As of the beginning of the year, my employer is using PayFlex Systems to administer their healthcare flexible spending account (FSA).
My experience in the past with third-party FSA administrators has ranged from mediocre to bad. However, this time I’m writing to give kudos, because when I went today to submit my first claim through PayFlex’s self-service Web site, I discovered that they have an intelligent, well-designed, innovative claim submission process, the kind that makes you say, “Why the heck can’t everybody do things this way?”
When you log into the Web site and click “Express Claims”, you are immediately brought to a screen where you enter the details of each charge you’re submitting (expense type, date, amount). The data entry form is intuitive and responsive, and it doesn’t make you fill out the fields that aren’t needed.
When you’re done and click “Submit”, you are brought to a confirmation screen where you can review all of the information you entered and go back to correct any mistakes.
This is cool. You are entering your data directly into their database, which means that transcription errors and data-entry delays are eliminated. Furthermore, since they don’t have to pay people to do data entry, their costs are presumably lower, and one would hope that the cost savings is passed on to my employer in the form of lower administrative fees.
But that’s not even the coolest thing. Once you confirm that all of the information is correct, you arrive at the receipt submission screen. They offer you the choice between faxing in your receipts and uploading them as a PDF file produced by a scanner. Since scanners are common nowadays and pretty much every scanner can produce PDFs, uploading a PDF is less trouble for many people than faxing. Furthermore, the uploaded file is linked immediately and automatically to the claim, once again reducing both delays and processing costs.
Of course, PayFlex also offers the option of filling out a claim form on paper and submitting it by mail or fax, so people who don’t feel comfortable using the online process can still submit claims.
For more information about PayFlex’s claim submission process, see their FAQ page.
Nice job, PayFlex!
UPDATE: I received an explanation of benefits from PayFlex via email, indicating that my claim had been paid, less than 15 hours after I filed my claim. Wow!
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Tags: FSA, PayFlex
Glad you like PayFlex. I wonder if it is still true now that the year is at an end.
We started with PayFlex in January 2008 and have had nothing but problems. Each person you talk to at PayFlex gives you a different story as to why your card is inactive, requests for documents supposedly have been sent but never received by us, we now “owe” PayFlex $118 for 2008 expenses which came up as denied when they recently audited the account. It is too late to submit documentation for those expenses…of course, the supposed audit occurred months after the deadline to submit documentation had passed. We have spent many, many hours on the phone with PayFlex and our card is always inactive, unbekownst to us until we go to use it. Every time the card is inactive and I call to ask why, there is always an “audit” that has supposedly occurred. In the end, we have decided not to have an FSA account for 2010 as it costs much more time in phone calls and re-sending documentation because their system “kicked out” one or more pages. Their answer is that we are to be monitoring our account continuously through mypayflex, and if we don’t, it’s not their responsibility that we have not received requests for documentation, that our card is inactive and we have not been notified, and on and on. Their other excuse is that the mess is caused by IRS regulations. Prior to having PayFlex, the company used WorkFlex. We never, ever had one single problem with WorkFlex. When they changed over to PayFlex in Jan. 2008, we heard (from other people who had PayFlex) nothing by complaints. After being with them for 2 years, we’ve had it. Would rather pay the taxes on the money than the hassle of dealing with them. They claim we owe them $118 (2008) for 4 medical visits (which are actually prescriptins) and 1 prescription which is actually a medical visit. You can talk to 5 different people in one day, in a matter of hours really, and you will get 5 different amounts of discrepancies. Apparently no one at PayFlex is looking at the same data when you call.
Our card is currently inactive, of course. We are not going to have it re-activated, but simply pay the bills ourselves and then submit claims to PayFlex for the last 2 months of 2009.
If you’ve had good luck with PayFlex, from our personal experience and from what we’ve heard from others, you one a very few lucky ones.
Tag: FSA, PayFlex
At some point during 2009, PayFlex no longer accepts computer files (according to person I spoke to last week 11/09). DO NOT TRUST THEIR FAX SYSTEM. Documents faxed do not go to a fax machine, but directly into the computer system. The system kicks out random pages and even though your cover page says 1 of 5 pages, and your fax journal says 5 pages were sent they will claim not to have received some (and sometimes all) of the documentation you sent. THEY DO NOT NOTIFY YOU IF ALL PAGES SENT WERE NOT RECEIVED…or as they say, “kicked out”. We have had to send the same documentation time and time again. Yet when we log on to mypayflex, it shows the documentation was received the first time it was faxed.
Wow. I’m sorry you’ve had so much trouble. I must say that my experience has been entirely different. We’ve never had a problem using our debit card, or submitting PDF files through their Web site, and we’ve never been asked to provide documentation for a valid FSA charge we put on the debit card.
Payflex is horrible!!! PLEASE someone find a senator or congressmen that would be able to help us get these people in line. Anyone know of how to make these people be more reliable? They don’t care and yet they have our money.
It’s too bad; their website now rejects every PDF as being invalid.
Since when? I successfully submitted a PDF as recently as February 10.
Interesting. Sounds like you either love them or hate them. I am looking for a new FSA administrator, and was going to include them. Now not so sure.