The IRS Deductions Blog

Archive for December, 2010

Items on Amazon Right Now for Are Office Supplies Tax Deductible:

Nonprofit’s small gift bags have ‘monumental impact’

Wanted: Elves. No experience necessary, but the job does requirethe desire to bring holiday cheer to troubled young people livingin local group homes. Compensation: None, but the rewards arepriceless.

Recovery: Education Tax Credit-Claim It-Parents January 10

Question: New Jersey taxes: Are cobra payments deductible ?

Can I add COBRA payments to my medical expenses on NJ 1040 (New Jersey taxes)?

Answer: Yes. The COBRA payments are insurance premiums, and deductible on NJ-1040 to the extent they exceed 2% of your AGI.

Items on Amazon Right Now for Cobra Deductible:

Employee Benefits Administrator, Medcom, Launches Premier MERP Plan to Fill Executive Compensation Gap Left by Health …

The recent Health Care Reform bill will effectively eliminate a popular tax advantaged medical expense reimbursement plan for executives — the fully insured MERP.

COBRA and Individual Health Insurance

Question: Deductable versus Copay?

I found a plan that covers therapist visits. It has a $2500 deductable with a $15 office visit co-pay and 2500 max per year of mental health coverage.
what I am wondering is how would that work?

My best guess is that I pay $15 per visit (assuming a therapist counts as a office visit), the insurance covers the rest (up to the $2500 a year mental health limit) then after the max has been reached I pay the rest out of pocket.

Also would the $15 and the rest that I pay count towards the regular deductible?

Answer: No, a deductable you need to pay yourself first before the insurance will start paying. So in your case, you need to pay $2500 yourself. For example, I believe you still pay your office co-pay, but any procedures or tests done will come out of your own pocket until you have paid $2500. Some insurance companies dont initiate the low co-pay either until the $2500 is reached (Im not sure which is your case). Once you pass that mark, no matter what time of the year, then they will start paying whatever their coverage is supposed to be.

Items on Amazon Right Now for Copay Versus Deductible:

Manchester teachers say health care concessions off the table in budget fight

Junking the plan of Mayor Ted Gatsas, the Manchester school board is backing a proposed budget that spends more than the mayor wants to, limits layoffs of paraprofessionals but ends with a $2.5 million question mark. Meanwhile, a teachers’ union official said concessions on health care are off the table, and teachers are ready for layoffs if that turns out to be the case.

How to Lower Healthcare Costs When on a No Co-Pay Health Plan

Question: High Deductible Health Plan vs. Traditional Insurance?

My wife is offered two plans at work.

A High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) and a Traditional Health Plan with co-pays

Here is the rub though:

The company will pay 100% of the premium if she chooses the HDHP.
-The deductible will be $6000 for the family per year.
-The plan will pay for preventative doctor visits (basically 1 physical per year) and nothing else until the deductible is met.

If we choose the traditional health plan with co-pays, we have to pay the premiums (which will run $255 per month).
-This plan is your run of the mill health plan with $20 co-pays.

I would REALLY love to hear from somebody who works in the industry.

I thank you in advance.

Answer: The premiums with the traditional plan will be $3060 per year.

If you expect the family to need at least $4000 of medical care, then get the traditional plan, because the premiums and co-pays will be less than what you would be paying on the deductible with the HDHP.

If you expect the family to need less than $3060 of medical care, then get the HDHP. Even if it pays for nothing, and you have to pay for everything 100% out-of-pocket, but doing so will cost less than the premiums for the traditional plan.

Personally, I would get the HDHP, but for reasons that have nothing to do with health insurance. If you get the HDHP and no other health insurance, then you can contribute thousands of dollars to a Health Savings Account (HSA), and deduct that money on your income taxes. I was actually in a situation where I had the option to have an employer pay 100% of the premium for a traditional plan or to pay the premium myself for an HDHP, and I still took the HDHP, because the tax savings from the HSA offset the cost of the HDHP.

