Ok, so I've been quiet on here for a bit, but that's because I've been holding on for dear life trying not to get flung off this marry-go-round of disaster. In July, our insurance reset, so we got another $500 put into an account and $1000 put into our Flex Spending account to last through the end of the year. By 7/31, all $1500 of that money was gone and we are just about through our deductible (of $3000). Granted, it started a bit lower because of the first 6 months of the year, but still :).
Then, to top it all off, Piper had to get some dental work done and because the Dentist lied about taking our insurance, we owe $591. Sure, they can "take" it and send the claim in, but for the things that are actually covered, it is at 60/40 instead of 80/20. Also, because they are out of network, other things cost a bit more. When I confronted them about this, they simply said "oh yeah, we're not in the network because they make us charge less." No kidding... you don't say?
So, here is my nastygram against "Pediatric & Adolescent Dentistry" in Carmel, Indiana. We saw Dr. Laura Brinson Grahm, who actually is a great Dentist, but her business practices are complete crap. The other dentist in that practice is Dr. Rebecca Stuart Donnelson. I'm not sure of her competency, but I still insist that no one do business with them, and if you do currently, please stop :). And for Google's sake, here's some more information in hopes this gets indexed: Address: 13450 N Meridian St. Suite 363 Carmel, Indiana 46032. Phone: 317-846-5893.
Thanks to the wonderful freedom of speech we all have, they can't force me to take this down either, so eat it :). Stating that you can process Delta Dental isn't the same as being in network, and you need to make that clear to patients in need of semi-emergency work.
I've officially got the Vibe listed in hopes of selling that and paying off another year old hospital bill. I've actually got someone coming to look at it tomorrow. They've contacted me before and from the first email I'm sure they are going to low ball me, but we'll see how things go.
What I really need to do is stumble into about $30,000 somehow. That would make things much easier to deal with (and get a few predatory lenders out of our lives). I'd still have a ways to go, but it would be at least a bit more doable. At least my beater is running strong, and I got the AC somewhat fixed too -- so I'm not losing 20 lbs of water during my drive home everyday :).
Let this be a lesson -- Debt is bad, and even worse when you don't have an emergency fund and actually have a couple long term medical conditions to take care of. Cut the cards... live within your means.
Showing posts with label flex spending account. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flex spending account. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Murphy's at the Door
Just when you start heading down a good path, something has got to get in your way. That's where we are right now. I've completely fallen back to baby step 1 (getting $1000 in the bank) due to another round of medical expenses.
The good news is I did get a raise this year. I haven't gotten my first check with it on there so we can redo our budget, but the budget needs some serious work anyway. Aside from the new found problems, the budget was there to just cover all the bases, not to help us get ahead. The new challenge is to 1) fix the budget with new bills and new income and 2) build in extra to the budget to help pay things down.
I was really in a bad place last weekend just trying to figure out what the heck I was going to do to get out of this mess. I have a lot of things coming due all at once, and had drained the emergency fund due to other unforeseen medical expenses. I'm actually looking forward to doing my taxes because I'm going to be able to write off medical expenses this year. We had nearly $10,000 in medical expenses (most paid, some on credit cards, and some in loans). Subtract the $2000 flex spending account, and I'm still left with a healthy chunk to work with. Granted, you can only write off what is after 7% of your income, but that still leaves me with a few grand to write off :).
I'll probably sit down this weekend to redo my budget with the new numbers (I'll get my first check with the raise on the 15th), so I'll put an update here after I'm done. I know I'm going to have to cut things this time around, just not sure what is left to cut :(
The good news is I did get a raise this year. I haven't gotten my first check with it on there so we can redo our budget, but the budget needs some serious work anyway. Aside from the new found problems, the budget was there to just cover all the bases, not to help us get ahead. The new challenge is to 1) fix the budget with new bills and new income and 2) build in extra to the budget to help pay things down.
I was really in a bad place last weekend just trying to figure out what the heck I was going to do to get out of this mess. I have a lot of things coming due all at once, and had drained the emergency fund due to other unforeseen medical expenses. I'm actually looking forward to doing my taxes because I'm going to be able to write off medical expenses this year. We had nearly $10,000 in medical expenses (most paid, some on credit cards, and some in loans). Subtract the $2000 flex spending account, and I'm still left with a healthy chunk to work with. Granted, you can only write off what is after 7% of your income, but that still leaves me with a few grand to write off :).
