How to Organize Personal Medical Records and Expenses

Organizing your family's personal medical records and expenses is an important task that should not be overlooked. Knowing your family's medical history is vital to their health and well-being. For example, when you take your sick child to the doctor, having their entire medical history with you will help you to answer any questions the doctor may have and could assist in leading to a proper diagnosis. It will also prevent the doctor from prescribing any medications that have previously caused adverse reactions.



Keeping track of medical expenses will help you to make informed financial decisions, such as how much to allocate to your medical budget, how much to contribute to a health care savings account or how to claim medical expenses on your income taxes. If you have all of this information organized for each family member, you will be able to make these kinds of decisions with ease.

Things You'll Need

• 3-ring binders
• 3-hole sleeve inserts
• Ledger pads
• 3-hole paper
• 3-hole tabbed inserts
• Labels

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Instructions

• 1

  Label one 3-ring binder for each member of your family so that you can keep each family member's information separate. It is a good idea to place the label on the spine of the binder so you can store the binders upright on a shelf and see the label clearly.

• 2

  Contact each of your family's doctors to request copies of their medical records. If you do not want to keep copies of the actual medical records, use 3-ring paper inserted into the binder to record the dates, reasons and diagnoses from each visit so that you will have this information available at all times. You can always request the actual records later if necessary.

• 3

  Label a 3-ring tabbed insert for each doctor that your family members have seen. Keep extra, unlabeled inserts in each binder to add new doctors as needed.

• 4

  Insert the tabbed inserts into the appropriate binders in alphabetic order for ease of reference.

• 5

  Place copies of the applicable medical records into sleeve inserts and place the sleeve inserts behind the tab for that doctor.

• 6

  Place a few sheets of 3-hole paper in the front of each tabbed section of the binder for note-taking.

• 7

  Insert a second 3-hole sleeve insert in each tabbed section of the binder to store the written information that comes with any medications you family members are prescribed.

• 8

  Place a ledger pad in the front of each binder to record out-of-pocket expenses associated with each doctor visit.

  Create a labeled section in each binder for family medical history. Use 3-ring paper to record the family medical history applicable to each family member.