Quick Answer: Crates Health helps you unlock HSA/FSA savings on wellness products in 4 simple steps: check eligibility, get your medical documentation, shop normally, and get reimbursed. The whole process starts with a 2-minute health assessment.
The 4-Step Process
Step 1: Check Your Eligibility
Start by taking a quick health assessment on Crates Health. It takes about 2 minutes and asks about your health profile - things like your wellness routine, any conditions you manage, and what products you'd like to cover.
Based on your answers, we'll show you which products and services in your routine are eligible for HSA/FSA coverage.
Step 2: Get Your Medical Documentation
This is where the magic happens. Our licensed healthcare providers review your health information and issue Letters of Medical Necessity (LMNs) for your eligible products.
An LMN is a document from a licensed healthcare provider (MD, DO, PA, NP) that connects your wellness purchase to a specific health need. It's what makes the product HSA/FSA eligible under IRS rules.
You don't need to: - Visit a doctor's office - Schedule a telehealth appointment - Wait weeks for paperwork
Many LMNs for catalog products are issued within minutes of sign-up. For custom or non-catalog product requests, it typically takes 24-48 hours.
Step 3: Shop and Pay As You Normally Do
Here's something important: you don't shop through Crates. You buy your products exactly where you normally would - Amazon, your gym's front desk, the brand's website, wherever.
Use your regular credit or debit card to make the purchase, then save your itemized receipt (showing product name, date, amount, and merchant).
Why not use your HSA/FSA card directly? Most wellness retailers (gyms, Amazon, supplement brands) aren't set up to accept HSA/FSA cards at checkout. Their merchant category codes don't match what your card processor expects. That's totally normal - reimbursement is the standard path for these purchases.
Step 4: Get Reimbursed
After your purchase:
Upload your itemized receipt to your Crates Health dashboard
Click "Start Reimbursement" to initiate the process
For our 8 supported admins (HealthEquity, Fidelity, Optum, HSA Bank, Bank of America, WEX, Navia, FSAFEDS), our in-house claims team reviews and submits the documentation directly — one-click reimbursement
Your admin processes the claim and returns the funds to the bank account linked to your HSA/FSA
For all other admins, you'll download your LMN from Crates, get your itemized receipt, and submit both to your admin's portal yourself.
Important Things to Know
Get your LMN before you buy. Your LMN needs to be dated on or before your purchase date. Purchases made before your LMN is issued may not be eligible for reimbursement.
Keep your itemized receipts. The IRS can audit you up to 10 years after a transaction, and you'll need proof that your purchase was a qualified medical expense. Crates stores your LMNs and receipts on your dashboard for easy access.
Crates can issue LMNs for any HSA/FSA admin. For direct reimbursement through our platform, we currently support 8 admins: HealthEquity, Fidelity, Optum, HSA Bank, Bank of America, WEX, Navia, and FSAFEDS. For all other admins, you get your LMN from Crates and submit to your admin yourself.
Your membership fee is HSA/FSA eligible too. You can use pre-tax dollars to pay for your Crates subscription.
How Much Can I Save?
When you use pre-tax HSA/FSA dollars, you save your marginal tax rate - typically 30-40% depending on your tax bracket. That means:
A $200/month gym membership → save ~$720-960/year
A $399 Apple Watch → save ~$120-160
$100/month in supplements → save ~$360-480/year
The Crates community has collectively unlocked over $586,000 in HSA/FSA savings.
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