Account control method and system that allows only eligible and authorized items to be purchased using the account

A method for real-time access to funds available in at least one healthcare spending account, comprising the following steps:

• a. authorizing merchant categories for healthcare spending account reimbursement;
• b. classifying items by their eligibility for reimbursement by the merchant, as indicated by an indicator of eligibility, and identifying merchant categories for each said item;
• c. receiving data from a merchant point of sale (POS) system at which a customer has presented items for purchase;
• d. receiving data from a merchant POS system processing a healthcare spending account device identifying at least one healthcare spending account;
• e. recognizing the eligible healthcare spending account items;
• f. sending healthcare spending account item transaction data to a decision system;
• g. substantiating at the decision system which eligible healthcare spending account items are authorized;
• h. determining if the at least one healthcare spending account identified by the healthcare spending account device has an available balance;
• i. sending a response record with a preauthorized transaction amount from the decision system to the merchant for financial processing, the transaction amount not to exceed the available balance for the at least one healthcare spending account;
• j. sending a transaction request that is based on the decision system response record through a financial card network to the transaction processor by the merchant;
• k. authorizing, in real-time, healthcare spending account amounts by the transaction processor for the preauthorized transaction amount from the response record;
• l. calculating any balance due in excess of the authorized healthcare spending account amounts for the items presented;
• and
• m. requesting payment of any balance due by the merchant.