If you have an unused balance in your Health Care Spending Account when your participation ends (in other words, when you stop making contributions), you can claim reimbursements from your account for any eligible expenses that were incurred before the date your participation ended. The deadline for filing these claims is March 31 of the following calendar year (for example, a claim with a date of service of April 2, 2022 must be submitted by March 31, 2023).

Because you cannot file claims for expenses incurred after your participation ended, if you have an unused balance, you may want to continue participating in the Health Care Spending Account through COBRA on an after-tax basis, to give you time to incur eligible expenses and make claims to recover the unused before-tax balance and any subsequent after-tax contributions. For more details, see "Continuing Health Coverage Under COBRA" in the Health Care Participation section, especially the subsection, "Special Rule for Health Care Spending Account Participants."