Jessie,

Take a look at the "Tax Deductions" report.

If you have the date of a payment that's within the filter parameters (1/1/2006 - 12/31/2006 for this discussion), it will show on this report without regard to the date of Service.

db

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Edited by dbAnalyst at 10/28/2006 3:26 PM

thanks for the fast feedback - that works great

I do notice one weird thing. I have one bill where I paid it in full, but the insurance company paid my provider, and they sent me a check for the difference.

based on a suggestion in another part of the forum, I entered this check into my payments as a negative payment, bringing the balance due on the account to zero

but on the tax deductible report, it shows only the original full payment, not the adjusted payment

any suggestions for how to make it show correctly in both places?

thanks!

Jessie,

I could probably make up an example ... but it would help if you would provide specific numbers:

Provider cost (AKA, provider billed insurance)

You paid at time of service

You paid subsequently

Insurance discount (AKA, write-off, AKA, member benefit)

Insurance "allowed"

Insurance paid provider (per EOB)

Insurance paid you

db

here's the example:

original bill was $2300

I paid $2300 directly to the provider on the date of service

the provider submitted to insurance

insurance paid $1000, but instead of sending it to me, they sent it to the provider

the provider cut me a check for $1000

so, I entered it as

bill = $2300

insurance covered $1000, sent to provider

my net responsibility is $1300

my payments has two entries, netting $1300

1) my payment to the provider for $2300

2) my receipt from the provider for $1000, as a negative payemnt

the entry now shows $0 due, which is good

but the tax deductible report shows $2300 paid out, which is not right

I made up a transaction to try to understand what you're seeing ... and I didn't ... which suggests that something didn't get input correctly.

In the Details screen for the event, I've got:

Amount Billed $2300

Amount Allowed $2300

Insurance Payment $1000 (to Provider)

My Resp $1300

In the summary below the transaction input area, it shows:

My Total Responsibility $1300

My Payments & Copays $1300

I Owe Provider $0

In the Payments window, I've got:

A payment for $2300, &

A payment for -$1000

The total line reads $1300, which agrees with the My Payments line on the Details page.

In the Tax Deductions report (filtered to show only this event), it shows 3 lines:

the first lines shows the DOS, patient, provider, Service, a blank in the Pmt Date column and $1300 in the "Payments & Reimbursements Column"

second line shows $2300

third line shows (1,000) i.e. negative $1000.

The total at the bottom is $1300, which is correct.

NOTE however, if your DOS was last year and you paid the $2300 last year, you'd have a $2300 deduction for last year and a $1000 reduction in your medical expenses, (i.e, a -$1000 expense) for this year.

db

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Edited by dbAnalyst at 10/29/2006 1:00 PM

so weird...

I have all the same detail you describe, but the tax report is different. are you using v1? I'm using v2... maybe they changed it in v2?

ONLY your Tax Deductions report is different???

What, line by line, does yours show?

(and, yes, I'm on V2 also)

db

{this occured to me later:

What the date on the DOS, & the provider repay of the $1000? And I believe you said that your original $2300 was paid on DOS)

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Edited by dbAnalyst at 10/30/2006 10:28 AM

Hi JessieT,

First of all, welcome! Sorry to hear that you're dealing with a mess of medical bills. Welcome to the club (and I'm not being at all sarcastic).

Yes, MEM's tax deduction report works off of the Date of Payment, thanks again to dbAnalyst for clarifying that.

I entered the numbers you said and got the same result as dbA...

(Sorry where I'm redundant with dbA, below, but something seems to have gotten lost in translation. Nobody's fault, these things can be a bear to deal with, which is why there's MEM in the first place.)

I entered an expense with Amount Billed and Amount Allowed of $2,300, and an Insurance Payment to the provider of $1,000. Then on the My Payments and Copays screen, I entered a positive payment of $2,300 (from me to the provider) and a negative payment of -$1,000 (from the provider to me).

The Expense Details screen shows My Total Responsibility is $1,300, and My Payments and Copays are $1,300, and everybody's happy so far. When I go to the Tax Deduction report, I see a Payment of 1,300; under it are the components of 2,300.00 and (1,000.00).

(Just for kicks, you could also have the insurer's $1,000 paid to "Me", and then remove the -$1,000 from the provider -- same net result for taxes: $1,300 payment by you. Though this might not meet your definition of "kicks".)

I agree with dbA's suggestion to check the dates of payment. The Dates on "My Payments & Copays" both need to be within the window of dates you set at the top of the Tax Deduction report. (And by the way, the Tax Deduction report by default shows the current year, i.e. 1/1/06 to 12/31/06, though you can set it however you want.)

Does that work?

Please let us know how it goes! :) And welcome, once again.

Regards,

Bruce

P.S. And one final note -- any question you the reader has about MEM and expenses is probably shared by others, so please feel free to ask. Do a quick search of the MEM forums first to see whether it's been answered, then ask away. Nobody gets trained on this stuff, we're all sharing our knowledge.

First, thanks to both of you for the extensive help.

for some reason, I can't get this to work with the negative payment structure I tried first. I checked all my dates, and they're all within this calendar/tax year. Still no change - the tax deductions report shows two lines - first line a total of $2300, second line the payment of $2300.

then, I tried your suggestion of fudging where the insurance payment actually went - and bingo, my tax deduction report changed instantly. So, the net results are all correct now. I put notes in the Billing area about what actually happened versus how it's recorded here.

I wish I knew why both of you can get the first method to work and I still can't - but, at least I have a workaround. Much appreciated.

Btw, I have found the forums extremely helpful - it's answered a lot of my questions upfront. One of the best suggestions was to enter providers by last name first (Smith, John instead of John Smith). I had started the other direction, but was able to go back and edit the provider list. Much better.

Jessie

I tried your suggestion of fudging where the

insurance payment actually went - and bingo, my tax

deduction report changed instantly. So, the net

results are all correct now.

This may have been the issue all along. It appears that you were recording the $1000 that your insurance paid to your provider in the "Insurance" area.

Since your provider passed that thru to you, I (and I believe Bruce) were ignoring that payment and recording only the $1000 that you received from the provider. WHERE the provider got the money just wasn't pertinent, that you had received $1000 back from the provider is.

Alternatively, you can record the $1000 insurance as going to the Provider (in the Insurance screen) and THEN show the -$1000 payment to you on the Payments screen.

The main thing to watch is that the the "Balance / I Owe" line at the bottom of the Expense Details box goes to $0.

db