Toward the end of the year, many federal employees become concerned about losing money in a health care flexible spending account due to the flexible spending account program’s “use or lose” feature. Their reaction in some cases is to attempt to spend down their accounts by making additional reimbursable purchases. In some cases they may not be aware that the program has a grace period, during which reimbursable expenses may be charged to a plan year, running for 2 ½ months beyond the end of the calendar year. Thus, reimbursable expenses incurred until March 15 still can be charged against this year’s accounts. The use or lose feature is not as much of a factor in dependent care FSAs because those funds typically come in and go out on a pay as you go basis, whereas health care account money accumulates if unspent. Costs that are incurred until March 15, 2015 can be charged back to either type of 2014 account. Starting with the 2015 plan year, the grace period will apply only to dependent care accounts. For health care accounts, participants will be able to carry over up to $500 for use in the next year, so long as they have accounts for that following year.