The Land of Ozz

How the IRS helps me save 50 cent per gallon on gas.

The time of year has arrived when many US employers kick off what we call in the civil service “Open Season”. This is a time of the year when employees are allowed to make benefit changes that may not be allowed at any other time during the year, with a few exceptions called qualifying life events. (i.e., death, birth, marriage, adoption, etc.) One of the most useful, but often overlooked optional benefits that many employers offer is the Health Care Flexible Spending Account. Through these accounts the IRS allows for tax payers to have money withdrawn from their paychecks pre-taxed to later be used to reimburse medical expenses. In 2003 the IRS extended the coverage of these accounts to include over the counter medications and medical supplies. Many employees avoid this program because they do not fully understand it and are scared of the possibility of loosing unused money. This is a valid concern, but in y opinion, those who avoid flexible spending accounts are leaving money on the table.

So what does a flexible spending account have to do with gas prices?

I am glad you asked. One of the allowed categories of medical expenses in the flexible spending account is called transportation. The general guidelines for the transportation category are as follows:

“You can include in medical expenses amounts paid for transportation primarily for, and essential to, medical care.

You can include:

• Bus, taxi, train, or plane fares or ambulance service,
• Transportation expenses of a parent who must go with a child who needs medical care,
• Transportation expenses of a nurse or other person who can give injections, medications, or other treatment required by a patient who is traveling to get medical care and is unable to travel alone, and
• Transportation expenses for regular visits to see a mentally ill dependent, if these visits are recommended as a part of treatment.

Car expenses. You can include out-of-pocket expenses, such as the cost of gas and oil, when you use a car for medical reasons. You cannot include depreciation, insurance, general repair, or maintenance expenses.” Source: IRS Publication 502

With this one benefit our family is able to offset our gas costs by an average of 50 cents per gallon based on $3 per gallon prices. I will add a disclaimer for our situation, but that does not take away from the fact that an average family can cut gas prices by 25 cents per gallon or more with a flexible spending account. My disclaimer is that our son Caden sees an above average number of doctors on a regular basis so our transportation expenses are more than double that of a normal family of the same size as ours. That said, I have broken out a separate line in my calculations to show how a “normal” family would be saving 25 cents per gallon on gas even if Caden had not seen so many doctors this year. The “extreme” column represents our situation with Caden’s appointments.

The IRS allows for 20 cents per mile to be reimbursed through the flexible spending accounts. I have included a little chart to show how much gas costs per mile based on a vehicle’s MPG rating and the price per gallon at the pump.

Below is how I calculate the 50 cents per gallon savings on the year. The numbers used here are based on six months worth of transportation expenses with an average of 16.5 miles one-way to our medical service providers. I used Google maps to determine the distances. We completed 55 trips for medical purposes at 33 miles round trip on average for a total of 1814 miles in approximately six months. (Shown below in the “Extreme” column) There were 29 trips averaging 28.6 miles not including Caden’s appointments. (Shown below in the “Normal” column)

You will notice that our adjusted price per gallon of gas price is now at $2.51 based on the original $3 per gallon purchase price.

There are a few notable items.

1. The better mileage your vehicle gets the more you will save per mile. I actually used conservative numbers for our car so the actual savings for us is well above 50 cents per gallon on the year.
2. The vehicle that my wife drives averages less than 10K miles per year of driving. The higher the percentage of miles driven for medical purposes will increase your savings. If your vehicle is used only for medical purposes, then you would likely end up making money.
3. Higher gas prices will mean less savings unless the IRS adjusts the mileage rate for 2008. The rate went up from 18 to 20 cents last year.
4. If you drive a vehicle that gets terrible mileage or if the price of gas goes up faster than the mileage rate, then you would be better off taking the actual expenses in reimbursement instead of the 20 cents per mile allowance.

Participation in a Health Care Flexible Spending Accounts should be approached with some caution. Any money put into the accounts pre-taxed must be used for expenses within the plan year or the money will be forfeited at the end of each year. I had planned to get an implant this year that was going to cost about $1800. The implant could not be scheduled this year so I ended up with $1800 more in my flex account than planned. This led me to start combing through the list of reimbursable items allowed by the IRS to see what I could use to retrieve some of my cash. The transportation expenses were a great discovery that I was not aware of even though I have been a faithful flex plan participant for more than 10 years. The transportation expense reimbursement along with regular co-pays, over the counter medications, deductibles, and other medical expenses is allowing for me to utilize the entire $2100 that I diverted into my flexible spending account pre-tax this year. My total tax savings will be as much as $588 based on a 28% tax.

