ONONDAGA COUNTY, N.Y. -- It's your money, use it how you want. Right? Wrong, particularly when it comes to your flexible spending account. As of January 1st, over-the-counter medicines aren't covered without a prescription.

"People want to use the money they're putting away, tax free money to use for health care. A lot of people use OTC for their daily health care needs," said James Hagg, the supervising pharmacist at the Brewerton Pharmacy.

The goal was to save the government money by cutting down on abuses, but many in the health care industry say it was an unnecessary move.

"We audit a great number of claims that come through the debit system as well as all paper claims that were submitted to us. We did not see abuse. We did not see a large population of our participants out there trying to stockpile at the end of the year. The reality is that there are very few people that still have money in their flexible spending account at the end of the year," said Greg Cohen, who is Senior Vice President at EBS RMSCO, which administers flexible spending accounts.

You can still get your over-the-counters covered by either buying the OTC out of your own money and submit the receipt along with a prescription to your FSA company to get reimbursed. Or your doctor can send a prescription directly to the pharmacy, but be prepared to pay more because some places charge extra to get a pharmacist involved.

"We'll fill the prescription for the patient, like it's a prescription drug. They'll pay for it with their flex spending card. Then there won't be any questions asked afterward," said Hagg.

Obviously, the best way to make sure your purchases are covered is by having a doctor's prescription. But you can chance it and try running your debit card through for some purchases and things like cough drops will actually go through, but don't be surprised if you find out later they're actually not covered.

"The HSA company wanted proof that the doctor did write a prescription for it. Then sometimes you have to go back and get a prescription and then send it in as proof that it's something the doctors ordered," said Hagg.

Pharmacists say when in doubt, get a prescription.

Things like contact solution and band-aids are eligible expenses, but as for over-the-counter drugs, pharmacists say more are being covered almost weekly.

For more information on health care spending accounts and eligible expenses, check out some of the links below:

www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p969.pdf

www.cigna.com/our_plans/medical/fsa/fsa_health.html

spendingaccounts.info/PDF/reform.pdf

spendingaccounts.info/PDF/eligible_expense_guide_2011