Can I use my Company HSA to pay for Pilates?
Recently I was approached by an employee from one of my Bernard Health clients who had a very interesting question. He asked, "Can we use the Health Savings Account for my daughters pilates classes? She is having back problems and the doctor is recommending it as a treatment."
Hmmm...well after doing some digging on what I thought would be a no, I was surprised to find out that my initial thoughts were totally wrong. It turns out that you can actually use your HSA to pay for pilates if your physician writes you an "exercise prescription". How cool is that!
Here an explanation in greater depth thanks to Body TuneupShop.com:
The essential requirement is that you receive an "exercise prescription" for a specific condition from a licensed healthcare provider such as a doctor, chiropractor, acupuncturist, naturopath or osteopath*.
The prescription will be very similar to a pharmaceutical RX in that the Exercise RX will typically list:
- the type of exercise training e.g. corrective exercises/core training/postural exercise
- amount of training
- overall time frame.
For example, the RX would read something like this:
“For treatment of low back pain, corrective exercise/core strength training, 3 times a week for 6 months”.
There you have it. I do want to point out that just because you can pay for pilates with pre-tax HSA dollars does not mean that it necessarily counts toward your medical plan deductilbe. Consult your insurace carrier to find out. And for more advice about Health Savings Account-based health plans give Bernard Health a shout today.
