Parents that use Flex-Pay PHB Rules

[Solandia]

I had a client with a reimbursement like yours. It was such a pain in the rear.If I get back into daycare and deal with FSAs, I will charge an extra fee for it. It cost me an extra 10-15 min/week on paperwork. Just due not always getting the check on the same day as everyone else, early or late...it added extra time for me because it wasn't in the same batch as everyone else's. Or, I had to do an trip to the bank, or hold it until the next week.

This parent's was set up like online bill pay, so the parent had to go in & authorize funds, and the company sent out a check from the FSA. Mailing time was about 3 days, usually. There was a cutoff time, so there were times he didn't get the bill pay in on time, because he was waiting for the contribution from his paycheck to post to his FSA account. I still had to do invoice & receipt (which I only do a weekly receipt for cash clients) because that was what the company required. Added up for the year, it was about an extra 15 hours just because they had this particular FSA company. I do/did not consider this a normal operating expense, and in the future I will attach a price to it. Unfortunately, this particular parent's company had been a more traditional FSA where all I had to do was sign a paper with the total daycare fees once per quarter - no receipts or invoices, and the reimbursed the parent. Idk why the company changed it, but it was horrible.

[Annalee]

What do you mean by flex pay?

I have families that use a flexible spending account where they decide at the beginning of the year how much they want with held from their paychecks to cover daycare but what my families do is pay their child care costs to me themselves and then take the receipts I issue and request to be reimbursed themselves.

Another family I have that uses it just brings me a form every 3 months or so and has me fill it out verifying the child care costs etc and the flex account people send them a check.

I receive NO money directly from the flex account and I don't allow families to pay me after they get reimbursed. They are required to pay up front like everyone else and get reimbursed through their flex people.....it has nothing to do with me other than me providing a signed paper every couple months or making sure the family has a receipt.

If that is the type of flex account you are referring to, it shouldn't really have anything to do with you...

I have a parent that does just as you mentioned....I fill out a form every so often!