Category: Family Matters

Today was the first day back after a two-week holiday break. It really wasn’t as painful as I was anticipating. MAM was cooperative, the school day was a good one and…..it was 67 degrees out. It is the beginning of January, and really, no jacket is required.

But since I’m in Indiana, of course, there’s a tornado watch tonight, and by Friday? There may be snow. I’m not putting away the winter gear just yet.

So I’ve lurked around on Works for Me Wednesday, but I’ve never joined in the carnival. This morning I realized it was time to get our 2008 health insurance file all ready to go, and realized that this clever idea is probably worth sharing, so here it goes!

Way back when, I just had a file folder in the filing cabinet marked, “health insurance”. It was a jumbled mess, you know so jumbled that I just kept adding to the mess because I couldn’t bear to sit down and sort it all out. Which was Ok, until I needed to find a receipt or a statement or proof of payment. After a particularly unhealthy year, I stole this organizing idea from my good friend, Sharon.

I purchased a sturdy accordian file with several pockets and a cover to keep it all tidy (also enabling it to be stored on its side). I labeled the top tabs:

Provider statements (billing summaries or payment statements if we have a balance that’s being paid over time)
Insurance statements (ours sends summaries every so often stating what they’ve paid to our providers)
Receipts to Submit (to our FSA account, I fax in receipts once we hit a certain dollar amount, I also keep blank copies of the fax cover letter required)
Receipts Submitted(once I’ve faxed them and while I’m waiting for payment, the receipts hang out here)
Receipts Reimbursed (once I get the check, I clip the check stub to the receipts which have been paid)
Vision
Dental
Mail Order Rx (this is where I keep the formulary and mail order forms)
Carry over from 2007 (there are always a few things that I can’t lost track of as the new year switches over, so I keep a folder for old business)

At the beginning of a new year, I clear out the old–shredding anything we don’t need anymore, and then moving everything into a file jacket (a folder just doesn’t cut it), label it “Health Insurance/Expenses 2007 and pop it into a storage box (that holds old bank info, taxes, and so forth).

I’ve done this now for three years, and it really helps a lot!

2008 is now here–we greeted it last night with friends and spirits. We continued to celebrate today by lounging around, and by finally at 6:45pm, changing from yesterday’s Pj’s to tonight’s Pj’s. Now that’s what I call a holiday.