If You’ve Worked in SF, Your Boss Might Owe You Money

Have you worked in San Francisco any time after 2008? If so, you might have an unknown amount of money owed to you and it’ll disappear if you don’t claim it within the next few years.

The SF Medical Reimbursement Account (SF MRA) is an account specially containing funds that can be used for eligible health care expenses – called SF City Option. More than 4,000 companies have put money into the SF City Option on the behalf of over 40,000 employees (shout out to David Mamaril Horowitz at Mission Local for bringing this to our attention).

Don’t let anyone steal money that was set aside just for you. It’s important that you check and see if you qualify. If you don’t register and use your funds by 2026, all of the money set aside for you will automatically get folded into the city’s general fund.

The likelihood you have something in the account is pretty high. Any company over 20 employees has been required to set aside money for employee healthcare. This could come in the form of helping to pay healthcare expenses (such as payments for health, dental, and/or vision insurance) – or – the employer could choose an easier route and just pay into the city’s SF City Option fund. 

The amount of money that is just sitting there unused is staggering. According to this memo from the San Francisco Department of Public Health, there is over $775 million in the account that is unclaimed. They also note that they are actively trying to find ways to let folks know they might qualify for they money – they outlined several of these efforts within the memo as well. This is all in an effort to do as much as they can to find those who are owed money before the rest is folded into city funds.

Do not let the city stiff you out of money!

To see if you have funds and how to access them, you must enroll in SF MRA … you can do that right here.

(After you enroll, your funds can be used to reimburse you and your family for eligible health and wellness expenses.)

To understand the program better, go here

Wait, there’s more…The State Might Owe You Money, too!

ALSO: Did you know that there is a HUGE amount of unclaimed money at the state level, too?? California Unclaimed Property is money from all types of sources and, despite what the name suggests, is not limited to any physical property such as a house. Property in this case means MONEY! I didn’t want to share out this information until I had tried it myself. I had over $200 unclaimed within their system. This isn’t new news. The first time I had heard about it, I didn’t believe it was a real thing and didn’t check for fear I’d be phished somehow. However, it is true… to go and check for yourself is really easy. I just did with a friend of mine and they claimed $40!

For California Unclaimed Property, go here!