Purchasing catheters with a FSA?

[DA Aquamaster]

James I work with people who use condom caths as they lack bladder control (paraplegia and quadraplegia) and with people with the same disabilities who use foley caths every day to allow their bladder to completely empty to avoid further medical complications.

THOSE individuals are the reason that catheters are an allowable HSA expense. The regulations that allow them to be purchased as an allowable medical expense and the congressional intent behind the authorizing legislation was clearly not intended to allow James, Cave Diver, to save a few dollars cave diving.

To in any way try to capitalize on an FSA account and apply it to your diving related condom caths is insulting to people who have to use them for legitimate medical reasons and who use an FSA to offset disability related expenses.

I guess if there is an upside to this it's that you are only a DCS hit away from potentially having to use them for legitimate medical reasons....

To state you are only trying to "understand" the rules suggests you are at least considering what most reasonable people would consider to be unethical behavior or you are an idiot. I'll let you choose.

Sunscreen, etc are similarly allowed for similar health related reasons for persons who are sun sensitive due to side effects of meds, a few specific skin conditions or due to elevated risk of skin cancer. They are not on the approved list so you can go hang out on the beach and work on a tan. But at least in that case there is some preventative medical benefit for the user.

****** is on the list for people who need it to achieve normal function but not for people who just want to enhance normal performance. In one case it's obviously ethical to use HSA money for it and in the other it's obviously not.

It's not rocket science.

[jj1987]

James I work with people who use condom caths as they lack bladder control (paraplegia and quadraplegia) and with people with the same disabilities who use foley caths every day to allow their bladder to completely empty to avoid further medical complications.

THOSE individuals are the reason that catheters are an allowable HSA expense. The regulations that allow them to be purchased as an allowable medical expense and the congressional intent behind the authorizing legislation was clearly not intended to allow James, Cave Diver, to save a few dollars cave diving.

To in any way try to capitalize on an FSA account and apply it to your diving related condom caths is insulting to people who have to use them for legitimate medical reasons and who use an FSA to offset disability related expenses.

I guess if there is an upside to this it's that you are only a DCS hit away from potentially having to use them for legitimate medical reasons....

Larry,

Had items that were medical related but strictly recreational been clearly marked allowed, I would have never asked, and I would 100% agree with you it's unethical to buy recreational items under a FSA account.

In your edit, you clearly avoid the condom and via.gra examples, but that's neither here nor there I suppose, since it's clear none of us participating in this thread can find any definition.