It’s no secret that paying for healthcare in 2025 is a concern. While most traditional healthcare practices and doctors accept health insurance, many do not. These include those who practice functional medicine, integrative healthcare, or the type of complementary medicine that combines functional and integrative with conventional.

Here at PROVOKE Health, we combine the best of functional medicine, conventional healthcare, and complementary therapies with an emphasis on motivating patients to achieve their health goals and objectives. In this case, we’re a bit of a hybrid. We accept insurance for select treatments and therapies — but not all.

Regardless of the healthcare practice in which you place your trust, paying for that care can be a stressful proposition. You may have heard about using a health savings account (HSA) or flexible spending account (FSA) to cover the cost of medical expenses with pre-tax dollars. With HSAs and FSAs, you deposit money into an account before taxes are taken out of it and then use that money tax-free to pay for certain medical expenses, such as copays for doctor visits and dental care, prescription and over-the-counter medications, and eligible medical procedures.

In these challenging times, understanding your options is important, and that’s what this post is about, with a focus on HSAs and FSAs.

How Pre-Tax Dollars Reduce the Cost of Functional Medicine

An HSA or FSA can help address a common challenge many patients face when they pursue functional, integrative, and complementary healthcare options, such as care provided by practices like ours. Insurance companies often deny claims for testing or treatment that’s outside the scope of the traditional medical and pharmaceutical industries.

However, insurance companies have no say over what doctor or medical treatments you choose to use your HSA or FSA funds. As long as you’re paying for an eligible medical expense, such as a doctor’s visit, lab test, or medical procedure, you’re free to spend the money however you wish.

This opens the door to a useful strategy for making functional medicine and integrative healthcare more affordable — using an FSA or HSA to pay for it. By paying with pre-tax dollars, your expenses for non-traditional medical care are essentially reduced by the amount of money you would have paid in taxes on those contributions.

How Much Can You Save? Let’s Do the Math

For example, suppose you contribute $4,300 to an HSA over the course of the 2025 tax year, and you use the entire amount to cover out-of-pocket costs for functional medicine consultations, tests, and prescribed treatments.

Also suppose — based on your income tax bracket — you’re required to pay 24 percent in federal income taxes. You’re saving $4,300 x 0.24 = $1,032. So, instead of paying $4,300 for functional and integrative healthcare, you’re actually paying $4,300 – $1,032 = $3,268.

Eligible Medical Expenses

You can use the funds in your health savings account (HSA) and/or flexible spending account (FSA) to pay any eligible medical expenses, which include the following: Continue reading…