Double entry bookkeeping for US healthcare

[redst...@gmail.com]

Wrote up a quick (thanks, AI!) article on Double-Entry Bookkeeping for US Healthcare including importing EOBs and tracking payment plans.

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[Simon Michael]

Nice one! I linked it at
https://forum.plaintextaccounting.org/t/double-entry-bookkeeping-for-us-healthcare/670

[redst...@gmail.com]

Nice — and thanks for creating and growing plaintextaccounting.org!

I’ll sign up in a minute and post this article which is in a similar vein: Booking Amazon Purchases.

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[Chris Hasenpflug]

I have a similar approach, though I capture a bit more data.  I track the "true" (as true as it can be in the US healthcare system...) cost in the expense, then offset that expense contra account entires for the insurance plan's adjustment and portion paid.

Expenses:Health:Medical:Doctor  200.00

Expenses:Health:Medical:Doctor:InsuranceAdjustment -50.00

Expenses:Health:Medical:Doctor:InsurancePayment -50.00

Liabilities:Healthcare:Accounts-Payable:MyDoctorsClinic

Then pay the liability as necessary.

Having the "true" cost of healthcare has helped me to see the benefits insurance is providing and helps in evaluating new plan options.

I similarly use metadata to capture amounts toward deductible and coinsurance maximums. I would like to make use of this to report on progress towards meeting those limits but have not done so yet.

So far I have decided to use tags for individuals rather than subaccounts. I have found it adequate for my needs rather than the additional subaccounts.

I need to do better about importing this stuff on a regular basis, I tend to put it off until year's end. Thanks for the inspiration!

[redst...@gmail.com]

Added a sentence about the true cost to the article thanks!

I need to do better about importing this stuff on a regular basis, I tend to put it off until year’s end.

I find that as long as I have a robust importer for it, it takes just a minute to login to the website, grab and import the csv. I do it lazily, when there's a need -- usually when there are bills I don't understand. My reward is being able to pay a bill with the confidence of having verified it.

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