IRS requirement
The IRS has issued rulings that apply to certain categories of merchants that sell
healthcare/medical items. The rulings state that these merchants must be able to
electronically identify qualified medical items it sells, at the point of sale,
through what the IRS calls an Inventory Information Approval System, or IIAS.
What is the SIGIS Eligible Product List
The SIGIS Eligible Product List is a list of eligible healthcare/medical products
that qualify for purchase with an FSA or HRA payment card. The list has been reviewed
and modified by the SIGIS List Working Group, a group of benefit plan administrators.
Merchants who wish use the SIGIS standard and process IIAS transactions must use
the SIGIS Eligible Product List to identify their inventory so that eligible products
can be identified and processed at the point of sale in accordance with the SIGIS
specification.
What is SIGIS?
A group of companies involved in supporting Flexible Spending Account (FSA) and
Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA) debit card transactions formed a working
group called the “IIAS Standards Interest Group” to establish a voluntary industry
standard to meet IRS requirements for operating an IIAS by the mandated deadline
of January 1, 2008. The working group has now incorporated as the Special Interest
Group for IIAS Standards (SIGIS) to manage the standards on an on-going basis.
SIGIS is composed of a broad range of participants, including retailers, card issuers,
third party plan administrators (“TPAs”), merchant acquirers, processors, financial
institutions, trade association groups, software vendors, and payment card networks.
List details
The SIGIS Eligible Product List will be made up of product records described as
follows:
|
Name |
DataType |
Size |
|
UPC |
Text |
11 |
|
GTIN |
Text |
14 |
|
Description (product name) |
Text |
42 |
|
Fine Line Code (FLC) |
Text |
4 |
|
Category Descriptor |
Text |
100 |
|
Subcategory Descriptor |
Text |
100 |
|
Finest Category Descriptor |
Text |
100 |
|
Manufacturer Name |
Text |
50 |
|
Change Date |
Text |
10 |
|
Change Indicator |
Text |
1 |
The List will include nationally distributed, regular stock items. The List will
be available in several file formats, including fixed length, .xls, XML, CSV delimited,
and pipe delimited. The List will be updated and published on a monthly basis.
The List, as defined, will typically not include private label items as well as
the following types of items:
|
• Items specially created for an individual retailer |
|
• Local, regional or specialty items |
|
• Certain bonus items (2 ounces free) |
|
• Buy One Get One (BOGOS) Free |
|
• Other in-and-out types of packaging with limited availability or distribution. |
Sign up process
SIGIS members can sign up for the SIGIS Eligible Product List by completing a copy
of the SIGIS User Registration Form for the Eligible Product List.