I encourage you to investigate your benefits package to see if it includes a Health Care Flexible Spending Account. If you are already a member, then I hope you are making use of the transportation category to save you some cash on gas.

It has been a rough few days for our family.  My son Caden remains hospitalized after a surgery that he had on Wednesday.  We expected to be discharged in less than 24 hours.  We are in the middle of night three at MUSC.

It has been reassuring to read 2nd Timothy this week during daily reading. I found myself reading one of my favorite verses in such a timely fashion. I have spoke this verse out loud during several prayers since Wednesday.

“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7

Remembering this truth and reading about Paul’s sufferings and his encouragement for Timothy has helped to keep things in perspective this week.

The hype on this story has settled in the mainstream media, but it has not left my mind in the past week. I am as knowledgeable as a man can be on abortion without being a physician. I wrote about my history and my personal position on abortion a little over a year ago.

My wife is now approximately 23 weeks pregnant with our third child. She is at about the same place in this pregnancy as she was when we learned about or son Caden’s life threatening heart defects. The heart defects (four of them) were so prominent that an amniocentesis has highly encouraged. I wrote about this experience in the draft for a book that I have been working on.

An amniocentesis is a procedure where they use a very large needle to collect fluid from the area around the baby. This fluid can be used to determine if the baby has a chromosome abnormality. We had but one question, “what is the benefit of gathering this information?” The answer was long and consisted of a lot of beating around the bush. Finally, the answer we got was that the amniocentesis results would empower us with information to help us make a “choice” on what to do next. We determined that what they really meant was that they wanted to know if we were interested in terminating the pregnancy.

Obviously we chose to move forward with the pregnancy. It is my understanding that many parents choose to end the life of their child if defects like these are found and often the decision is made as a result of pressure put on them by the prenatal clinics to consider the termination.

I really did not understand what a partial birth abortion was until a little over a week ago. What makes me sick to my stomach is that my wife and I were highly encouraged to consider our “options” in regards to her pregnancy with Caden. A choice to terminate at that late point in the pregnancy would have resulted in what I now understand to be a partial birth abortion.

Before you follow the links I am about to give you I want to give a firm WARNING that the information you will see and read is very graphic and it is very disturbing. It is all truth and I believe every parent who is considering an abortion should be required to see or read something like this at a minimum. La Shawn Barber has brought together a couple of the best posts on this subject that I have seen. The first post is titled ‘Intact’ Infanticide [WARNING, this is a very graphic description of late term abortion as witnessed by a nurse]. The other post provides a graphical representation of the procedure and is titled Supreme Court Upholds Ban On Partial Birth Abortion[Visual WARNING]. La Shawn has been one of the most faithful bloggers in producing dozens of sobering reports on abortion in a category she has named “child killing”.

It grieves me to think that children’s lives could be taken in this way. What grieves almost as much is the number of U.S. citizens who are sitting on the edge of the seat to cast a vote for a presidential candidate who criticizes the most recent Supreme Court Decision to stop partial birth abortions.

The Senator Hillary Clinton’s Response:

“This decision marks a dramatic departure from four decades of Supreme Court rulings that upheld a woman’s right to choose and recognized the importance of women’s health…”Source

From the Senator Barack Obama Camp.

“I strongly disagree with today’s Supreme Court ruling, which dramatically departs from previous precedents safeguarding the health of pregnant women…” Source

Did they get together for lunch to come up with matching opening sentences that read like they are in stereo surround sound?

Well Senators Obama and Clinton, our experience and many others is that many of the folks recommending this procedure have little if any concern for the woman’s health. The folks giving us the option to bow out of a late term pregnacy simply wanted us to consider reversing a CHOICE we made at conception.

A few months ago I was contacted by the founder of a great outreach project for those parents who face a difficult prenatal diagnosis like we faced with Caden. I almost forgot about this until Mrs. Ozz reminded as we were discussing this subject this past week. Please visit this site and pass it along to any parents who may be getting pressure to terminate a pregnacy as a result of prenatal screenings or tests.

