If you use a medical flex-spending account or health savings account to buy your over-the-counter products, be prepared for changes next year. Instead of using your flex spending account debit card to pay for these products outright, you will now need a doctor’s prescription to buy them.

According to Dr. Douglas Henley of the American Academy of Physicians, “It’s going to create a lot of new obstacles for patients and their doctors.”

For the person who uses his/her flex-spending account to buy those medications, it’s now going to cost more.  Starting next year, patients will have an increased cost of going to the doctor to write the prescription and then subsequently going to the pharmacy to have it filled…all adding to the the overall cost of the medications.

This just seems to be an unnecessary hassle and burden,” Henley said.

Another change that baffles the medical community is starting January 1, flex spending accounts will no longer recognize breast feeding as a form of medical care. For many years now, breast-feeding mothers received a tax break when purchasing supplies through their health flex spending account.

According to the new IRS tax code, breast pumps and accessories are no longer qualified expenses for employer flex spending accounts.

For many medical experts, breast-feeding is more than just a method for feeding children and breast milk is more than just food.  It is a key element to strengthening a child’s immunity system.

These changes as well as other changes that take effect in 2013 are expected to decrease costs, saving the federal government money. The savings would be used to help insure the uninsured,  a key goal of health reform. Not affected in this change are durable medical supplies, such as crutches, bandages or braces.  The changes  are slated for the start of the new year and will only affect people with flex spending (FSA) or health savings accounts (HSA), which use tax deferred money for qualified medical expenses. For those who don’t have one FSAs or HSAs, or pay out of pocket, nothing changes.

There may be additional changes for reimbursement through flexible spending, depending on the insurance provider.

Additional information:
Check on flex spending account changes through the FSAFeds.com website.

Health Savings Accounts