Health Care Spending Account

Retired academic staff who retired on or after 1 May 2001 have access to a Health Care Spending Account (HCSA), currently valued at $1,350 annually. This account can be used for the reimbursement of medical, dental, vision care, and drug expenses.  Premiums paid for the purchase of private extended health insurance plans are also eligible for reimbursement. 

The HCSA is administered by Canada Life (as of 1 November 2020). For information on how to submit claims and to register with Canada Life’s “GroupNet” as a plan member, please visit Canada Life’s Welcome Page for the University community at https://www.welcome.canadalife.com/uottawa . Our plan number is 177714..

You can also contact Canada Life at 1-833-794-0225, which is a dedicated number for the University of Ottawa community.

The terms of access for the HCSA, including carry over provisions and deadlines for claim submissions, are specified in section 40.9 of the APUO Collective Agreement.

The following is a note of clarification provided by the Human Resources Service to a member wondering about eligibility and deadlines for making claims:

"Health Care Spending Account (HCSA) funds are deposited once per year in the first week of January. The HCSA can only reimburse eligible expenses using funds available on the date the expenses were incurred. For example, if you had an eligible expense in October 2022, you could use HCSA funds deposited in January 2022 or January 2021, depending on the balance available to you. However, for this same eligible expense from October 2022, you cannot use HCSA funds deposited in January 2023."