BeNotAfraid.net

“Benotafraid.net is an online outreach to parents who have received a poor or difficult prenatal diagnosis. The family stories, articles, and links within this site are presented as a resource for those who may have been asked to choose between terminating a pregnancy or continuing on despite the diagnosis. The benotafraid.net families faced the same decision and chose not to terminate. By sharing our experiences, we hope to offer encouragement to those who may be afraid to continue on. “

Check out other ProLifeBlogs.

A very popular question from friends and family has been, “are you having a boy or a girl?” Everyone knows that Mrs. Ozz is pregnant with our third child which is due to arrive in August. My response to “what are your having” was confirmed on Thursday when we had the big 20 week ultrasound. I have been saying just three words in response to this question since Thursday, “my three sons.” The first thing out of most people’s mouth when I say this is, “DO WHAT? Your having triplets?” Um, No. We are having one more boy and that will total three boys in our house. Then they say, “Oh, I get it.” [giggle, giggle]

My oldest son Riley has been all but prophesying over his mommy’s belly and saying, “I am having a baby sister.” We had to break the news to Riley on Thursday that he is going to have another little brother. Oh, and there was little doubt in determining the gender during the ultrasound on Thursday. This little guy has obviously heard his brother and the rest of us talking about a baby sister. He positioned himself so that we could be absolutely certain that he is in fact all boy. Riley seems fine with the news, but he is quick to tell us that he still wants a little sister.

We do not have not have a name picked for this little guy, but we are already getting plenty of suggestions. The name will remain a surprise for now. Maybe we will save it for the end of our Growing Kids God’s Way class like we did with Caden’s name. We held out on sharing Caden’s name until just before he was born. We picked his name based solely on meaning. The name Caden means “fighter” and his middle name Gabriel meaning “the Lord is my strength”. Riley’s name was picked based on uniqueness and his middle name William was picked to honor his grandpa’s first name Willie (Joe) and my grandfather’s last name “Williamson”.

Another popular question I get is in regards to the baby’s health. Most people who want to know sort of beat around the bush with their question. I am sure they are trying not to offend me. It’s really not a big deal so I will share the question and the answer right here. The question goes something like this, “do you have any concerns about the baby’s health, I mean, with all the medical problems Caden has endured?” The short answer is a simple, No. Caden’s diagnosis of 22q11.2, Di George, VCFS or whatever you choose to call it was caused by an anomaly in the first trimester of Sherry’s pregnancy. Sherry and I have been tested and Caden did not get any the chromosome deletion from either of us. That leaves us with every expectation that any other babies when have will be perfectly healthy.

I can say that Satan has played plenty of games with us up until this ultrasound. After all, it was the 20 week ultrasound during Sherry’s last pregnancy that began our journey with dozens of medical professionals specializing in pediatric care. We have been battling some fear as the weeks wound down to this ultrasound. This ultrasound finished with perfect results. Everything was perfect.

Sherry and I both believe that every child is a gift from the Lord. Psalm 127:3a NLT. I won’t go into any of my personal theology on that subject except to say that I would even go as far as to say that every child is not only a gift from God, but a perfect gift from God. I really like what God’s Word says in James 1:16-18 (The Message). These verses fall under a section of James 1 that is appropriately subtitled in the New Living Translation as “Faith and Endurance“. Early in this pregnancy Sherry felt that God had given her the words, “Walk by faith, not by sight.” That can be a tall order for a woman who lugs around a suction machine and a feeding pump for her 2 1/2 year old son. Sherry was reassured of these God given words when she woke up on Thursday morning and began her morning quiet time with God. The Bible reading plan we both follow took us through the fifth chapter of second Corinthians. On the very morning of her 20 week ultrasound, Sherry found 2 Corinthians 5:7 in her morning reading.

For we walk by faith, not by sight. (NLT)

Is there such a phrase as “Too Premature”? If you ask some experts in the UK, then the answer is yes. A TimesOnline story reported back in November that the The Nuffield Council on Bioethics released a report titled Critical Care Decisions in Fetal and Neonatal Medicine that says:

..intensive care should not be given to babies born before 22 weeks, and that babies born between 22 and 23 weeks should not, in normal practice, be given intensive care unless parents make a specific request and doctors agree that treatment is possible and in the baby’s best interests.

If you ask Eddie and Sonja Taylor of Homestead, FL if there is such a thing as “Too Premature” then you would find that a new chapter needs to be written in this bioethics report. Their daughter Amillia was born in the fall at just under 22 weeks gestation. The exact gestation time is known because she was conceived via in vitro fertilization. Amillia was about the length of a standard ball point pen when she was born and weighed about 10 onces. You can see a picture of how small her little feet were on The Sydney Morning Herald. Now at four months of age Amillia is well over 4 pounds and will likely be going home from the hospital with little concern for her future health according to doctors at the Baptist Children’s Hospital in Miami.

