Tracking Medical Records

If your family is in good health, an Excel spreadsheet, a simple Word document that keeps a list of medical bill submissions, or even a stack of paper on your desk may be sufficient. But if one person in your family has anything resembling a bona fide illness, the paperwork involved can bring you to your knees. A hospital visit can involve dozens of individual bills—from the TV set in your room, to the anesthesiologist, to the lab work. Special treatment involves reams of backup documentation. The only thing longer than the list of bills is the list of excuses and codes that insurance companies dream up for denying payments. This year, our eldest child had some serious medical issues. Tracking our submissions and documenting treatments became a full-time occupation.

It's a nightmare I hope you will avoid, but if someone in your family does fall ill, there are a few technology resources to help you manage. We're checking out Quicken's Medical Expense Manager, a $50 download from Intuit. According to the Motley Fools, the program was developed by an Intuit employee faced with his own son's illness.

Quicken helped me get my business life in shape, and it seems as if their medical records program will do the same. They seem to balance jargon-free language and easy entry screens. You can keep track of multiple family members on issues as mundane as when their prescription is due for a refill or as critical as how the reimbursement for a large bill is progressing. As you enter each of your insurance submissions, they are trackable and you've got an immediate medical log—invaluable for archive and even tax purposes.

Ed Baig, USA Today columnist, reviewed the software and found it really useful, despite the fact that it didn't integrate with Quicken's financial programs. I've stumbled across some other medical trackers, but I'm not sure they'll have the sleek user interface or customer support that Intuit can provide. I'll keep you posted, but let me know if you've had to track a medical illness and how you managed.