How to Track Medical Deductibles and Expenses

Participation in certain types of medical insurance plans, such as a Preferred Provider Organization (PPO), means you will likely have plan deductibles. The deductible is the amount you must pay before the insurer begins paying. You can track your medical deductibles and other expenses through organization of hard copies of policies, explanation of benefits and summary statements from the insurer and using this information to document a spreadsheet or online money management application. Most insurers have made it easy to obtain information about your deductibles and claims history.

Things You'll Need

• Medical plan ID number

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Instructions

• 1

  Organize your insurance policies, summary plan descriptions and documents sent from your insurance company in manila folders. Keep these files together, and review benefit summaries to understand your insurance plan benefits, limitations and amount of co-insurance, deductibles and maximums. Over the years, review this information to track and trend long-term medical expenses.

• 2

  Review all explanation of benefits (EOB) statements sent by your insurance company. Each EOB contains information about the health care services you received, the service providers, the date of service and payment information. The payment information will show what your insurer paid, the remaining balance you owe, and how much of the deductible and maximum you have used.

• 3

  Note the status of your deductible and maximums on the quarterly status statements sent by your insurance company. Not all companies send such statements, but if yours does, keep these statements, as they show accumulated balances of your health care expenses in a particular time frame, such as monthly, quarterly and annually.

• 4

  Visit your health insurance company's website, and create a login and password to access the member section of the site. You will be able to view and possibly download your detailed claims history and the status of your deductibles and maximums. Most insurers allow their members to review itemized details about each claim, including services used, providers, dates of service and paid charges.

• 5

  Call the phone number on the back of your medical ID card, and speak to a representative about your medical deductibles and other expenses. The representative can provide you with a summary of information and detailed information about particular expenses.

• 6

  Track your medical deductibles and expenses in an application such as Mint or in an Excel spreadsheet or Access database. List the information from your EOBs and insurers' website into the program to keep a running list of your medical expenses. Enter information into the system each time you get a new EOB and complete reconciliation quarterly to ensure you've captured each expense. Add expenses not covered by insurance, such as over-the-counter medications.