Health expenses - claim for relief

Dapos

Hey,

I have two questions i was hoping someone could advise me on in relation to claiming relief on health expenses.

1) Can i claim health Expenses on a visit to a dermatologist consultant. I have psoriaisis (dianosed by my GP) but i wasn't referred to the consultant by my GP.

Also can i claim relief on physio visits? again i wasn't referred to the physio by my GP i just had a sports injury


2) I am currently on a bit of medication and am on the drugs payment scheme (100 euro a month is what i pay). Can i still claim relief on this?


Thanks in advance for any info\advice

spurious

Re the DPS payments:
I never claim and every year they send me a cheque for the amount of tax I would have overpaid based on DPS payments.

delly

Dapos wrote: »

1) Can i claim health Expenses on a visit to a dermatologist consultant. I have psoriaisis (dianosed by my GP) but i wasn't referred to the consultant by my GP.

Yes, once you have the receipt from the dermatologist, it can be claimed.

Dapos wrote: »

Also can i claim relief on physio visits? again i wasn't referred to the physio by my GP i just had a sports injury

Having never gone to a physio, i'm unsure how they treat this.

Dapos wrote: »

2) I am currently on a bit of medication and am on the drugs payment scheme (100 euro a month is what i pay). Can i still claim relief on this?

Yes, the max you pay is €100 per month (2009 value), but you can still claim relief on the €100 you paid.

Dapos

Thanks for the replys. Good to know i can claim on the consultant and 100 euro a month.

Anyone have any ideas about the physio?

A P

I'd also be interested about the physio expenses query if anyone can help. Last year I visited a physical therapist 3 times, a physiotherapist twice and had an MRI scan - all related to the same injury (diagnosed as a stress fracture by the MRI). I didn't go to a GP first. The total spent (including MRI) was €660. I didn't have health insurance at the time. Does anyone know if any of this can be claimed back? Thanks

Ticktactoe

A P wrote: »

I'd also be interested about the physio expenses query if anyone can help. Last year I visited a physical therapist 3 times, a physiotherapist twice and had an MRI scan - all related to the same injury (diagnosed as a stress fracture by the MRI). I didn't go to a GP first. The total spent (including MRI) was €660. I didn't have health insurance at the time. Does anyone know if any of this can be claimed back? Thanks

Hi AP
Yes physio qualifies for relief, and the MRI. As it wasn't cover by health insurance the full 660 can be offset against Tax.
In relation to your Dermotoligist... unless referred by as GP (which it is then classed as medical) it does not qualify. For reference check the Revenue website

A P

Cheers Ticktactoe. I had a look at http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/it/credits/health-expenses.html#section2 and the following sentence put a bit of doubt in my mind:
"Physiotherapy or similar treatment (for example, chiropractor, osteopath, bonesetter) prescribed by a practitioner"

I wasn't sure if this meant that a GP had to refer me to a physio first.
Thanks for your help.

Ticktactoe

A P wrote: »

Cheers Ticktactoe. I had a look at http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/it/credits/health-expenses.html#section2 and the following sentence put a bit of doubt in my mind:
"Physiotherapy or similar treatment (for example, chiropractor, osteopath, bonesetter) prescribed by a practitioner"

I wasn't sure if this meant that a GP had to refer me to a physio first.
Thanks for your help.

Practitioner isn't exclusive to General Practitioner. It means Physician or someone who deals with medican. If your physiotherapist thinks you need physiotherapy then you qualify - however it depends on the district you send it in to. If it is a small amount (couple of hundred) it wont be questioned. Send it in. If by a small chance it is selected for audit, ask your GP to write a two liner saying that you needed it!
People claim it, just some districts may be stricter than others but my advise is send it in!

magmay

Does anyone anymore get a break down of the costs of individual items from their chemist when using the Drugs Payment Scheme? We are finding we are just given a total amount owed under the DPS (max in any one month e100). It is not possible to see from the receipt/prescription print out exactly how much the drugs would cost if we were not on the DPS. We are interested to know if this policy of not pricing individual items is standard or are some chemists printing this information on the prescription claim form receipts

Dapos

Ticktactoe wrote: »

Hi AP
Yes physio qualifies for relief, and the MRI. As it wasn't cover by health insurance the full 660 can be offset against Tax.
In relation to your Dermotoligist... unless referred by as GP (which it is then classed as medical) it does not qualify. For reference check the Revenue website

Ok now i'm confused. I rang the revenue today. I was told I can claim relief on a consultant (dermotoligist) and a GP. I was told the Consultant does not have to be referred to by the GP.

