If you, like me, are on a health span wellness journey and are currently covered by a traditional medical health insurance plan through your employer, you’ve probably run into the challenge of having proactive wellness protocol paid under your plan. Insurance coverage in the United States focuses on intervention after injury or illness has occurred.
For years I’ve lobbied my employer for a Health/Flexible Spending Account benefit – which basically means you can have a portion of your paycheck diverted to an account that can then be used to reimburse for purchases made outside of the insurance coverage for health and wellness services and items.
Although my employer finally provided the benefit earlier this year, most expenses still require a “medical necessity” scenario to qualify for reimbursement. Enter TrueMed.
TrueMed is a new solution to the obstacle of wellness being treated as an elective. According to their website:
“Chronic disease prevention doesn’t come from a prescription pad, a doctor’s office, or a surgeon’s scalpel. We need to incentivize true medicine that prevents and reverses the chronic conditions that plague the US today.”
FSA/HAS accounts let you access pre-tax dollars for your purchases, saving on average about 30% of the full purchase price. TrueMed provides, when needed, those letters of medical necessity as described:
“Truemed connects customers with a medical practitioner to determine what products or services may treat, mitigate, or prevent certain health conditions.”
In my case, this was needed to access reimbursement for my Lifeforce Diagnostic Testing. I filled out a questionnaire with TrueMed, a doctor reviewed it and provided the letter within a few days. My FSA plan (through Optum Financial) then approved the reimbursement for my testing. Simple!
The next time you are purchasing wellness items or services, check for the FSA/HAS Eligible notation and the TrueMed link to see if this new option is available.
