@ebenann wrote:
Thanks for the response. My wife does have an FSA so it appears I will not be able to contribute to an HSA. Lesson learned for next enrollment period.
Some more info about FSAs then.
If your wife is "covered" by an FSA for the period Jan 1-December 31, then you are ineligible even if all the money was spent before the end of the coverage period. Some plans have a 2 month grace period, allowing expenses that occur as late as Feb 28 of the next year to be reimbursed even though the FSA ended on 12/31. In the case of a grace period, you are still "covered" if there are funds in the FSA but you are not covered if the funds are used up before the start of the grace period.
Also, if your wife's plan is not on a calendar year basis but something else (like July 1-June 30), then you would be eligible to contribute when the FSA ends. And in that case, you can use the "last month rule" to contribute the full amount to your HSA as if you were eligible all year.
Lastly, your wife can enroll in a "limited purpose FSA" at the next enrollment cycle without making you ineligible to contribute to an HSA, assuming her employer offers limited purpose FSAs. A limited purpose FSA is only allowed to cover things like contacts, eyeglasses, dental care, braces, and a few other things that don't interfere with your HDHP. So a limited purpose FSA could be used to pay for glasses or contacts without having to dip into the HSA, if her employer offers it. You can read more about all these rules here.
https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-publication-969
