Due to the curtailment of services during the COVID-19 pandemic, plan members of a health care spending account (“HCSA”) may not be able to use the credits allocated to the HCSA before they expire, so that they will be forfeited. The terms of the HCSA would in most cases comply with IT-529, which provides that a HCSA can permit the carry-forward of either unused credits or eligible medical expenses (but not both) for a period not exceeding 12 months without generally disqualifying the HCSA from being a private health services plan, for purposes of the exemption in s. 6(1)(a)(i). CRA stated:
In these extraordinary circumstances, a HCSA that qualifies as a PHSP and which has unused credits expiring between March 15 and December 31, 2020, could temporarily permit the carry forward of those unused credits for a reasonable period to allow members to access services that were otherwise restricted during the COVID-19 outbreak. A carry-forward period of up to six months would generally be considered reasonable and would not, in and of itself, disqualify the HCSA from being a PHSP.