On May 24, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) shared a communication that HealthEquity Inc., which administers FSAFEDS for OPM, sent to FSAFEDS participants. If you participate in FSAFEDS you should have already received this, but we shared it as a stand-alone email and in the Washington Report for all FMA members to ensure they were informed.

Below is an example of the message:

The Federal Flexible Spending Account Program (FSAFEDS) wishes to make all participants aware of incidences of fraud related to the FSAFEDS Program. FSAFEDS has identified a limited number of unauthorized health care FSA (HCFSA) and dependent care FSA (DCFSA) enrollments, leading to unauthorized and unexpected deductions from employees’ pay.

At this time, there is no evidence that our systems have been compromised in any way. Out of an abundance of caution, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has directed that we temporarily disable the enrollment functionality of the FSAFEDS platform. This applies to Qualifying Life Events (QLEs) as well. We will allow you to retroactively adjust your election due to a QLE once the enrollment functionality resumes. You will still be able to submit claims for reimbursement while the enrollment functionality is disabled. We are taking this action to prevent further fraud as additional steps are considered to help mitigate fraudulent activity.

We strongly encourage that you review and continue to regularly monitor your Earnings and Leave Statement and to immediately report any unauthorized deductions for a flexible spending account to FSAFEDS at 877-FSAFEDS (372-3337); 866-353-8058 (TTY); or +1 650-577-5294 (International).

Your vigilance is crucial in helping us address this issue promptly and effectively. FSAFEDS appreciates your cooperation and understanding, and we will continue to communicate with you in the coming days and weeks with relevant updates.