Inventory information approval system

The Inventory Information Approval System, or IIAS, is a point-of-sale technology used by retailers that accept FSA debit cards, which are issued for use with medical flexible spending accounts (FSAs), health reimbursement accounts (HRAs), and some health savings accounts (HSAs) in the United States.

By the end of 2007, all grocery stores, discount stores, and online pharmacies that accept FSA debit cards must have an IIAS; by the end of 2008, most pharmacies have an IIAS as well.

The predecessor to the current IIAS was developed by the online retailer drugstore.com for its "FSA store" in 2005; it was first introduced to brick-and-mortar retailing by Walgreens in 2006. Wal-Mart became the first discounter with an IIAS in late 2006.

IIAS is similar to the system used by grocery stores ever since they introduced the first barcode scanners in the 1970s to separate items eligible for purchase under the Food Stamp Program from those that are not eligible. Every item in the grocery store's database is flagged "yes" or "no" for food-stamp eligibility; the scanner automatically keeps a separate total for food-stamp items. In the beginning, the cashier pressed a special "food-stamp total" key, and the customer presented paper food stamps; today, the customer swipes an Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card and selects the "food stamp" account, and the register charges only the food-stamp total to the EBT card. The remaining balance must be paid for by other means.

IIAS works in much the same way, but with medical FSAs, HRAs, or HSAs instead of food stamps: (Usually, the term "FSA" is used to cover all of them; HRAs, HSAs, and non-medical FSAs are relatively rare, and HSAs can also have regular debit cards though many of them have FSA debit cards instead.)

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