Many health insurance companies reimburse the cost of over-the-counter medicines

Over-the-counter medicines are reimbursed by many health insurers
In many patients, the corners of the mouth tilt down when they receive a green prescription from the doctor. This means that the drug has to be paid completely out of your own pocket. However, there are also many health insurance companies, which at least reimburse a certain cost share.

Many health insurance companies also reimburse the costs for "over-the-counter" medicines. (Image: Kzenon / fotolia.com)

Medically necessary medicines
Patients are often not happy about a green prescription from the doctor. Because they have to pay for the prescribed drug in this way. The German Association of Pharmacists has now, however, in a message from the news agency dpa pointed out that many health insurance companies also reimburse the costs of prescribed on the green prescription drug. On such prescriptions, the doctor recommends non-prescription drugs that he considers medically necessary. Among other things, these can be remedies of homeopathy or phytotherapy (herbal medicine). This should be interesting for many Germans, as more and more of them rely on natural remedies, as a study recently made clear. Even if they have to pay more for it.

Insured should clarify possible reimbursement with cash
As explained in the dpa notification, the patient must submit the green prescription as well as the receipt from the pharmacy to his health insurance company for the reimbursement. Insured persons are usually reimbursed for a certain annual sum. The best thing for the members of the insurance company is to ask their insurance company about how much this sum is or whether the costs for prescriptions recommended on the green prescription will be reimbursed by the fund. So far, the green prescription found the note: "You can not submit this prescription to your statutory health insurance". However, numerous funds take the cost of these drugs anyway. In the future, the reference will be replaced by the sentence: "You can submit this prescription to many statutory health insurance companies for full or partial reimbursement as a statutory benefit". Despite all this, caution is also needed in the future for medicines that do not have to be prescribed. Health experts repeatedly point out the health risks of over-the-counter painkillers. Some of these supplements can not only cause discomfort such as abdominal pain or nausea, but can also cause serious illness in larger doses. (Ad)