God continues to show that he has a greater plan no matter what the experts say.

UPDATE - The Stapps have a fight booked to CA now.

Our little friend Callie Stapp needs to get from Atlanta to Stanford in CA as soon as possible. Callie was born with the same underlying diagnosis(22q11.2 micro deletion) as my son Caden. Below is what Callie’s mom wrote explaining the situation. The bottom line is that they need to get from Atlanta to California ASAP. Anyone with the cash or an excess of frequent flyer miles who can reserve them airline tickets would be great. The flyer miles can be used without donating the miles and costing you a ton of cash in fees.**

When I was five months pregnant they detected a heart defect in Callie during a standard ultrasound. At first thinking she had Down’s syndrome, they did an amniocentesis and found that she had a small deletion in chromosome 22, a condition some call DiGeorge syndrome. This syndrome can cause up to 180 different defects which include congenital heart defects, facial and other body deformities, kidney problems, seizures, thyroid and parathyroid issues, small or missing thymus etc….
We weren’t sure what was going to happen when Callie was born.
Although we knew she had a significant heart defect, they were limited to what they could see while in-utero.
When Callie was born, they discovered she had Pulmonary Atresia, with a VSD and she was collateral dependant (PA VSD MAPCAs). This means Callie essentially does not have a pulmonary artery. It’s there but it’s just a useless flap of tissue. What her little body did was create these tiny “collateral” vessels that bring oxygen to her lungs. Albeit, not a lot of oxygen but enough to get her by. However, in many cases, these vessels atrophy and die away with time and the child gets less and less oxygen and eventually die. Callie also has an enormous hole in her heart (VSD). This is a mixed blessing as it alleviates the pressure that this defect causes but it also causes the oxygen-rich and oxygen-poor blood to mix. Because of this, Callie’s saturation levels remain low. While a healthy person usually sats around 95-100, Callie’s are 77-84.
Dr. Hanley at Stanford was the only person that would touch her. He has created a procedure called a unifocalization where he consolidates all those collateral vessels, puts them in a shunt and rebuilds the pulmonary artery with cadaver tissue. Once the collaterals show they are big enough to handle the pressure, Hanley closes that VSD and that’s when the child feels a heck of a lot better and sats are normal. Callie’s defect is very very far on the difficult end of the bell curve when it comes how complicated it can be. This procedure is usually done in one surgery. Callie’s first surgery was just a consolidation of her vessels on her right lung. It was a 14 hour surgery. Her second visit was a consolidation of her left lung, that had just two vessels one mm wide each providing oxygen to it.
To make problems worse, Callie has no visible thymus, however, they did make note of some T-cells. Last count, she had about half of what she was supposed to. This is why it is such a miracle that she has successfully fought every cold, virus and infection thrown her way. Callie also had low calcium at birth, which, if not supplemented, will cause seizures. That too, has reversed itself, and she is showing signs of not needing calcium at all. We are continuing to wean her off calcium and she is mantaining normal levels. Callie is very intelligent and hitting all her intellectual milestones.
Dr. Hanley wants to see Callie ASAP for a cathaterization which will show the status of her collateral vessels. If there is some stenting or ballooning that needs to be done, it can be done via cath at Stanford. Once Hanley sees Callie’s cath, he will also assess whether she needs her surgery right then and now or if she can be sent back home to return in March. In the meantime, Callie has had to contend with some horrific battles with her GI system.
Hope this helps clarify some things. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you need additional info.
Thanks for praying for us and with us through all of this.
Love,
Karen

Source: Callie’s CarePage October 27, 2006
Note: Registeration required to access CarePages. Callie’s mom granted permission to post a link to Callie’s Page.

Here is what YOU can do:

Donating miles would be good.

Reserving tickets for the Stapps would be better. **

Donating a private jet would be best.

**Send me an email and I can give you specific instructions on how to reserve a full fair airline ticket with Delta if you have more than 50,000 miles available with Delta.

Today my oldest son Riley turned 4 years old. The BIG news of the day for our family and friends is that Riley is no longer allergic to eggs. Praise God!!! Yeah!!! We have been praying and claiming Riley healed of this diagnosis for months now.

