“Beginning January 1, 2011, more than 15,000 over-the-counter (OTC) health care items will require a prescription (and that means a doctor’s visit) for tax-free reimbursement.”
Good! My insurance never paid for over the counter meds for crying out loud! Enough of this cr*p!
What does insurance have to do with it? Currently you can use your HSA or FSA monies to purchase OTC drugs. If you want to continue purchasing OTC drugs with your HSA or FSA monies, you will need a prescription. Imagine having to get a prescription from your doctor for Ibuprofen....
Well, actually it probably did at one time. Consider antacids: Zantac, Tagamet, Prilosec ... once prescription drugs used to treat GERD, etc., they moved into the OTC market but the GERD didn't go away. No longer did your prescription coverage pay for these necessary drugs but at least you could use tax free money through your H/FSA. Now that is coming to an end unless you get your doc to write a script, documenting the necessity. That's the real deal: you can't be trusted.
The next step will be to find in the bill where docs are controlled on the number of scripts they write per patient.