Flexible Spending Accounts

CAFETERIA PLAN

CNM offers employees a way to put more dollars in your paycheck through the three Cafeteria plan payroll deductions.  Eligible employees can enroll in any or all of the plans within his or her first 31 days of hire or during the annual Open Enrollment held in November. Open enrollment information is communicated through the PIO Newslink and the employee newsletter Express.  

The most common plan of the three is the Pre-tax Premium Plan. It’s easy, requires no receipts to be submitted and gives the employee more bring home pay.  The plan deducts the cost of insurance premiums for medical, dental and vision from gross earnings each pay period prior to taxes being assessed.

The two remaining plans, the Health Care Spending Account and the Dependent Care Spending Account provide additional opportunity to increase take home pay.  For these accounts employees must elect an annual or pay period deduction to be withheld based on pre-determined health care or child care expenses for the plan year.  This amount is then payroll deducted prior to the calculation of taxes as in the Pre-tax Premium Plan.  Unlike the premium plan; reimbursement of the payroll deduction for the Spending Accounts  is paid through a claim process in which the employee submits original receipts of incurred expenses. Claims are processed weekly except for the month of December.  Due to the short month no claims are processed in that month. Employees have until March 31st of the following year to submit claims for expenses incurred­ within the plan year.

Plan requirements are based on IRS rules and regulations and the CNM Plan Summary.  Employees should plan carefully when determining an election amount. The election must remain the same for the plan year unless the employee meets eligible status changes. Unused balances for which the employee has no claims at year end will not be reimbursed.