Contract College Option Transfer

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Good morning everyone. This is Melanie Bridges with Inspira Financial. And welcome to our open enrollment session for the Inspira Products.
couple things we're going to go through today is we're going to discuss a little bit about the option transfer period, the 2026 reminders. We're going to do an overview of the health medical care Flexible spending account, the Dependent Care Flexible Spending account, information about the Inspira Member website, the Inspira Card mobile app, and then just some tools and resources.
If you are joining one of our programs.
first we're going to go through the option transfer period reminders.
So Contract College's option transfer period runs December 2025 for coverage effective January 1st, 2026,
there is action required. So to participate in a 2026 FSA, you must enroll during the option transfer period. Your 2026 election does not automatically reenroll you outside of option transfer period.
Changes to your election can only be made with a qualifying life event during the plan year.
How to enroll make sure you enroll through the Cornell's Work Day site in December 2025.
So now we're going to begin by reviewing the Flexible Spending Account health Medical Care FSA option.
The Health Medical Care Flexible Spending account is available to you to offset the financial cost of your eligible medical, dental, vision and prescription drug expenses during the plan year.
Also allowed are certain over-the-counter purchases as well.
For 2026, you can contribute up to $3,400, which is an increase from the 2025 plan year,
per the IRS guidelines. And FSA is to use it or lose it program, meaning you must use the total amount elected for the plan year, or you'll forfeit any remaining balance by the end of the plan year.
Now, the exception to this rule is a carryover provision. Cornell does offer a carryover provision as part of the program that allows you to carry over up to $660 from the 25 plan year into the following year. If you're unable to use your elected amounts during the 25 plan year and for 2026 plan year elections, the carryover increases to $680
each year.
You have until April 30th to submit for reimbursement any incurred claims from the prior plan year. So this means any claims incurred and eligible from your 2026 plan year can still be submitted for payment up until April 30th, 2027.
So let me explain a little bit about the Health medical Care account and how it works. You would determine the amount of money you'd like to set aside on an annual basis to have taken out of your paycheck in equal increments for the entire plan year.
I recommend you review your medical, dental, vision, and pharmacy expenses over the last few years to determine the amount that is best based on you and your family's needs. For a health medical care account, all of your annual contributions will be available on the very first day of the planned year. Even if you've not had all the funds taken out of your paycheck.
This is an IRS rule.
As mentioned previously, Cornell's carryover provision also allows for up to $680 to be carried over from the new 2026. Plan your election into the following plan year. If you're unable to use your full amount that you've elected,
any eligible health care expenses would be covered under your account, but the care must be medically necessary to be considered an eligible expense.
If you have any questions about what is considered a covered benefit, the Inspira website and mobile app both provide ways to determine coverage, as well as contacting the Inspira call center for assistance.
So now we're going to discuss the Dependent Care Spending Account program.
Dependent care funds may be used for child care for children aged 12 and under.
So up to age 13, as well as elder or adult care for child care. You and your spouse must be working full time or seeking full time employment in order to qualify for the child care claims. The purpose of the child care cannot be for primary educational purposes, but it can be a daycare or camp that provides an educational component.
Eligible services include things like preschool, summer day camp, and before and after school programs.
In the situation of elder adult adult daycare, the dependent must be claimed on your taxes and reside with you more than 50% of the time. To be eligible
for dependent care, expenses need to take place or be incurred during the plan year 2026. However, Cornell also has a grace period provision that allows you to continue to incur expenses through March 15th, 2027 that will still apply to your 2026 plan election.
This means you have, from January to January 1st, 2026 through March 15th, 2027 to use your Dependent Care Account election for the 2026 plan year.
Please note that you also have until April 30th to submit any 2026 claims for the 2026 plan year.
the Dependent Care Program works very different than the medical health care count, as the funds must be available in your Inspira dependent care account in order to be available for payment to your daycare provider.
Your maximum contribution per the IRS is $7,500 for the 2026 plan year. This is an increase from the previous year's maximum amount of $5,000. Depending on your tax bracket, you could potentially save up to 30% on daycare expenses based on your pretax savings. Again, the purpose of the Dependent Care program is for you and your spouse to have the ability to work while your dependents are being taken care of.
Note any grant and FSA dependent care amount cannot exceed the total $7,500 annual maximum in the year.
So now we're going to go over some of the tools and resources available to you as an Inspira member, starting with our member website.
Our member website makes it easy for you to manage your account, access important information, including deadlines, as well as reach our customer service center.
You can submit eligible claims through the website. You could pay providers directly or your pay yourself back for eligible expenses. You can also view purchases and verify card transactions, chat with a live customer support specialist and view balance information and again, member specific timelines.
From the account dashboard, you'll see everything you need to make the most out of your account, so there's a help and support section where you can chat with online agents.
Screen, share and view. Frequently asked questions. You can set up notifications account settings specific to what you may need. You can view all your account information as well as important alerts and news. All your documents can also be found under the Document and Form section, and there's also some links directly from the home page that are available under Account Actions.
To view details such as claim transactions and specific claims, you can just view account details
under the View Account Detail section. And this is. You can get here from the main dashboard or from the account section at the top of your dashboard. Again, you can review your spending snapshot so it'll give you a full view of what's available.
You can access your activity and you can complete your to do list. You'll also be able to find, specific claim history and transactions.