With regards the Physio I was told i can claim relief only if refer to by a practitioner or GP. I just went to Physio without any referal.

Finally i asked about claiming for the Drugs Payment. I can claim relief up to 85 euro a month.

Ticktactoe

Dapos wrote: »

Ok now i'm confused. I rang the revenue today. I was told I can claim relief on a consultant (dermotoligist) and a GP. I was told the Consultant does not have to be referred to by the GP.

With regards the Physio I was told i can claim relief only if refer to by a practitioner or GP. I just went to Physio without any referal.

Finally i asked about claiming for the Drugs Payment. I can claim relief up to 85 euro a month.

LOL, Im not suprised!
The general rule is unless referred to by a GP then it doesn't qualify so i would go with that.
If you want to claim the physio get a letter from your doctor saying that it was a sports injury etc and you needed the treatment.
As regards the 85 euro that is technically not true as the payment scheme increased to €90 last year. Check with you chemist what month this came in and make sure you claim the €90 for the months that it was €90 and the rest €85. Off the top of my head i think it went up to €90 early last year. They have to accept it as they are the conditions.

anotherlostie

magmay wrote: »

Does anyone anymore get a break down of the costs of individual items from their chemist when using the Drugs Payment Scheme? We are finding we are just given a total amount owed under the DPS (max in any one month e100). It is not possible to see from the receipt/prescription print out exactly how much the drugs would cost if we were not on the DPS. We are interested to know if this policy of not pricing individual items is standard or are some chemists printing this information on the prescription claim form receipts

No, the receipt will only tell you what you paid. Why would you need to know the total value of the prescription when all you can claim is the amount you paid per month? This is the case in all pharmacies as it is how the receipts are set up to print. If you submitted a claim for €200 a month to revenue, they would only calculate based on the maximum amount paid under the DPS scheme (currently €100).


On a separate note, I submitted my own MED1 expenses to revenue in early January and have still not received tax back. Does it take this long early in the year when the deluge of 2008 claims goes in? I have mailed them to find out, but no response to date. My concern is that my electronic submission went AWOL, and of course there is no way of checking this out yourself.

Ticktactoe

anotherlostie wrote: »

No, the receipt will only tell you what you paid. Why would you need to know the total value of the prescription when all you can claim is the amount you paid per month? This is the case in all pharmacies as it is how the receipts are set up to print. If you submitted a claim for €200 a month to revenue, they would only calculate based on the maximum amount paid under the DPS scheme (currently €100).


On a separate note, I submitted my own MED1 expenses to revenue in early January and have still not received tax back. Does it take this long early in the year when the deluge of 2008 claims goes in? I have mailed them to find out, but no response to date. My concern is that my electronic submission went AWOL, and of course there is no way of checking this out yourself.

January is one of the busiest times of the year for Revenue so depending on the backlog of post in your district it could take weeks to be processed. If you submitted it via paye anytime then it shouldn't take as long as the only delay on the refund would be the actual issuing of it.

However if you ring Revenue they will be able to tell you the status of your claim. There could be a problem with it i.e your p60 details are not on file and something like this would delay it much further.

Also its important to note that you must have paid tax last year in order to get any relief.

Pm me if your confused.

Solution, ring them.

magmay

anotherlostie wrote: »

No, the receipt will only tell you what you paid. Why would you need to know the total value of the prescription when all you can claim is the amount you paid per month? This is the case in all pharmacies as it is how the receipts are set up to print. If you submitted a claim for €200 a month to revenue, they would only calculate based on the maximum amount paid under the DPS scheme (currently €100).


It has nothing to do with MED1 claims at all. With the rising costs of Drugs and the current controversy of high costs drugs and the posibility of generic drugs been the future for Drugs Payment Schemes, we are simply interested to know currently how much the Drugs are actually costing. We pay e1200 per year to the pharmacy and I would not imagin it is too much to request a breakdown where we can clearly see what we are paying for and what it would actually cost us if the DPS was not available.

delly

When i go the pharmacy i get a breakdown of all cost, then only charged the €100, therefore seeing how much i am saving.

angeldelight

The easiest solution is to ask the pharmacist the next time you're in, they can look up the price of each item

slick31

Hi,
I thought you could claim medical expenses for the last 4 years. Has this changed? Can you now only claim for the previous year???:eek:
Cheers,
Slick.

patrickc

slick31 wrote: »

Hi,
I thought you could claim medical expenses for the last 4 years. Has this changed? Can you now only claim for the previous year???:eek:
Cheers,
Slick.

it's back to 05 you can claim so 4 years