I'll probably sit down this weekend to redo my budget with the new numbers (I'll get my first check with the raise on the 15th), so I'll put an update here after I'm done. I know I'm going to have to cut things this time around, just not sure what is left to cut :(
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Medical Bills Are Fun - Update 1
Well, there is a silver lining. I called the hospital to try to negotiate the bill down some if I paid them in one lump. They said that since they already discounted it from insurance they couldn't discount it again -- Whatever :). I'm sure that if I was able to prove I had no ability to pay they would drop it down some -- but that's a rant for another time.
I did find out that even though they have a couple different payment plans, the one I'm going to apply for has 0% for 18 months. This is actually a pretty sweet deal. Sure, I'm taking on more debt, but I'm not getting hit with any interest. If i did the same thing with my line of credit, I'd be paying nearly 10% on the money for an indefinite amount of time since it is the last on my snowball. With the payments on this being split to 18 months, it makes it a reasonable $139 a month. I've got more than that dedicated to the snowball, so it is going to all be piled on this debt. I should be able to pay this off in about 13 months if I can stick to it.
After that is paid off, then I'll have about another 13 months to go on the Van, so I should be able to knock out two major debts in 26 months. I really sucks thinking about things like that, but I made this bed, so I've got to sleep in it. Thankfully, after I get some traction going the rest will go fairly quickly.
On a side note, I've already burned through $1200 of my $2000 FSA... in 2.5 months. This thing is going to be burned out well before the year until it resets. Hopefully the coming months won't be nearly as taxing as the last year has been with medical expenses.
I did find out that even though they have a couple different payment plans, the one I'm going to apply for has 0% for 18 months. This is actually a pretty sweet deal. Sure, I'm taking on more debt, but I'm not getting hit with any interest. If i did the same thing with my line of credit, I'd be paying nearly 10% on the money for an indefinite amount of time since it is the last on my snowball. With the payments on this being split to 18 months, it makes it a reasonable $139 a month. I've got more than that dedicated to the snowball, so it is going to all be piled on this debt. I should be able to pay this off in about 13 months if I can stick to it.
After that is paid off, then I'll have about another 13 months to go on the Van, so I should be able to knock out two major debts in 26 months. I really sucks thinking about things like that, but I made this bed, so I've got to sleep in it. Thankfully, after I get some traction going the rest will go fairly quickly.
On a side note, I've already burned through $1200 of my $2000 FSA... in 2.5 months. This thing is going to be burned out well before the year until it resets. Hopefully the coming months won't be nearly as taxing as the last year has been with medical expenses.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Flexible Spending Account = Awesome
I know a lot of people know what a Flexible Spending Account is, but for those who don't, here is a brief rundown. You can allocate a set amount of money (up to $2000) to come out pre-tax to be used for qualified medical expenses. The glorious part of this is that you can use all of the money all at once because it is coming out of your regular paycheck for the entire year.
Some of the downsides of the FSA is that if you don't use it, you lose it. Also, they have been implemented in various ways -- most involving manually sending in receipts to your insurance provider to be processed as a claim.
In a previous post, I talked briefly how Aetna handles their FSA claims. Basically, you don't have to do anything to get a claim processed. If a provider sends in a bill, they look to see if you paid a copay. If you did, they check your account to see if you have funds available, and if you do, automatically send a check to you. This gets even better when you get a perscription filled. The pharmacy AUTOMATICALLY GETS PAID at the point of sale. This means that if you have funds available, you don't pay ANYTHING to pick up your scripts. This, is absolutely awesome :).
To top it off, Aetna has probably the tightest integration between their business systems and online presence that I have ever seen in an insurance company. EOBs notifications are sent via email at the time of processing and are availble the same day in your online account. Similarly, anything that is processed through your FSA generates the same kind of notifications and you can view your balance onlne in realtime.
