Increase employee benefit program satisfaction with a Visa card, including Health Savings Accounts (HSA), Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) or Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRA).
Save your employees — and your administrators — time and effort by adding Visa Healthcare and Benefit cards to your health benefit program. Employees can use their HSA, FSA or HRA cards to pay for qualified medical expenses wherever Visa Debit cards are accepted.
*Visa’s Zero Liability Policy does not apply to certain commercial card and anonymous prepaid card transactions or transactions not processed by Visa. Cardholders must use care in protecting their card and notify their issuing financial institution immediately of any unauthorized use. Contact your issuer for more details.
With a Visa Healthcare and Benefits card, your employees can easily access their benefit funds without having to pay out-of-pocket first and seek reimbursement.
Check with your tax or benefits adviser to determine which account may be best for your company and your employees.
Key: 
Included feature 
Not included feature
| Benefit | HSA | FSA | HRA |
| Pre-Tax deductions | | | |
| Interest-bearing | | | |
| Portable | | | |
| Individual-owned | | | |
| Employer-owned | | | |
| Employer contributions | | | |
| Employee/individual contributions | | | |
Associated with HDHPs If a limited-purpose FSA is selected, it can be used with a HDHP. |
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Annual contribution rollover Employers may offer both FSAs and HRAs with carryover features. For FSAs, employers can allow employees to carry over up to $660 in unused funds. HRAs have no IRS carryover limit, so employers may permit partial or full rollover of remaining balances. HSAs automatically allow unlimited rollover, with all unused funds carrying forward each year. |
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Loss of unused funds Employers may choose to allow carryover options for FSAs and HRAs. If they do not, unused funds will be forfeited at the end of the year. |
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| Annual contribution limits | | | |
Get the controls you and your administrators need, with flexibility and convenience your employees will appreciate.
Find answers to commonly asked questions.
What are IIAS requirements for FSAs and HRAs?
Overview
An Inventory Information Approval System (IIAS) is a feature of a point of sale system that identifies eligible purchases for HRA and FSA plans. The IRS requires non-healthcare merchants that sell eligible healthcare products, such as supermarkets and drug stores, to use an IIAS in order to auto-substantiate FSA and HRA transactions at the point of sale. Healthcare merchants are not required to have an IIAS but may use one as well.
The IRS adopted this requirement in 2006 and most grocery stores, drug stores, and pharmacies have this installed. The rule virtually eliminates accidental non-qualified purchases and helps reduce benefit administration paperwork.
How it works
The IIAS integrates with the merchant's POS system to classify items being purchased as eligible or non-eligible healthcare items. The merchant system then populates IIAS fields in a standard payment transaction and transmits the authorization request to the issuer using the standard payment card process. The issuer is then able to decision the transaction based on the data in the IIAS fields and other transaction fields.
Where Visa FSA and HRA cards can be used
Visa FSA and HRA cards can be used at locations that accept Visa Debit Cards.
These include:
- Merchants with a Healthcare Merchant Category Code (MCC), such as doctors, dentists or hospitals
- SIGIS-certified non-healthcare merchants that have implemented an IIAS, such as most drug stores and supermarkets
- IIAS non-healthcare merchants that have implemented their own proprietary IIAS solutions
Benefits
IIAS arrangements facilitate auto-substantiation at the point of sale and help reduce costs for employers and benefit plan administrators. These include decreases in paperwork and other staff expenses, as well as increased employee satisfaction and participation in HRA and FSA programs.
IIAS for cardholders
Here’s information about the Visa FSA or HRA, to help your employees use their cards with confidence.
Less need to send in receipts: IIAS requirements facilitate auto-substantiation at the point of sale and reduce the number of times cardholders have to send in sales receipts after using their Visa FSA and HRA cards.
More places to use the cards: Cardholders can use their Visa FSA or HRA cards to purchase eligible healthcare products at non-healthcare merchants with IIAS in place.
Common reasons cards are declined: Visa FSA and HRA cards may be declined for a number of reasons. Typically, this is either because the card is not activated, there is an insufficient card balance, cardholder made an ineligible purchase or the card was used at a non-IIAS/SIGIS-certified merchant location. Here’s where to go for more information on a specific reason for a Visa FSA or HRA card decline:
- Merchants - contact your acquirer
- Benefit Administrators - contact your processor or issuer
- Employers - contact your benefit administrator
- Cardholders - contact your benefit administrator or follow the instructions on the back of your card
Meeting industry standards
SIGIS - or the Special Interest Group for IIAS Standards - was founded by a group of companies that support FSA and HRA debit card transactions. These companies range from retailers, card issuers, third-party plan administrators, merchant acquirers and processors to financial institutions, trade association groups, software vendors and payment card networks. Their common goal is to establish a voluntary industry standard intended to meet IRS requirements for operating an IIAS. Visa is a founding member of SIGIS and helped lead the effort to develop the industry standards for IIAS.
The IRS IIAS ruling provides that in order for an FSA or HRA payment card to be used, non-medical merchants must verify - in real time - eligible products (under IRS section 213(d)) to ensure purchases made with FSA/HRA funds are restricted to eligible products. The SIGIS IIAS standard defines a process whereby merchants pass transaction information on to the issuer for decisioning to satisfy IRS requirements. Additionally, retailers that implement an IIAS and begin to identify eligible healthcare items on all sales receipts will be more FSA-friendly for all customers. Implementing an IRS-compliant IIAS through SIGIS allows for uniformity in the list of eligible healthcare products and SIGIS quality control through oversight and merchant certification.
How can I promote Visa Healthcare and Benefit cards to my employees?
Visa has created several key print and digital communications that you can use to support your promotion of Visa FSA and HSA cards to your employees. Be sure to customize them with your company's Open Enrollment deadline and registration URL to help drive enrollment. And if you are providing a company match, there is space available to customize your information.
To request your employer support materials today, simply contact your TPA or Visa Account Representative.
Use Visa cards to make expenses work harder for your business, with global acceptance, spending controls and data insights.
1Keep in mind, cardholders will be subject to a penalty tax and federal income tax if eligible medical expenses do not meet or exceed the amount of items purchased using HSA funds plus other HSA withdrawals. If these expenses are insufficient, cardholders are required to pay federal income tax and a 20 percent excise tax on the amount by which HSA withdrawls exceed eligible expenses.