[Dustyn]

Hi all – for thos of you with a high deductible health plan that use your HSA as an investment vehicle… how are you keeping track of receipts?

In theory, I can pay for healthcare costs out of pocket, invest the HSA money, then get reimbursed decades later so I can get that money out with no penalty.

But in practice, has anyone really every tried submitting a claim for an expense that was 20 years old? Is this really going to work?

I guess I can just start saving any invoices I have to some Google Drive folder, but I rarely get receipts from doctors, so how does that even work – do I need to save credit card statements too to show the deduction?

This all sounds like a lot of work, but I guess I’ll add it to my monthly money management list.

[Rick]

Well there is claiming the deduction on your tax form (requires really nothing and near zero effort) and defending your deduction during an audit (requires the right documentation and some effort).

So, to your first question, no real effort to do it now, 10 years from now, or 20 years from now.

Regarding documentation, this is a fairly common question here so you may find previous threads with loads of helpful advice.
General it is two things

1. Store in a cloud folder

2. Save two things as one is typically insufficient in case of that effort of an audit thing. Payment receipt AND either of provider service statement or insurance explanation of benefits (eob).

One persons experience as I worked in hsa space for many years – I have yet to learn of anyone audited specifically for hsa deductions.

Ever. And neither had any hsa admin employee that I asked. Now hsa admins were asked for some document he,p by people that were audited for other reasons and as part of the audit they wanted to prepare to defend all deductions.

I am sure this unicorn exists but I haven’t found them. This is not a reason to have poor hsa record keeping. Just sharing how extremely rare an hsa lead reason audit seems to be.

[Megan]

I save my receipts, proof of payment and EOBs on Google Drive. I’ll tell you decades from now if it works.

Until then I just follow the process with minimal effort

[Preston]

I often wonder about this question- do you not expect to have medical expenses in 20 years that would eventually make use of the funds?

Unless you expect to have $200K + in your HSA are you going to be looking back 20 years to submit for old expenses?

I understand the option is there- but how many people are doing this. I could see a 3-5 year old window, but 20+ seems crazy.

[Adrienne]

Another action might be to download your claims history from your insurance company site. Download by year and store in a folder for that year with any other documentation saved for claims incurred that year.

This data typically includes a “Your Responsibility” amount/column that would help justify, although I’m not sure if there’s a way to “prove” that this data came from your insurer.

But could be a good backup in concise format requiring little effort.

[Ryan]

The return on hassle has to be very high and our HSA makes up such a small percentage of our portfolio, so I just pay medical expenses from it as we go.

[Bill]

Keep a folder by year. Scan as PDF the payment receipt AND either EOB or itemized statement for each charge, except OTC stuff for which you’ll only have the receipt.

If you want to go one step further, at the end of each year, add it all into a spreadsheet for easy viewing.

It’s not that much of a hassle to benefit from the long-term investment growth of the HSA.

[Christopher]

Many care providers can provide year-end statements for qualified expenses.

We generally just keep track of the larger receipts – once the tracked balance exceeds your HSA balance (or the expected future balance), you don’t really need to keep tracking additional expenses.

Stuff like child births, emergency room visits, and the like make it so we don’t really need to keep track of bandaids at the grocery store etc.

I think it mainly comes up if you’re audited?

[Rebecca]

Hsa is more of a “transfer funds” than a request for reimbursement.
I keep a spreadsheet and then copies of my eobs, any bills or receipts I received, etc.

I monitor our claims pretty closely anyway, so an extra column that says if I actually paid and if so whether I reimbursed myself already is really not a ton of extra work IMO.

[Jill]

What are the odds that google drive & other platforms are even available in 20 years?

I thought digital pictures were safe on CDs & thumb drives 10 years ago and now it’s tough to find a reader or usb drive on a computer.

I save actual hard copies and file them.

[Dan]

I have a two step process that keeps it easy and organized for me. I enter the expenses onto a spreadsheet with date, amount, provider, and quick description of what it was.

Also, a column for if I paid via credit card or check.

Then I scan the bills or receipts and just save the file in a folder by year and label the file with the date and dollar value of the charge… like “1-3-24 $300.99.pdf” is the name of the file.

[Jennifer]

I get a receipt for every payment for an expense that is eligible for reimbursement.

I save them as hardcopy and digital in my drive.

[Elizabeth]

At my co.pany, if you house to invest part of your HSA money, there is a monthly fee.

[Angela]

Well, since the first HSA was in 2004, I’m not sure how many ppl would have 20 yr old receipts….

[Author]

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