How does this tie to getting out of debt? I'm glad you asked! :). Basically, if you know what your medical expenses are going to be (a year of having small children will let you know that pretty quickly), you can consider that a sunk cost -- a cost you are going to have regardless. By using the FSA, you can make that cost a dedcution, lowering your overall taxable income and thus paying "less" for the medical expenses incurred. It isn't a TON of money you'll save, but when you are fighting to climb out of the pit of debt, every little handhold helps :).
Some of the downsides of the FSA is that if you don't use it, you lose it. Also, they have been implemented in various ways -- most involving manually sending in receipts to your insurance provider to be processed as a claim.
In a previous post, I talked briefly how Aetna handles their FSA claims. Basically, you don't have to do anything to get a claim processed. If a provider sends in a bill, they look to see if you paid a copay. If you did, they check your account to see if you have funds available, and if you do, automatically send a check to you. This gets even better when you get a perscription filled. The pharmacy AUTOMATICALLY GETS PAID at the point of sale. This means that if you have funds available, you don't pay ANYTHING to pick up your scripts. This, is absolutely awesome :).
To top it off, Aetna has probably the tightest integration between their business systems and online presence that I have ever seen in an insurance company. EOBs notifications are sent via email at the time of processing and are availble the same day in your online account. Similarly, anything that is processed through your FSA generates the same kind of notifications and you can view your balance onlne in realtime.
How does this tie to getting out of debt? I'm glad you asked! :). Basically, if you know what your medical expenses are going to be (a year of having small children will let you know that pretty quickly), you can consider that a sunk cost -- a cost you are going to have regardless. By using the FSA, you can make that cost a dedcution, lowering your overall taxable income and thus paying "less" for the medical expenses incurred. It isn't a TON of money you'll save, but when you are fighting to climb out of the pit of debt, every little handhold helps :).
Monday, June 2, 2008
The Torrent Continues
Well, I thought I was out of the woods until I got an EOB from Anthem today. Piper was in the hospital for three days, and amassed a bill of around $2400. Thankfully, I'm now on my company's insurance so things like this shouldn't happen. Until then, I think I'm going to have to set up payment terms with the hospital. I'm curious to see how much I can spread it out without getting a loan. I would love to be able to make payments on this without dipping into any of my emergency fund.
On a brighter note, I wanted to talk a little about my new insurance. I went ahead and signed up for a flexible spending account with the new plan. Based on last year's expenses, I was pushing 3k in expected outlay. The limit is only 2k, so we will see how long that lasts, but I have a feeling I'll burn through it pretty quickly.
Our insurance is through Aetna, and they have a pretty cool system for the flex spending account. Basically, they try to keep all the paperwork out of it for the members. When they receive a claim from a provider, they look to see if you paid a copay. If you did, they look in your flex spending account to see if you have a balance. If you do, they cut you a check along with the provider -- and you don't have to submit any claims. Things get even cooler at the pharmacy. Since everything is electronic with checking for benefits, the system AUTOMATICALLY PAYS the pharmacy out of your flex spending account and you get your prescriptions for "free".
All in all, after the tax breaks I should net out to having about the same take home pay as I had before when paying for private insurance.
In the mean time, when I get the bill from the hospital I'll be sure to post what I managed to talk them down to. Until then, I'm going to grudgingly wait for the bill to show up.
On a brighter note, I wanted to talk a little about my new insurance. I went ahead and signed up for a flexible spending account with the new plan. Based on last year's expenses, I was pushing 3k in expected outlay. The limit is only 2k, so we will see how long that lasts, but I have a feeling I'll burn through it pretty quickly.
Our insurance is through Aetna, and they have a pretty cool system for the flex spending account. Basically, they try to keep all the paperwork out of it for the members. When they receive a claim from a provider, they look to see if you paid a copay. If you did, they look in your flex spending account to see if you have a balance. If you do, they cut you a check along with the provider -- and you don't have to submit any claims. Things get even cooler at the pharmacy. Since everything is electronic with checking for benefits, the system AUTOMATICALLY PAYS the pharmacy out of your flex spending account and you get your prescriptions for "free".
All in all, after the tax breaks I should net out to having about the same take home pay as I had before when paying for private insurance.
In the mean time, when I get the bill from the hospital I'll be sure to post what I managed to talk them down to. Until then, I'm going to grudgingly wait for the bill to show up.
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