Wellness, recovery, and performance brands are moving closer to “healthcare-lite.” Customers buy products to manage pain, improve sleep, support mental health, and prevent injury—needs that often overlap with the IRS definition of medical care.
At the same time, more consumers are using HSAs and FSAs to manage out-of-pocket healthcare costs. HealthCare.gov’s glossary entries for HSAs and FSAs describe them as pre-tax accounts dedicated to eligible healthcare expenses. HealthCare.gov+1
If you don’t give customers a way to use those funds on your site, you’re missing a major growth lever.
HSAs & FSAs: The Macro Context
A few quick anchors:
- IRS Publication 969 lays out how HSAs and other tax-favored accounts work, including contribution and usage rules. IRS
- Publication 502 defines medical expenses broadly as costs for “the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease” or affecting the structure or function of the body. IRS+1
- Devenir’s HSA reports show strong growth, with more than $120B in assets and tens of millions of accounts—and projected growth to $168B and 44M accounts by 2026. Devenir+1
- Numerator finds in its HSA/FSA spending research that households are using these accounts heavily for consumer products in health, wellness, and personal care. Numerator
In other words: many of your best customers already have pre-tax dollars set aside specifically for products like yours.
Where Letters of Medical Necessity Come In
For certain products—especially those that could be used for general wellness or for a specific condition—plans may require a Letter of Medical Necessity (LMN).
Educational resources from FSA Store and HSA Store explain that an LMN is a letter from a licensed healthcare provider documenting that a product is being used to treat or manage a diagnosed medical condition, not just for general lifestyle improvement. FSA Store+1
Similar explanations come from HealthEquity’s LMN help center and benefits guides like FSAFEDS’ LMN form. HealthEquity+1
When your HSA/FSA infrastructure can handle LMN-driven eligibility, you unlock more product categories without compromising compliance.
How Medpaid Supports Real-World Wellness Catalogs
Medpaid is designed for brands selling:
- Recovery tools and devices
- Condition-specific supports (orthopedic, posture, pain management, etc.)
- Sleep and stress products tied to medical needs
- Women’s health, pelvic health, and other focused categories
Medpaid provides:
- An eligibility engine that accounts for IRS rules, typical administrator guidance, and LMN-based scenarios
- Checkout flows that let customers either pay with HSA/FSA cards directly or complete the purchase and then submit for reimbursement
- Support for LMN workflows, making it easier for shoppers who already have or can obtain a letter from their provider
This gives you a way to say, with confidence:
“You can use your HSA/FSA funds here—and we’ll make it easy.”
Strategic Impact: AOV, LTV, and Brand Trust
Connecting your products to HSA/FSA benefits can:
- Encourage customers to buy complete solutions (bundles, multi-month supplies) instead of bare-minimum carts
- Improve lifetime value, as customers who successfully use HSA/FSA funds often come back for refills and related products
- Deepen trust, because you’re not improvising eligibility—you’re plugged into an infrastructure aligned with IRS and plan rules
Couple that with broader research showing that additional, relevant payment options increase conversion—such as Stripe’s global payment method test and Shopify/BCG’s accelerated checkout analysis Stripe+1—and the case is clear: HSA/FSA isn’t a nice-to-have; it’s a strategic payment method for your category.
Make HSA/FSA Part of Your Brand’s Value Proposition
Instead of treating HSA/FSA as an afterthought, you can position it as a core part of your offer:
- “Eligible with HSA/FSA funds.”
- “Use your HSA/FSA for this purchase—no manual paperwork required.”
- “LMN-friendly for medically necessary use cases.”
Medpaid gives you the infrastructure to make those claims confidently.
- Learn more at medpaid.com
- Or talk to the team about your specific catalog:
Book a demo
Get a preliminary eligibility assessment and see the checkout experience live:
👉 https://app.medpaid.com/widget/bookings/hadnot
