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- Jan 23, 2010
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Your pre-tax Flexible Spending Account or Health Savings Account.
So you'll have to incur the expense of consulting a doctor to use your FSA to pay for a bottle of Motrin or an antacid.
And your health care costs will go up.
FoxNews.com - New Rules Coming for Payments Out of Health Savings Accounts
So you'll have to incur the expense of consulting a doctor to use your FSA to pay for a bottle of Motrin or an antacid.
And your health care costs will go up.
FoxNews.com - New Rules Coming for Payments Out of Health Savings Accounts
New Rules Coming for Payments Out of Health Savings Accounts
Published October 15, 2010 | FoxNews.com
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Under the new health care law, consumers using workplace pre-tax health savings accounts will soon need a doctor's note to pay for Tylenol and an estimated 15,000 other over-the-counter drugs.
Starting Jan. 1, employees who use flexible spending accounts (FSAs), health saving accounts (HSAs), or health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs) to pay for common medications such as pain relievers, cold medicines, antacids and allergy medications will need prescriptions. The new rules don't apply to insulin.
The new rules will also prohibit the use of FSA or HRA debit cards provided by administrative plans for over-the-counter purchases, because the IRS says there's no way to prove the drugs were prescribed.
The IRS says any money removed from HSA accounts to pay for medical expenses bought without a prescription will be included as taxable income and subject to an additional tax of 20 percent.
Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans, the industry lobby that voiced support for the overhaul but has been accused by some of the law's proponents of trying to undermine it, said the law creates "unintended consequences."