Medical Bills/Taxes

[MamaMaui24]

Trying to go through everything from last year. 170 claims according to my insurance website  .  Such a headache! 

Any suggestions on how to organize this for 2015?  I tried keeping a spreadsheet last year but quit after ~ 6 months and now I'm paying for it.  And I didn't keep track of mileage either. 

I was thinking of opening a new cc and using it exclusively for medical bills so I'd have an easier time with an end of year statement. 

[origami]

When I was able to deduct all my expenses none were covered by insurance. At the end of the calendar year I asked my 2 main doctors for a year-end summary of the charges. It was easy to figure out what I paid because I wasn't reimbursed for any of it. I also had an online account with a pharmacy so it was easy to print a year-end summary from that. These things all served as my receipts too, whereas a spreadsheet doesn't. For the random things I tried to keep the receipts in a folder but I wasn't perfect at that. Once I put all the charges in a spreadsheet I google mapped to get the distance to each office, then multiplied that by the number of times I went, according to the year end summaries. I didn't do mileage for every trip religiously because it was just too much work at the time.

In your case, since it goes through insurance that makes it tricky. I agree a medical credit card makes it easier. I used to have a HSA debit card and it was really easy to see who I paid. Does your insurance list on their website what costs you were responsible for? I'd just add that all up. And use the dates to count how many times you drove to an appt.

[MamaMaui24]

The amount I owe according to the insurance website is not always accurate. We saw so many providers this year but I should call the frequently used ones and ask for a year end summary.

Thanks for the tips!

[kirra]

1) I keep a spreadsheet
2) I keep all invoices in a file, and staple each receipt to the invoice
3) I request a year end summary from each doctor's office and check it against the others

[NandaB]

Wait. This is a thing? Shit.

[lifeisinteresting]

Mar 24, 2015 22:27:39 GMT -5 NandaB said:

Wait. This is a thing? Shit.

You have to have a ton to deduct. We finally were able to deduct this year only because we had over 20k in expenses. Years with 10-15 nope. It doesn't help much.
I just request end of year bills from all providers rather than keeping then throughout year

[usm]

Mar 24, 2015 22:27:39 GMT -5 NandaB said:

Wait. This is a thing? Shit.

I think the number is 7.5% of your gross income? Maybe it was increased to 10% recently? You can do mileage, food while in hospital, childcare for other kids. We were able to do it the year DS2 was born because we also had to put in a generator because of his O2 needs. We will probably hit it again this year because of hospitalizations, mileage, food, hotel stays near hospital and sitters for DS1. I just printed out my bank statements from the months we were in the hospital and highlighted expenses related to the stay. Never having cash on me was actually useful.