Items on Amazon Right Now for Deductible Vs Premium:

Trupanion Explains Pricing and Value Proposition

Pet insurance company Trupanion today released information about how the companys core values support their pricing structure.Simply put, the value of any insurance is the percentage of premiums that are paid back in claims. Trupanion currently pays out more than 70 in premiums, with a goal to pay out more than 80 in the next ten years. The company is way above industry average, which sits…

Creative Deductible Solutions (CDS) Collision Deductible Reserve Plan (CDRP) Overview

Question: Tonsillectomy recovery questions?

so i am slated to have have my tonsills removed on the 28th, but i really really want to go to the new years party with all of my friends on the 31st. (their definition of party is to sit around and watch movies and play apples to apples) the main question i have is, assuming i have a ride to and from the party, will i be able to go with out screwing up my recovery? im a college student, and almost never get to see my friends back home so this party means alot to me, but my parents dont want to pay the insurance deductible. Also, recommendations for liquids to drink other then water and gatorade (is slim fast any good after a tonsillectomy?)

Answer: no you should not go to the party. you are not even supposed to leave your house until your 10 day post operation check up.
you are to lay down and take it easy.
plus if you think you may be feeling up to going to this party in the first place you are sadly mistaken. the pain doesn’t start out bad and continue to get better. it starts out as not being too bad and then by day 3-4 it becomes much much much worse cuz the scabs are forming which is what makes your throat really hurt.

technocally your friends should not be visiting you until about a week after the tonsillectomy but if you really want to see them have them come to your house for a little while to sit and watch a movie.

and no slim fast is not good to have after a tonsillectomy. you are not supposed to have dairy cuz it creates a lot of congestion.

i’m 23 and i had a tonsillectomy in september plus i’ve had 8 other surgeries so i can give you a run down of what happens including the hospital experience and recovery.

you’ll go to the hospital and go to the admission desk. they’ll put some info into the computer and put a wrist band on.
then you go up to what ever floor they tell you to and the nurse will put you in a room, ask you a bunch of questions, take your blood pressure and temp, and maybe ask for a urine sample. then they’ll give you a gown and tell you to hang out on the bed until they come get you. you’ll then be wheeled on a cart down to the preoperative area. depending on your age they may ask your parents to go to the waiting room or they may let them come to the preoperative area with you.
down in pre-op they will ask you a bunch of the same questions that you were already asked just so they can be sure everything was written correctly. they’ll take your BP again (they will put a cuff on that does it automatically every few minutes and this will stay on for the entire surgery and while you are in the recovery room), take your temp again, and also put a pulse ox monitor on your finger. it just measures how much oxygen you have in your body so they can regulate it(this will also stay on during surgery and in the recovery room) it doesn’t hurt or anything. and they’ll start an IV in the back of your hand or in the bend of your arm. the dr doing the surgery will usually appear to ask if you have any last minute questions and run through exactly what he is doing again. then if you are extremely nervous they may give you something in the IV to calm you down. it will most likely give you a burning sensation in your arm for a minute but it goes away quickly. it may make you feel tired, looopy, or just chilled out depending on what drug they used.
then they will wheel you into the operating room and help you scoot over onto the operating table. they’ll then put an oxygen mask on your face and heart monitor patches on your chest. then they will either give you the anesthesia through the mask or through the IV. if its through the mask you will just breath it in. it smells like nail polish remover. you may feel like you can’t breath cuz the smell is sooo strong but with in a minute you are out like a light. if its given through the IV you will have a burning sensation in your arm for a frew seconds and then you may start to feel dizzy or sick but before you can even tell someone you don’t feel good you are out like a light.

when you wake up you may feel like you just closed your eyes and then opened them again. you may not even realize for a second that the surgery even started let alone it being done already.
you’ll almost certainly feel really tired. you may also experience uncontrolable shaking, being emotional and crying cuz you don’t know whats going on, feeling dizzy and possibly fainting, and/or feeling sick and possibly throwing up. these are all common side effects after anesthesia.

you will start out in the recovery room where there are nurses and other patients coming out of anesthesia. they will monitor you and bug you every few minutes to make sure you are alright. they don’t really expect you to full wake up in this room. once you are stable you will be wheeled back up to the room you started in when you got there and that is where your parents can see you again. at this point a nurse will come in and really start to try to get you to wake up. they’ll try to get you to drink something like apple juice or 7up. they also try to get you to go use the bathroom.
they usually try to get you up and out as quickly as they can so they can make more room for other patients.
if you don’t feel like you can get up and go then don’t let them rush you. its best to go at your own pace this will lessen the chance of you getting extremely sick or dizzy.

