Millions of American workers are sitting on money they'll forfeit if they don't act soon.
It's not a scam and it's not a bonus — it's the leftover cash in their flexible spending account, and a mid-March deadline is quietly draining it.
If your employer offers a health FSA, you elected to set aside pre-tax dollars last fall for 2025 expenses.
That money doesn't roll over automatically.
Depending on your plan, you either had until December 31 to spend it, or your employer gave you a grace period stretching to March 15.
Miss it, and the balance goes back to your company.
The average FSA contribution runs well over $1,000 a year, and surveys consistently find that a meaningful share of accountholders leave hundreds behind.
For a household already squeezed by grocery bills and rent, watching $400 evaporate because you forgot to book an eye exam is a painful, avoidable loss.
What actually counts as a qualifying expense is broader than most people think.
Prescription glasses and contacts, dental cleanings, copays, insulin, bandages, menstrual products, and even some over-the-counter medicines now qualify thanks to looser rules passed in recent years.
So do many pregnancy tests and breast pumps.
Every FSA administrator — think HealthEquity, WageWorks, or your insurer's portal — publishes an eligible-expense list and usually has a searchable tool.
Two minutes there beats losing four figures.
You generally have to incur the expense by your plan's deadline, not just order the product.
A pair of glasses purchased March 14 counts if your grace period runs through March 15.
But a reimbursement request filed weeks later still needs that dated receipt, so keep every one.
If you're scrambling, the fastest moves are a dental cleaning, a refill on prescriptions, an eye exam with new lenses, or stocking up on eligible OTC items.
Some plans also let you submit expenses for dependents, so a child's braces payment or a spouse's contact lenses can absorb the balance.
One more wrinkle worth checking: a limited-purpose FSA tied to an HSA, or a dependent care FSA, may follow different rules and different deadlines.
Call your benefits line rather than assuming.
A five-minute phone call is cheap insurance against a forfeiture.
Employers aren't required to offer a grace period or a carryover, and many offer one or the other, not both.
If your plan allows a carryover, it's typically capped around $660 for the year ahead — helpful, but nowhere near enough to rescue a large balance.
FSAs reward people who plan and punish people who don't, which is a strange design for a benefit meant to help working families.
Until that changes, the deadline is on you.
Our take: treat your FSA balance like a gift card with an expiration date and spend it deliberately, not in a panicked March 14 shopping spree.
Set a calendar reminder for early January next year, and only contribute what you're confident you'll use.
Final Thoughts
The tax savings are real, but they're only worth it if the money actually gets spent.