We help many people submit their long-term care insurance claims. I wanted to talk about the importance of tracking this activity. Hi, I’m Peter Gordan, I’m the president of New York Financial Organizers. We’re daily money managers. We help people pay their bills, file insurance claims, and do all the non-investment side of personal finance that our clients need help with. Now, this is the third in a series about long-term care insurance. What we do, is track our clients’ long-term care insurance submissions and reimbursements using a simple spreadsheet. The spreadsheet contains the following columns: submission date, invoice date, invoice number, amount, and service dates. The next columns are reimbursement date, amount, differential amount, and check number. So here’s how it works:

We get an invoice from our clients’ home healthcare agency or private aid, and we then submit it to the insurance company via email or fax. Each company has their own submission process. We then track the submission date (when we send the invoice to the client or company) the invoice date itself, the amount, and service dates.

Next, we look for reimbursements. We like to direct deposit because it’s safer than getting a check in the mail and most companies will do that for you. However, if our clients are more comfortable with checks, we are happy to oblige or do whatever makes them more comfortable. When we get a reimbursement, we record the date, amount, and check number. If it’s an ETF, which is the direct deposit or Electronic Funds Transfer, there is still gonna be a reference number that we record.

Now we see if there’s a differential amount. Some policies have a daily reimbursement limit, so they won’t be covering all of the home healthcare expenses. It’s important to notate this differential because what’s not reimbursed then can be taken as a medical tax reduction and this can add up to some serious savings on your annual tax bill. Now, be aware that insurance companies probably won’t be reimbursing claims in chronological order. That could’ve been a problem with an email or fax submission or maybe it was misplaced by the insurance company– you just never know. That’s why it is critical to track and review your submissions and reimbursements on a regular basis.

If you would like a sample spreadsheet, please feel free to contact me or my partner, Jacob. We would be happy to send it to you. My information is right next to me, and will also be below the video. We really would love to hear from you.