A weekend of work

[omahas]

I had a very busy weekend. And not just because of the things that we as a family did that Elf blogged about. I'm talking about things that I did myself.


See, I work a job during the day. Strike that...I work three jobs during the day. I have three different focuses for my company, and it ends up being three different jobs. The fact that I'm not insane right now actually surprises me. Or maybe I am insane, and I just don't know it yet.

Anyway, I really was getting behind in some things (primarily because I took off both Thanksgiving and the most important holiday of the year...Black Friday), and I resolved to make up for it by working this weekend. I had two games I had to review, a podcast to get out the door, and a designer to try and contact (I succeeded).

I also had a whole bunch of medical stuff to deal with. You can't imagine the miasma of dealing with the modern American health industry (well, maybe you can). See, I'm not the kind of person who's content to let the insurance industry just rip me off. I demand satisfaction. And if I can't get it at the point of a sword, I'll damn well get it by maneuvering through their bureaucratic mazes.

We have a health plan this year, complements of the cheap company that Elf works for, that is the worst health plan that I have ever encountered. Basically, they pay for the first $1000 of your medical expenses. Then, you pay for the next $1000 (or $2000 if it's an out of network provider). Then they will pay for everything after that that is covered at the agreed rate. That's a lot of money to pay. This, after raising the amount of money that Elf has to pay for insurance in the first place.

We also have a MSA, which allows you to put a certain amount of money from each paycheck into a trust. Then, when you have medical expenses, you can get reimbursement through that trust by simply sending in the proof of the bill (such as an EOB from the insurance company). The benefit is that all of the money that is taken out of your paycheck is taken pre-tax. Because you go this route, guaranteeing that you are using the money to pay for qualified medical expenses, you never pay taxes on the money that you eventually get back. So you can end up being taxed at a lower rate. The MSA company, however, gets to keep whatever you don't use, and probably believes that a lot of people don't use up all of what they set aside. That has *never* happened with us. We drain it, usually a month or two before the deadline.

Lastly, Yamaarashi-chan's counselor is an out-of-network provider, and doesn't bill the insurance company directly. So we have to pay her, and then send in the paperwork to get our reimbursement. This used to be an utter nightmare because we had two different insurance companies to deal with...Elf's and Yamaarashi-chan's mother's. But since the beginning of the year, the only benefit to the new plan that Elf has is that it is now the same company as Angi's. Which means that not only does the reimbursement go much quicker, but we also don't have to send in a second set of paperwork once the first plan has made it's decisions.

Now, I say "we" up above, but really I should be saying "me". Elf could never do all of this stuff. As I said, it is a nightmarish maze, and you have to really be committed to getting through the maze, and have the patience to deal with the idiots that you encounter at various points. And know when to drop the patience and put the screws to their heads. Which I do very effectively.

Anyway, I spent today attending to all of the medical stuff as well, and now we should be getting a substantial amount back from our MSA and the reimbursement for Yamaarashi-chan's counseling expenses. I feel pretty good about everything I did. Now I'm going to write. :)

Comments

[hydrolagus.livejournal.com]

Is the MSA a strategy you would recommend?
And big kudos for keeping the insurance companies to their word.

[omahas.livejournal.com]

Is the MSA a strategy you would recommend?

Well, first and foremost, you have to have patience, commitment, and organization skills. If you have those, then yes, I would recommend it. For example, we have had set aside about $2600 this year for the MSA account alone (you can do the same for daycare as well). At the 28% tax rate, that means we save $728 in taxes. What we spend in exchange is the time to track the medical bills (which I do already), faxing, and following up with anything that was denied (doesn't happen often).

So I would recommend it for anyone who is willing to keep up with the process.

[lisakit.livejournal.com]

I've looked into it myself (the feds offer a Flexible Spending Account for the same purpose) and have decided that the money I would save in taxes is well-spent on not having the headache. Mind you I have lots of medical bills myself, but I also have a very low tolerance for idiots.

[riverheart.livejournal.com]

Some firms' FSAs offer something called a Bennie Card, like a MasterCard but only for medical expenses, which makes things much more convenient. I don't know if we pay for having that convenience or not, but it's worth it if we do. It enables either of us to go to the pharmacy, pick up our prescriptions and put it on the card, without paying a cent in cash at the pharmacy and without filling out any sort of paperwork. If you have a lot of up-front medical expenses such as co-pays for prescriptions or office visits, the Bennie Card is excellent.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Man, how you make all those faceless bureaucrats toe the line and not go bugf--- insane, I'll never know. I bow to your superior red-tape-fu.

And a word of advice: Stay away from the Kryptonite. :)

[lisakit.livejournal.com]

Glad the day was productive for you! And thanks for the loan of your chariot for the party. ;) Hopefully you can make the next event.

[huddyn.livejournal.com]

You know, I did the math comparing that thousand dollar plan to the traditional 20 buck copay plan they cleverly tried to steer people away from, and as it turns out, under that plan in 2006 I would have been 1K out of pocket, compared to $300 via the copay system. This year so far has worked out to similar amounts. If your going much past 2K in overall payments, your better off with the 'old fashioned' plan I think. Especially with all the medical emergencies D had this year, it really paid out for us. Might be worth working out the math come spring.

[riverheart.livejournal.com]

For us, a traditional plan is probably the only way to go. Charles has an FSA, into which we put the maximum amount allowable by law every month. We use that up by early to mid November, and all of it every year goes for prescriptions alone. We don't have any left in it for other medical expenses.