That is about two years worth of insurance billing statements. Why do I keep them (honestly I’d be asking where!)?
You need to keep your explanation of benefits (EOB) for your records of what has been authorized, permitted, and services acquired under your name or your dependents name. Because we are under military health insurance, there is a cap on certain codes and services. In some cases, like ours, we get dangerously close to meeting that cap every year. It is a good idea to keep your EOB and look over each new one to make sure all the codes are processed accordingly and accurately and all fees paid out by your insurance company are the right amounts.
At one point in time, I did’t care whether our insurance was coding things right and paying the right amount for services we got. Who cares, we don’t pay for it out of pocket right? Wrong. Eventually, what happened was there was a coding error; which I didn’t catch because I didn’t read my EOB. Due to that mistake, we eventually got a bill of over $5,000 that we were being asked to pay out of pocket. <insert gasp in horror here>. Not only that, eventually that lead to our yearly cap going over and us having to pay more out of pocket. Luckily all mistakes were fixed and we were not going to have to fork over our first born for payment. However, my little transgression made me realized I needed to pay more attention to our EOB. Especially since we are a medical high maintenance family. I think last year alone, we were sitting at $27,000 of a $30,000 cap for services like ABA, OT, PT and speech at the end of the fiscal year. I don’t know about you; but we be broke people! I’d be offering up my first born again as payment, and I kinda of grown attached to him now.
All those who Tricare/United Health Care for insurance can go here, for more information regarding your EOB and to register to receive your EOB online.