Health Care Pre-Tax Expense Account

The "Use It or Lose It" Rule

Due to an IRS regulation known as "use it or lose it", if you don’t use the full balance in your Pre-Tax Expense Account each plan year, you lose that unused money.

You can use the Health Care Pre-Tax Expense Account to pay for eligible expenses for yourself, your spouse, and your dependents. Eligible expenses are generally ones that the Internal Revenue Service would consider deductible for income tax purposes. You can claim eligible expenses up to your annual election amount even if you haven’t contributed the full amount of the expenses to your account yet.

If you're covered under Penn's CVS Caremark prescription drug plan and you enroll in the Health Care Pre-Tax Expense Account, you’ll be automatically reimbursed for your prescription drugs.

You can use your CVS ExtraCare Health Card to receive 20% savings on CVS/pharmacy brand items that are health-related and eligible for reimbursement under the Health Care Pre-Tax Expense Account.

Contribution Limit

The maximum amount you can contribute is:

$4,000 for full-time employees
$1,000 for part-time employees with two years of continuous service

If your spouse is also employed by the University, he/she can participate separately and contribute up to his/her allowable maximum.

Eligible Expenses

View a list of eligible expenses under the Health Care Pre-Tax Expense Account.

Note: If you participate in the Aetna High Deductible Health Plan, you’re not eligible to participate in the Health Care Pre-Tax Expense Account.