A limited purpose FSA covers eligible expenses in three categories only: dental care, vision care, and preventive care. That narrow scope is deliberate. It lets you keep contributing to a health savings account, which the IRS would otherwise block if your FSA reimbursed general medical expenses.1Internal Revenue Service. Publication 969 (2025), Health Savings Accounts and Other Tax-Favored Health Plans – Section: Other Employee Health Plans Everything below is what you can actually spend the money on, plus the rules that decide whether a specific charge will clear.
Eligible Dental Expenses
Most non-cosmetic dental work qualifies. That includes cleanings, fillings, crowns, bridges, root canals, extractions, and dentures.2FSAFEDS. Eligible Limited Expense Health Care FSA (LEX HCFSA) Expenses Orthodontia is also eligible, which covers traditional braces and clear aligners such as Invisalign. Dental copayments and deductibles you pay out of pocket qualify too.
Orthodontic work is where an LPFSA often earns its keep. Treatment plans routinely run into the thousands, and spreading those payments against a pre-tax election reduces the real cost by whatever your combined federal and FICA rate happens to be.
Eligible Vision Expenses
Eye exams, prescription eyeglasses, prescription sunglasses, contact lenses, contact lens solution, and vision correction surgery such as LASIK all qualify.2FSAFEDS. Eligible Limited Expense Health Care FSA (LEX HCFSA) Expenses Over-the-counter eye drops and eye treatments are also eligible.
General hygiene products are not. Toothbrushes, lotion, and soap fail the test because they aren’t correcting or treating a specific condition. The item has to serve a medical or corrective purpose.
Preventive Care Expenses
This is the category most participants miss. Because a high deductible health plan is allowed to cover preventive care before you meet your deductible, an LPFSA can reimburse those same preventive costs without disqualifying you from HSA contributions.1Internal Revenue Service. Publication 969 (2025), Health Savings Accounts and Other Tax-Favored Health Plans – Section: Other Employee Health Plans Preventive care generally includes annual physicals, immunizations, and certain health screenings.
What counts as preventive on your specific plan is not identical everywhere. Ask your plan administrator for the covered list before you submit a claim that falls outside dental or vision.
What the LPFSA Will Not Cover
Anything that looks like a general medical expense is off limits. Doctor visit copays for non-preventive care, prescription drugs, hospital bills, urgent care visits, and lab work all fail. That’s the entire design of the account. Keeping general medical spending out of the LPFSA is what preserves your HSA eligibility, so the restriction is a feature rather than a gap.
If you need to spend pre-tax dollars on any of those excluded items, that’s what the paired HSA is for.
When the Eligible List Can Expand: Post-Deductible FSAs
Some employers offer a variation called a post-deductible FSA. It starts the plan year as a limited purpose account, covering only dental, vision, and preventive care, and then converts to a general-purpose FSA once you’ve met your HDHP’s annual deductible. After that point, remaining funds can pay for any qualified medical expense.
The timing rule matters. Expenses incurred before you satisfied the deductible stay locked to dental, vision, and preventive care even if you file the claim later. For 2026, the minimum HDHP deductible is $1,700 for self-only coverage and $3,400 for family coverage, so your conversion point depends on your specific plan.3Internal Revenue Service. Notice 2026-5 – Expanded Availability of Health Savings Accounts Not every employer offers post-deductible functionality, so check your benefits materials before assuming your account will open up mid-year.
How to Get an Eligible Expense Reimbursed
There are two ways to access the money, and both require proof that the charge was eligible.
Debit Card
Most plans issue a debit card linked to the account. When you use it at a dental or vision provider, the merchant category code often auto-substantiates the transaction at the point of sale. Save the receipts anyway. Plan administrators can request documentation later, and a charge you can’t back up gets flagged as improper.
Manual Claim
For manual reimbursement, submit a claim form with an itemized receipt showing the date of service, a description of what was performed or purchased, and the amount you paid. A credit card statement or a balance-due notice will not clear. The administrator has to see what the money bought, not just that money moved.4Internal Revenue Service. IRS – Eligible Employees Can Use Tax-Free Dollars for Medical Expenses
2026 Contribution Limits
For the 2026 plan year, you can contribute up to $3,400 to an LPFSA through pre-tax payroll deductions, a $100 increase from the 2025 limit of $3,300.5Internal Revenue Service. Revenue Procedure 2025-32 Your employer can set a lower cap, so check the plan documents before assuming the full amount is available.
You pick your contribution during open enrollment, and the election locks in for the plan year. Mid-year changes require a qualifying life event such as marriage, divorce, or the birth of a child.6Internal Revenue Service. Publication 969 (2025), Health Savings Accounts and Other Tax-Favored Health Plans – Section: Health Flexible Spending Arrangement If you’re pairing the LPFSA with an HSA, the 2026 HSA limits are $4,400 for self-only coverage and $8,750 for family coverage, so both elections can be sized together.3Internal Revenue Service. Notice 2026-5 – Expanded Availability of Health Savings Accounts
One useful quirk when planning your election: your full annual election is available for reimbursement on the first day of the plan year, before most of it has been deducted from your paychecks.7Internal Revenue Service. Modification of Use-or-Lose Rule For Health Flexible Spending Arrangements If you elect $3,400 and schedule LASIK in January, the full amount is there to use. Payroll catches up over the rest of the year.
Deadlines to Spend Eligible Dollars
LPFSAs run on use-it-or-lose-it. Money left in the account when the plan year ends is forfeited unless your employer offers one of two safety valves. They aren’t required to offer either, and they cannot offer both.
Grace Period
A grace period gives you an extra two and a half months after the plan year ends to incur new eligible expenses against your leftover balance. On a calendar-year plan, that runs through March 15.8Internal Revenue Service. Publication 969 (2025), Health Savings Accounts and Other Tax-Favored Health Plans – Section: Balance in an FSA A dental cleaning or an eye exam scheduled in that window can rescue a balance you’d otherwise lose.
Carryover
Instead of a grace period, some employers let you roll a portion of unused funds into the next plan year. For 2026, the maximum carryover is $680.5Internal Revenue Service. Revenue Procedure 2025-32 Employers can set a lower limit, and anything above the cap is forfeited.
Run-Out Period
The run-out period is separate from the grace period and gets confused with it every year. A run-out period, typically 90 days after the plan year ends, is the window for filing claims on expenses you already incurred during the plan year. You aren’t spending new money; you’re finishing paperwork. Most plans include a run-out period regardless of whether they offer a grace period or a carryover, but the exact deadline is in your plan documents.