Recent qualification of the Whoop 4.0 for HSA reimbursement allows users to pay for their membership with pre-tax dollars – saving them 20-30%. This can help reduce the cost of the wonderful wellness tool.
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Why should you trust my article on the Whoop 4.0 and HSAs
The biggest reason is that I actively pay for my Whoop subscription with HSA dollars. I’ve been wearing a Whoop for 3+ year and am thrilled that I can now use this tax efficient way to pay for my subscription.
This article is not legal or tax advice and is simply for informational purposes only. Before making any decisions, you should consult a qualified individual or the relevant state/federal regulations.
What is the Whoop 4.0?
The Whoop 4.0 is a wellness tracker that utilizes 24/7 tracking of 5 critical body measurements along with user input about activities and habits. This combination of wearable tech, smartphone app, AI chat bot, and backend analytics provides the user with tangible data and recommendations on how to improve their wellness. The Whoop ecosystem provides three key metrics:
- Strain – the Whoop measures strain on a 0-21 scale and it represents how hard your body worked over the course of a day. It is primarily based on heart rate and duration and can be tagged to specific activities.
- Sleep – sleep is measured on a 0-100% score and represents both the quality of sleep (time in REM & SWS) as well as quantity (how many hours)
- Recovery – recovery is the super metric of the Whoop (further detailed in this article) and it measures how ready your body is to take on strain (on a 0-100% scale). This metric uses your body metrics during sleep to assess how much you were able to restore yourself.
While daily insights are useful, some of the Whoop’s magic comes from it’s weekly and monthly reporting on your trends. Not only does the Whoop tell you about how your activity and sleep are trending (many fitness trackers do this), it also provides insight into how habits and activities impact your recovery. I’ve personally found this impactful by targeting habits that negatively impact my recovery (thereby reducing my chance of professional burnout).
Follow this link to our detailed review of the Whoop 4.0 (primarily focused on business travelers as the target audience).
Whoop 4.0 Fitness Tracker
Fitness tracker that provides real time feedback on strain, recovery and sleep to maximize your day
- 5 sensors to measure multiple bodily functions
- Waterproof design
- Bluetooth connectivity to your smartphone
- Slip over battery charger design
- Powerful analytics to uncover impact of habits
Why does the Whoop 4.0 qualify for HSA eligibility?
The Whoop 4.0 is a tool & service to help prevent disease through better understanding of our body and habits, making it a qualifying medical expense.
The US government defines qualified medical expenses as “the costs of diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease and the costs for treatments affecting any part of the body; the amounts paid for transportation to receive medical care; and qualified long-term care services.” (CRS)
Whoop recently received a designation that qualifies it as an eligible HSA purchase.
What is an HSA and why is it beneficial?
An HSA is a Health Savings Account and is an employee funded benefit to set pre-tax dollars aside to pay for qualified health care expenses. The Congressional Research Service (CRS) defines an HSA as “tax-advantaged account that individuals can use to save and pay for unreimbursed medical expenses.” The HSA program was established in federal law as a part of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act, signed by President Bush on December 8, 2003. This law updated Internal Revenue Code 223 to allow citizens to set aside pre-tax dollars to use on qualified purchases or services.
One way to think about HSA tax savings is that you get a discount on the purchase or service versus what you would have paid if you paid with post-tax dollars. As an example, if you pay an average of 25% federal income taxes, you get your Whoop at a 25% discount on your membership (since you didn’t have to pay taxes on those funds).
Paying for Whoop Membership with HSA
How can I use my HSA to pay for a new Whoop 4.0 with pre-tax dollars?
There are two main ways to pay for a new Whoop membership (device is included) with HSA funds – purchase with your HSA-funded card or purchase with your regular credit card & submit for reimbursement. It’s worth noting that the Whoop ecosystem is done on a monthly payment basis. You can either buy a whole year at a time or just pay month-to-month (generally 6 month minimum). This is available directly from Whoop or from Amazon (if that’s preferred for you).
- Purchase Whoop membership with HSA-funded card – The easiest method is to use a purchase card from your HSA program to make the purchase. As stated, you can make the initial purchase of months or buy a year through either Whoop or from Amazon
- Purchase Whoop membership regularly and submit for reimbursement – The other way to purchase a Whoop 4.0 with HSA funds is with any normal purchase method (credit, debit, gift card) and then submit for reimbursement from your HSA provider. If you has a FSA, this will be a familiar process. Make sure to save your receipt for the submission. Some HSAs will allow you to be reimbursed regularly on a monthly basis for membership fees.
How can I use my HSA to pay for my existing Whoop membership?
If you already have a Whoop membership, you can use two similar strategies to the above.
- Transition your Whoop membership payment method to your HSA card – Navigate to https://app.whoop.com/ , then click on the ‘hamburger’ in the left corner. From there, click on ‘Membership’ and navigate down to payment history. You can submit more than one month at a time (but remember it has to be in the eligible year).
- Submit your monthly Whoop membership fee for reimbursement through your HSA program – Navigate to https://app.whoop.com/ , then click on the ‘hamburger’ in the left corner. From there, click on ‘Membership’ and Update your payment method
What else can I spend HSA funds on?
HSA funds can theoretically be used for any service or product that supports health. In reality, this breaks down to products and services.
- Products – There are SO MANY products that qualify for HSA spend. If you already buy these normally, transitioning to your HSA will save you your average tax rate on these funds. Amazon actually has a special section completely dedicated to HSA-qualified products, including the ability to enter your HSA-linked credit card. A couple favorite products of mine:
- Magnesium supplement – studies have shown that additional magnesium can help reduce stress and improve sleep quality.
- Whoop 4.0 Charger – the Whoop uses a slip over battery and I have more than one friend who’s lost theirs. Thankfully, you can pick up a replacement with HSA funds.
- Massage gun – massage guns are great at releasing tension in tired muscles when a real massage isn’t an option.
- Magnesium supplement – studies have shown that additional magnesium can help reduce stress and improve sleep quality.
- Services – In addition to paying Co-pays or other regular medical expenses, there are some interesting categories that may be helpful to some folks:
- Dental treatment
- Smoking cessation programs
- Physical therapy
- Vision services
- Dental treatment
