If you know you're going to lose your job, try to drain your flexible spending account immediately. In most instances the money you don't use, you lose.

With an FSA, you set aside pretax dollars for health expenditures that aren't completely covered by insurance; after paying the bills, you file for reimbursement.

You may need to speed up some spending between now and your termination date to claim all the dollars you've accumulated this year in your FSA.

So go ahead and schedule the dentist appointment, get a year's supply of disposable contact lenses and stock up on mail-order prescriptions before the termination. (You should have some time after termination to file any remaining claims.)

In some cases, employees who use Cobra to maintain employer-provided health coverage will still be able to incur expenditures they could then submit -- but will not be able to add pretax dollars. The account, however, cannot be used to pay the Cobra premiums.

And what if you've been reimbursed for 2008 medical spending that exceeds what you've accumulated in your FSA so far this year? If you are terminated, you don't need to repay your employer.