Retirement: Pre-Tax

When you retire, you can choose to continue your MDEA until the end of the year, or terminate your participation at the time you retire. If you decide to end your MDEA at retirement, your period of coverage will end on your retirement date and any unclaimed funds will be forfeited. You cannot change your annual election amount at this time, and once you have retired, you cannot enroll during Open Enrollment for the following year.

If you want to extend your participation in the MDEA when you retire in order to avoid forfeiture of money that you have already contributed to your MDEA, you have two options:

You can authorize the employer to take an aggregated (lump sum) deduction, or
You can elect to pay on an after-tax basis until you can submit expenses for the unused election amount.

In either case, extending your period of coverage will give you more time to incur eligible expenses, thus providing you with more opportunity to claim reimbursements from your account.

What is an aggregated deduction?

An aggregated deduction means you are authorizing the employer to take a lump sum deduction for the remaining amount to pay your account in full.

This will enable you to extend your period of coverage until the end of the plan year. You should call the Employee Insurance Division and send a written notice authorizing an aggregated deduction one month prior to your retirement. This amount will be taken as a pretax payroll deduction. A payment other than payroll deduction is not permissible.