over-the-counter products you can buy with FSA money, and some may surprise you! Check out the FSA Store online for eligible items you could stock up on, like sunscreen, first aid products, cold medicine and much more, to use up your remaining money.

2. Have VSP? Take advantage of your savings on glasses or contacts

If you’re enrolled in VSP’s supplemental plan for vision hardware, don’t forget to take advantage of your allowance on new glasses or contacts. Stock up on contacts now or update your frames/lenses. Among your VSP benefits you can save up to $130 on a wide selection of frames or up to $180 on featured frame brands every other year with an added 20% savings on any amount over the allowance. You also have an allowance of up to $130 on contact lenses every year.

3. Earn your remaining Good For You! incentives

There’s still time to earn some extra cash for summer fun by completing Good For You! Well-Being Program goals to earn incentives. Each SchoolCare subscriber and their covered spouses can earn up to $600 a year in cash incentives for doing things that invest in your overall health and wellness.

Self-Reported Healthy Events

You can earn more than half of that simply by self-reporting healthy events, up to four per quarter, for a total of $400. These may be things that you are doing to try and improve your health, or the things you do regularly to maintain good health – things like exercising, meditating, volunteering, eating healthfully and more! There’s still time to earn $100 this quarter by logging in and recording completion of your activities. This is an honor system program, and requires you simply input the date you did an activity that contributed to your physical, social, mental or financial well-being. For instructions on how to do so, click here or watch this video. It takes just a couple minutes to complete.

You can earn another $25 each for self-reporting completion of an annual eye exam and/or dental cleaning.

Online Health Coaching

There’s time still to earn $50 each for completed online health coaching programs – many take just four weeks to complete. Get into a groove with exercise, reduce stress, make a plan to lose weight, take on a 28-day quit smoking program and several more to get started making meaningful improvements toward your health, or to track your continued progress toward a happy, healthy you.

Claims-based incentives for preventive care

Several of your incentives are claims-based, meaning once Cigna has processed your claim you will automatically be awarded the incentive – for things like your annual physical, flu shot, certain cancer checks, biometric screenings and OB-GYN exams. If you haven’t had your appointment yet this year, but it’s coming up in June, you will still earn your incentive, it will simply be paid out later in the summer after your claim has processed. Your biometric screening can be done via doctor’s order, or you can self-register for a screening at a Quest Patient Service Center and complete your lab work to discuss with your provider a future date.

4. Pay outstanding claims

If you have outstanding claims to pay from this plan year, you are not required to do so by July 1, but it can feel nice to have everything reset all together at the beginning of July. Login to your myCigna portal to review your Explanation of Benefits for any outstanding bills and ensure you are paying the correct amount. You can even pay some claims right from the portal, using the “manage payment” link under the amount owed.

If you have any questions about outstanding claims, Cigna is available 24/7/365 at 800-244-6224.

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