Are Hearing Aids FSA Eligible? What FSA and HSA Rules Allow

How a hearing aid fits the FSA and HSA definitions

Publication 969 defines qualified medical expenses differently for each account:

• Health FSA. Publication 969 defines qualified medical expenses as those specified in the plan that would qualify, as a general rule, for the medical and dental expenses deduction.
• That deduction. Publication 502, which explains it, includes the cost of a hearing aid and batteries, repairs, and maintenance needed to operate it.
• HSA. Publication 969 defines qualified medical expenses as amounts paid for medical care as defined in Code section 213(d), only to the extent they are not compensated for by insurance or otherwise. Distributions used to pay them are not taxed.

The FSA test has two halves: the expense must fit the deduction rules, and your plan must specify it. The IRS answers the first half; your plan document answers the second.

2026 limits come from two revenue procedures

The IRS sets the 2026 ceilings in two separate revenue procedures, one for cafeteria-plan FSAs and one for HSAs:

• Health FSA salary reduction: $3,400.
• Health FSA carryover, if the plan permits one: up to $680.
• HSA, self-only coverage under a high deductible health plan: $4,400.
• HSA, family coverage: $8,750.

Publication 969, the IRS guide to these accounts, is still the edition for 2025 returns at our reading, and it prints a carryover of up to $660. That figure belongs to its edition year; the 2026 carryover is the $680 above.

The list holds contribution ceilings, not account balances or personal amounts. We do not compute an individual limit from them.

FSA carryover, FSA grace period and HSA balance are three rules

Money left at the end of the year follows a different rule in each case:

• FSA carryover. The plan may specify a lower maximum than the IRS one, and any unused amount above the carryover is forfeited.
• FSA grace period. Instead, a plan can provide a grace period of up to 2 1/2 months after the end of the plan year. A plan with a carryover is not permitted to also provide a grace period for its health FSA.
• HSA balance. Publication 969 states that, as a rule, amounts that remain at the end of the year are carried over to the next year.

One FSA rule helps with a large purchase early in the plan year: you must be able to receive the full amount you elected at any time during the coverage period, regardless of the amount you have actually contributed so far.

Medicare enrollment stops new HSA contributions

Publication 969 sets the rule: beginning with the first month you are enrolled in Medicare, your HSA contribution limit is zero. It applies to periods of retroactive Medicare coverage too, including a delayed Medicare application whose enrollment is later backdated.

The passage is a limit on contributions. The tax-free treatment of distributions for qualified medical expenses is the separate rule quoted in the first section. For what Original Medicare itself pays toward hearing aids, see our Medicare hearing aid page.

Records that keep one expense from a second tax break

Publication 969 lists what HSA records must show:

1. The distributions were exclusively to pay or reimburse qualified medical expenses.
2. Those expenses had not been previously paid or reimbursed from another source.
3. The expenses had not been taken as an itemized deduction in any year.

The records stay with your tax records; they are not sent with the return. For a hearing aid, that means the receipts for the device, batteries and repairs paid from the account. The deduction side of the same rule is on our hearing aid tax deduction page.