Inside My Insurance Binder!

Ignore the sad screenshot.... IT'S MY FIRST VLOG! I've been wanting to share my insurance organization tips and I had all the stuff out today so I did a super low budget look inside! It's about 14 minutes and Peter cried through almost the whole thing. But he is happily roaming the house now so don't feel sad :)

Products:

1" Binder

Post-it Notes

Sticky Flags

Highlighter

Month Binder Dividers (I recommend these black ones so that they don't throw off your color coding!)

Quick Tips:

1) Scan insurance cards and place copies in the front of your binder. Add important contact info on that sheet!

2) Color code any bills you receive. One unique color for every person in the family, and an addition yellow/orange/red color for bills that require action

3) Highlight important information on your bills and EOBs, like the Date of Service (DOS), Patient Name, and Amount Billed

4) Sort your bills and EOBs by date of service, put corresponding EOBs behind bills so you can keep all the information together in the event of a problem.

5) **not mentioned in video** I keep post its in the binder so when I call on a particular bill, I stick a post it on there with the next steps and any relevant information. It is so beneficial to be able to completely unload your mind in between "office days" when you are working on the insurance.

6) Keep a folder that you add all of the insurance/billing info to when it needs to be sorted. I can't stress this enough. It allows you to just dump any receipts or mail you receive in there to work on later, but it also allows your spouse to help with organization without telling you "We have a new bill" (which is an evil phrase in my house! haha). When we were getting bills every day, this is what kept me going.

Final Thoughts:

Working with insurance is basically my second job. It is really difficult. Not everyone is nice and it's also super emotional for parents because this is our baby we are talking about! But I have found the more organized I am, the less I stress about it. Right now my 2017 year is so chaotic and I've run into problems caused by my own mistakes. I feel so much better when I am organized! I love having a set Office Day that I use for bills and organization. It helps me not feel so guilty on days I ignore it. AND I love keeping clear documentation of who I talked to and the next steps. There is usually about a 30 day period between when I place a phone call to correct a problem and when it gets fixed, so it is helpful to have the reminder of my plan a month later when it is hard to remember. The main takeaway here is that the more organized you are, the less of that residual stress you take on in day to day life. So if you are new to this crazy world of insurance or if you are just ready to get more organized, hopefully this little tutorial will help you out!