As mentioned, you do have an account settings section in the under the, website. And you can manage these to make them specific for you. So you could set up email, text and online alerts for things like balances, activity card transactions and security alerts, as well.
If you enroll in the Health Medical Care Spending account, you'll also receive an Inspira Debit card.
When you receive your Inspira Debit card for the first time, you want to call the number on the card to activate it, and the card is valid through the expiration date or until your eligibility period ends.
You'll receive your personal Identification number, and you simply swipe and select Debit or Credit, and our system automatically will confirm if the funds are available.
Inspira Debit card is a great way for you to pay for your eligible out-of-pocket expenses, including things like co-pays, deductibles, pharmacy, and dental out of vision at cost. If you do use the card, however, there are certain IRS requirements around the use of a card, and in some instances, you may be asked to provide supporting documentation to verify your actual card expense.
Inspira does work behind the scenes to verify what we're able to, but it is important to keep all receipts associated with your card use in the event you're asked to provide the verification needed.
You'll also always receive a written request when information is being requested by Inspira.
In some instances, if verification is not provided, your card could be temporarily and activated
until documentation has been provided. So please make sure you're you're reviewing any requests from Inspira
and for any details or questions, you can review the information on your Inspira account or by calling us directly.
As mentioned, using the Inspira card is really very easy, but it's still important to save all your detailed receipts, statements, and explanation of benefits
because the IRS requires that we verify all card purchases are eligible.
So as a result, as mentioned, we may ask you to send documents to us to verify an expense is truly eligible under the plan.
And if you need to verify an expense, you'll see this on the website.
you may, get a request for documentation letter.
In addition, you can set yourself up to receive debit cards alerts as well.
To help prevent requests for documentation. Use your card for payment. After your insurance confirms the final amount you have to pay.
Do not use the card for estimated or pending amounts.
When you do get a request for documentation, the best form of document to send us is an explanation of benefits from your insurance provider or health plan.
You can also send us detailed receipts or itemized statements, but it definitely must have some key information, such as date of service provider, merchant name, description of the purchase or type of service and the final amount that you have to pay.
Keep in mind, we can't accept documents with a pending or estimated amount due,
even if it's already been paid to the provider.
In order to assist you with your debit card verification request, all information can be found on the Inspire Remember website.
So after you log in, you'll see your account dashboard. And to find out if you have any card transactions that need verification, you just want to select View Account Details.
When you have a card transaction that needs to be verified as an eligible expense, you'll see a tile that says Verify Card Purchases, and you'll just want to click on that section.
This page will show a list of your unverified card purchases. To resolve, you simply select the description or view for the card purchase, and this will take you right to the Transaction Details page, where you can go ahead and verify.
In the gray box, you'll see your options to resolve the unverified card purchase and the button for verify card, and you just want to click on that to get started.
You'll have the ability to click and upload documents, and you can also choose to fax documents as well.
We're now going to discuss a little bit about the Inspira mobile app, and what that can do for you as well.
Our app is available for both Android and Apple platforms. You simply want to download the app from your mobile services app store, and then log in with the same username and password you used to access our website.
The benefits of the mobile app, similar to the website are. You can manage your account, you can pay providers directly. What's great about it is you could take pictures of documentation and pay yourself back for eligible expenses.
You can view purchases and verify card transactions. And we also have a tool where you can access,
a barcode scanner that allows you to determine if there if a certain, transaction is eligible for a health care expense.
As you can see here, from this screen, you can easily see how much you've spent any remaining available funds in a very visual, graph. Important reminders also help you stay in the know, including when FSA dollars may be used before funds might be forfeited.
You can file a claim with ease through the mobile app by uploading supporting documentation or in the case of, say, a dependent care expense.
Just take a picture and it's an easy and efficient way to provide the information needed, especially as mentioned when it comes to submitting a debit dependent care claim.
When uploading, you just take a photo, upload that, or upload a save document. It's really a quick and easy way to complete that claim transaction.
As mentioned, using the inspire debit card is easy, but if there is an instance where you do need to submit documentations, the mobile app again is another great way to utilize it. You can select verify card purchases and then it'll ask you to either upload or fax mail the specific documentation.
Very similar to the the website,
whether in a store or at home.
As members, you enjoy the ease of scanning product barcodes to determine whether it's an eligible health care item covered under the plan. This is a great way, especially towards the end of the year, to potentially utilize some of your, dollars that may still be available to you before the end of the plan.
Year.
And finally, we're just going to review some of the additional tools and resources available to you as inspirer members.
If you go to the Help and Support section under the member website, it gives you access to things like frequently asked questions. There's a resource center with additional information, as well as a very quick and easy way to get to our customer service center by using either chat or email functionality,
agents can utilize something called Code Browse where they're able to assist you by navigating, helping you navigate the site.
On a hands on experience.
If you have questions on what might be a covered expense under the spending account under the Help and Support page, you can also find the Explore Common Eligible Expense Tool
specific to eligible expenses. Once you click into the tab, you can search and sort to find your answers, including any additional information that might be required for an expense to be considered covered under the program.
In summary, you can use the inspire website or the mobile app at any time, along with having the ability to contact the Inspira service team for anything else you may need. Our call center is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. eastern and Saturdays 10 to 3.
I want to thank you for your time today, reviewing the inspired product offerings available to you during this open enrollment season.