How to Audit Health Insurance Expenses

Keeping track of your health care expenses is necessary if you plan on health care tax deductions. Even if you just want to get a handle on your budget, tracking your health care expenses is helpful. Completing an audit of your health care expenses is achievable by reviewing explanation of benefit statements, doctor's bills, receipts and claims history. Determine an audit period, such as one calendar year, to research your costs. If you're not diligent about tracking costs such as co-pays and over-the-counter medication, you may have to estimate certain expenses.

Things You'll Need

• Health insurance member identification number or Social Security number

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Instructions

• 1

  Review the explanation-of-benefits, or EOB, statements sent from your health insurance company. EOBs are documents sent each time a claim is processed. Each EOB lists the services you received, dates of services, amount charged, amount paid by the insurance company and the amount you owe or paid. EOBs also show how much you've paid toward your plan's deductibles, if you have them. If you didn't save your EOBs, call your insurer and request they be sent to you.

• 2

  Ask your doctor's billing representative for a list of bills or claims that have been sent and submitted on your behalf. They may charge you a fee for this, but you'll have documents to complete your health insurance expenses audit. Request the same information from your dental and vision care providers as applicable.

• 3

  Visit your insurance company's member portal on its website to obtain your claims history. Insurers often have this information available online after you complete website registration and log onto the site. If you insurer doesn't maintain this information online, call the member services phone number on the back of your ID card to request your claims history. If your medical plan isn't integrated with your pharmacy plan, also check your pharmacy insurer's claim history.

• 4

  Keep receipts for any health-related expenses. If you maintain a health savings or reimbursement account and submit health-related expenses, you may need to submit receipts for costs incurred. You can also request a report from your HSA or HRA vendor showing your submitted expenses.

• 5

  Review your paycheck stub to determine the health insurance deduction amount per pay. To complete an audit, review past statements to calculate how much you've spent on premium costs. Depending on your company, you may be able to access past pay stubs online or through your payroll department. If you don't have group health insurance, contact your insurer to inquire about your premium payment history.

• 6

  Set up a tracking system to document ongoing health insurance expenses.This can be as simple as putting documents in a manila folder and creating a log to input all related costs. Software companies often offer free health-care bill-tracking programs. Going forward, save each EOB to reconcile against a report of claims history and expense log.