Riley was diagnosed as allergic to eggs when he was six months old. He has been getting better over the years but still was showing allergic to egg as of just a few months ago according to skin tests. Today Riley went in for an egg challenge. This is where you eat a couple of eggs in front of the allergy doctor to see if you are going to react to the egg. Riley ate two eggs, and LOVED them. One was scrammble in bacon drippings. YUM! YUM! That was a great tip from Aunt Addie. You know that girl is southern. Riley had no reaction to the eggs. He was given the all clear and then topped off his morning with a strawberry filled doughnut from Dunkin Donuts. He had never had a Doughnut before today because of the egg in the batter. It’s okay, not to worry, I have been eating his share so they did not go to waste.

After arriving home from the doctor there was a knock at the door. Riley got a delivery of a cute stuffed animal with a ton of birthday balloons attached to it. These were from Grandma and Grandpa. As you can see, Riley really liked this surprise.

Click on any image for a closer look

The delivery of the balloons.

WOW!!! Check these out Mommy.

These are cool balloons!

We celebrated Riley’s birthday by having breakfast for dinner. It is another one of those weird southern things we do. It was Riley’s choice, I promise. We had pancakes and sausage. Riley finally got to have my really fluffy pancakes (with blueberries added to his). Up until today I have made a special batch for him where I used baking soda, vinegar, and water as an egg substitute.

We topped off dinner with a few Birthday gifts. Here are the highlights.

Riley opening an addition to his GeoTrax train set.

Riley’s first two-wheeler.

Gearing up for the first ride.

Check him out.

First ride on the new bike.

“Daddy, this is a cool bike!”

Check him out. He is a big boy now.

Happy Birthday Riley,
We Love You, Daddy, Mommy, and Caden

PS: Caden walked across the living room for the first time yesterday. There’s a video on Caden’s Page. This a giant step for Caden.

Attention SC Lowcountry Cyclists

A co-worker has asked me if I would help put the word out on a great fundraising event happening in a few weeks. Here is what Kelly had to say in an email to me:

My father’s church (my dad is the pastor) is holding their 3rd annual Tour De Round O Bicycle Ride. The Tour began three years ago as a benefit for my boyfriend Stephen after his accident and has continued over the last few years as a benefit to a local in need. This year, the beneficiary is an infant girl who underwent heart transplant surgery in July. As you well know, the ongoing medical costs can be rather daunting and we would like to help her family.

What: 40 mile benefit bicycle ride

Where:

Bethlehem Baptist Church
12898 Round O Rd
Round O (Colleton County) , SC

When: Saturday, October 14, 2006 8:00 AM

Details as found at Active.com

“The Tour de Round O is a 40 mile benefit bicycle ride sponsored by Bethlehem Baptist Church in Round O. This is Bethlehem’s 3rd year sponsoring the event, with all proceeds of this year’s ride benefiting Teyonnia Lambert. Teyonnia, who was born on January 28th, underwent heart transplant surgery in July. To keep her in good health, Teyonnia must take 11 different medications and visit a specialist monthly. This year’s ride will help to supplement the mounting costs of Teyonnia’s care.”

I can not impress upon you how import it is for us all to help those in need. Our family has certainly seen medical expenses and tons of non-medical expenses caused by long hospital stays. Caden set a single day record for pediatric heart surgery according to one lady in the MUSC billing department. I lost count on the total for Caden’s medical cost about a year ago and it was at more $300,000 then. Thank God for insurance and the support we have received from so many sources. Please help this family if you are able.

Please pass along a link to the details of this event to anyone who might be remotely interested. This event will take place in a neighboring county about 30 miles west of here. There is actual a town called Round O, SC. Even though it only shows up as a crossroads on Google Maps, it does actually have a zip code. (29474)

Lowcountry Bloggers: Please help get the word out!

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7 (KJV)

There is a ton of fear that can crop up when you are faced with things like I have been faced with this week. I am told my son’s pacemaker is not functioning properly. The doctors want to operate on him again. This would be his fifth major surgery in less than two years. He will turn two on November 2nd.

God’s Word is clear on how we should respond to fear like what I have been faced with this week. I faced a lot of fear as a child and came through it standing on this scripture. I continue to stand on 2 Timothy 1:7 today.

You can read Caden’s Page to get the details of what is going on with my son. You can also subscribe to the email list to get an email when Caden’s Page is updated.