.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} Making a list and checking it twice on how you’ll use your flexible-spending account in 2008?

Think about putting Lasik on the list, says a local eye-care professional.

“I give seminars about laser vision correction, and (using a flexible-spending account) is something I talk to them about,” said Dr. Louis Scallon, an ophthalmologist with the Wolfe Eye Clinic. The West Des Moines-based clinic performs about 2,400 of the procedures — each eye counting as one procedure — annually.

Over the past five years, the number of people using their flex accounts to pay for vision correction procedures has increased by probably 30 percent, he said. “January is by far the highest number of procedures, because people wait until their flex benefits are available and get it done early in the year.”

Before adding the cost of Lasik to your flexible-spending total, prospective patients should be evaluated to ensure they’re good candidates for the procedure, Scallon said.

Gary Bishop, co-owner of flexible benefits administrator Kabel Business Services, said his company sees “quite a few” people using their flex plans to pay for Lasik.

Though some companies have expressed concern to him that employees may file a large reimbursement claim for Lasik and then leave the company, no companies have yet disallowed the procedure because of that, he said.

“Employers have told us those one-time big expenses make them a bit nervous,” Bishop said. “But when you talk it through with them, they realize it is a risk, but it’s a part of the savings they’ll get out of the plan, too.”