one little thing that i always try to let people know is if you get the least bit chilly ask for a blanket. they have a “warming oven” so when they give you a blanket it is nice and warm. if you are still cold ask for another one and another until you feel comfortable cuz when you get cold you get more shaky and in my opinion then get more nervious.
oh and if you are prone to cold feet wear a pair of regular socks and then also a pair of those soft fuzzy socks and it will keep your feet toasty.

the recovery process takes about 10 days.

you will most likely be taking liquid lortab (which tastes nasty) and liquid amoxicillin (the yummy bubble gum med that you most likely took at some point in your childhood)

take the pain killers when ever you can. even if your pain isn’t all that bad cuz if you skip doses the pin will come back to haunt you. and you may think there isn’t enough medicine to last the whole recovery but don’t worry cuz they usually allow for one refill which will give you more than enough.

as much as it may hurt make sure you have lots to drink cuz that will actually lessen the pain and recovery time in the long run.
when you sleep make sure you set an alarm for at least every 2hrs to have a drink cuz your throat will get extremely dry especially cuz your mouth will most likely be open while sleeping.

i’ll break down my pain levels day by day to give you an idea of what your recovery may be like. i’ll give it to you on a scale of 1-10
day 1 and 2 (2-10)
day 3 (4-10)
day 4, 5, 6, 7 (8-10)
day 8 and 9 (4-10)
day 10 (2-10)
by day 12 i was pretty much back to normal.

the reason the pain will not be too bad and then will rise is cuz as the scabs are forming and your throat is healing it makes it hurt more.
once the scabs start falling off the pain starts going away again.

you’ll get a nasty taste in your mouth DO NOT TRY TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT. its due to the scabs forming. you do not want to try to get rid of the scabs before they come off on their own. if you try to brush back there or use mouth wash the scabs may come off before they are ready and you would start bleeding which can be life threatening and you would need to go to the ER.

the scabs usually come off between 8-12 days after the surgery. you’ll sudenly feel the need to cough and after a few good coughs you’ll spit out a piece of scab. for me the nasty taste in my mouth suddenly shot through my nose. i actually thought the scab was gonna come out of my nose (of course it didn’t but it was weird how the taste become an extreme smell in my nose as i coughed the scabs out).

you cannot use ibuprofen for 3 weeks prior to the surgery and you cannot start back up using it until 3 weeks after the surgery. ibuprofen can thin blood which would put you at a much higher risk of bleeding.

you also cannot use a straw until 3 weeks after the surgery.

as far as food goes you are not supposed to have any dairy. i know so many people say “you can eat all the ice cream you want” but thats not true. back in the day drs used to recommend ice cream cuz its soft and cold but they do not recommend it any more cuz dairy creates a lot of mucous which will cause a lot of congestion and you’ll have to cough hard to try to get in out and coughing will highly irritate your throat. plus the congestion causes you to loose your voice.
(i did not have any dairy during my recovery and i could talk just fine and i was not congested at all)

things to drink are:
-tons of cold water
-apple juice
-passion fruit juice
-peach juice
-gatoraid
for the first 3 days the only things you are supposed to “eat” are things like jello, popsicles, and soup broth. (thats why you need to have a wide variety of drinks so you don’t get extremely bored with your diet)
after the first 3 days you can start eating things like:
-mashed potatoes
-mac n cheese
-soup
-oatmeal
-apple sauce
-peas
-baked beans. (my ENT was in shock when i said i loved eating baked beans during my recovery but that was cuz he usually deals with little kids like under 10yrs old and knows many kids don’t like them lol)

you’ll go for a 10 day check up. the dr will just look at your throat they won’t poke around or anything so don’t worry about that happening. as long as they say you look good you’ll be able to go back to a pretty much normal diet. they suggest still eating fairly soft foods. (i had a mcdonalds cheeseburger when i left the appointment).
you just cannot eat chips or pretzels for 3 weeks after the sugery cuz they are rough.

also you cannot exercise for about 3 weeks afer surgery as well cuz they don’t want you to strain anything.

you do still have a risk of bleeding for 4-6 weeks after the surgery so you souldn’t make any plans that require you to leave the area.

Items on Amazon Right Now for Deductible Recovery:

In brief: Pair will match Rubicon donations

Rubicon Theatre Co. supporters and philanthropists Barbara Meister and Micheline Sakharoff have offered to match up to $50,000 in donations to the professional Ventura theater company.

Bone Marrow / Stem Cell Transplant Recovery Fund