Out of pocket expenses

[debbie5846]

My husband has recently started Lyme treatment, so all of this is new to us including ALL the out of pocket expenses.

 

Any information on how all of you deal with all of the EXPENSES would be helpful.

 

For example:

Visit to the lyme doctor, not covered by insurance.

All the supplements, can you write this expense off on taxes??

Can you write off mileage for doctor visits??

Compounding Pharmacy charges, not covered.

 

THANKS!!

[lfran]

You can deduct medical expenses and mileage on your 1040 but only for the amounts that are greater than 7.5% of your AGI. Totally stinks. (You can deduct health insurance premiums, if they are not paid for by your employer). Supplements are only deductible when prescribed/recommended by an MD, I think.

My husband has recently started Lyme treatment, so all of this is new to us including ALL the out of pocket expenses.

 

Any information on how all of you deal with all of the EXPENSES would be helpful.

 

For example:

Visit to the lyme doctor, not covered by insurance.

All the supplements, can you write this expense off on taxes??

Can you write off mileage for doctor visits??

Compounding Pharmacy charges, not covered.

 

THANKS!!

[aidansmom]

Here is a link:

 

http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc502.html

 

Note:

"You may deduct only the amount by which your total medical care expenses for the year exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income"

 

Also for specifics items:

 

http://www.irs.gov/publications/p502/index.html

 

This is info for 2010 so you will need to look to see if anything changes for 2011.

 

My interpretation (and I am not a tax expert) is that the doctor's visits not covered by insurance and mileage on cars (I think it will be 19 cents per mile in 2011) are definetly deductible

 

For supplements under items not deductible click on nutrional supplements and it reads:

 

"Nutritional Supplements

You cannot include in medical expenses the cost of nutritional supplements, vitamins, herbal supplements, “natural medicines,” etc. unless they are recommended by a medical practitioner as treatment for a specific medical condition diagnosed by a physician. Otherwise, these items are taken to maintain your ordinary good health, and are not for medical care."

 

Most of ours have been recomended by a MD or DO for Lyme or PANDAS so i think I can deduct.

 

Don't forget other expenses that may not be realated to Lyme like eye glasses, contacts, dentist visits, I believe that anything that you paid in 2011 for 2010 expenses can be added on for 2011 (but not what you pay 2012 for 2011).

[Suzan]

My medical expenses have been over the required % for the past three years for my family. I keep all receipts for any portion of medical, dental, prescriptions, supplements and mileage (any hotel rooms, food, plane or train costs, etc. needed when you travel for medical appts too). It's true, that the supplements need to be recommended by the doctor, which at this point, I'm considering almost all as recommended by the LLMD.

 

Susan

[JGsmom]

My medical expenses have been over the required % for the past three years for my family. I keep all receipts for any portion of medical, dental, prescriptions, supplements and mileage (any hotel rooms, food, plane or train costs, etc. needed when you travel for medical appts too). It's true, that the supplements need to be recommended by the doctor, which at this point, I'm considering almost all as recommended by the LLMD.

 

Susan

 

I recently opened up a credit card specifically for all our medical expenses out of pocket and marked it 'medical' on the front. This way I have a paper trail of all our medical expenses and an easy way to track them all as the receipts get a little bit much. Of course I retain the receipts as well. Don't forget the miles to travel to the pharmacy to drop off and pick up your Rx's. I didn't think of the food we eat when we travel..... I'll have to start putting that on the medical credit card as well.

[debbie5846]

I wanted to say THANK YOU, to everyone who responded to my question, I really appreciate all the great information.

Debbie

[Orion]

Just want to add that if you have a 'cafeteria'/medical flex plan where you can elect to have X amount of money set aside pre-tax for medical expenses, you can not include those again as an exemption on your taxes.

 

I have separate envelopes set aside for receipts: 1 for things I paid through the medical flex account, and 1 for medical expenses I paid with after-tax dollars.