Thanks to new rules issued by the IRS, submitting receipts to verify over-the-counter (OTC) WageWorks Health Care Card (the Card) purchases will soon be a thing of the past at many of the nation's merchants. The rules, which go into effect January 1, 2008, require that merchants who wish to accept the Card (or any health care debit card) implement an Inventory Information Approval System (IIAS) that is capable of validating whether an item is FSA or HRA eligible at the Point of Sale (POS).
By validating that purchases are only for eligible items at the POS, merchants provide WageWorks with what is needed to verify the transaction without any further action by the Cardholder. That means no more need for participants to send in receipts. (WageWorks does recommend that participants do keep all receipts in any case for IRS purposes.)

While the current roster of IIAS compliant merchants is relatively small (with Walgreens, Wal-Mart*, Sam's Club* and Drugstore.com among them), the list of those that plan on being IIAS certified before or when the rule goes into effect January 1st has over 40 merchants and is growing every day. For your convenience, click here for the most up-to-date list of IIAS certified merchants compiled by the Special Interest Group for IIAS Standards, or go to www.sig-is.org.

(*Please note that this only applies to transactions made at the POS terminal and is not applicable to transactions made online.)

As a member of the industry group responsible for developing the IIAS standards and a founding member of IIASCo, WageWorks is pleased to be part of a process that is advancing health care debit card use and convenience. We are equally happy to report, if the merchants who have implemented or are in the process of implementing IIAS is any indication, that the 2008 benefit year promises to be a very good one for Cardholders, especially those who use their card frequently for OTC items.