Buying Sunscreen With Your FSA

As the summer season begins, I’m reminded of a wonderful item that’s FSA-eligible, which I wasn’t aware of until recently. It’s expensive, used a lot, and prevents skin cancer. Yep…it’s sunscreen!  Isn’t it wonderful that it can be used by our FSA? So, ready for summer, my wife and I ran out to get some sunscreen recently at Target. We tried to buy a Sun Bum 30 SPF sunscreen (gluten-free and vegan, by the way) with our FSA card:

However, at checkout, Target’s IIAS system didn’t recognize either products, so our FSA card was rejected for the purchase (boo):

Since I was pretty certain that I’ve read that sunscreen is FSA-eligible, I went ahead and paid the sunscreen out-of-pocket. When I got home, I promptly submitted my reimbursement + receipt (taken with my iPhone) to my FSA website. After a couple days, they accepted the Sun Bum sunscreen as an Over-The-Counter (OTC) medial supply:

Yay! However, I’m not sure why Target’s checkout system didn’t recognize that the Sun Bum SPF 30 sunscreen is FSA-eligible. It’s concerning that the IIAS system that’s supposed to automatically recognize FSA items isn’t foolproof. But, this example goes to show me that using my FSA card doesn’t always correctly catch eligible items at the register. At the end of the day, knowing what items are eligible will give you confidence to go ahead and purchase them. Then you know you’ll be able to get reimbursed with your FSA account. Happy sun-tanning this summer, and be sure to use plenty of that FSA-discounted sunscreen to avoid skin diseases!

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