An employee is taking an unpaid leave of absence which qualifies as a change in status. Normally, we would change the election upon commencment and change it again upon return. However, in this case, the employee is taking leave until the end of the plan year. There are still some unreimbursed funds in the Medical account and she has not yet made contributions equal to the total election.

Do we simply change the election and try to have her find some reciepts to cover the unreimbursed portion or hurry and get some work done or buy something? Is there a way she can "prepay" to remaining election? Can she somehow incur expenses during the leave and have them reimbursed?

If this is a qualifying event and the employee has a positive account balance in the FSA account, a COBRA continuation offer should be made. Are you offering COBRA for health insurance ?

I'd have to check with the company. But my question is more along the lines of can we still accept claims incured during the leave. If, for example, there was an election change and there were still contributions, of course claims would still be accepted. But in this case, the employee's election is reduced to zero but neither the employee or the employee's benefits are not terminated.