Mileage Reimbursement

hoolahan, ASN, RN · Apr 2, 2002

We do not get reimbursed for milegae to and from work. However, if I travel to my first visit and it is much further than to the office, I deduct the trip to the office from the mileage.

Eg from home to first visit is 14 mi, subtract 7 mi for trip to office from home = 7 mi counted toward first visit.

I was told when I started no one is ever paid to go to and from work. I never count the miles I travel back to home, though it is less than the office, and technically I am working in my own "office", but, since I am home, I don't count a return trip that day unless I do go back to the office, like I did today, just to kep up with the papers shoved in my drawer to sign, and I wanted to get some charts for tomorrow, I have a recert I want to work on tonight. It will cut out some office time tomorrow.

Yes, I would say that you should count mileage for lunch if your lunch stop is midway between one visit and another. I usually do the city in the am, stop home for luch, then do the township after luch, my home is in the middle, so that's why I do it that way.

Bottom line is, I am pretty honest, and I don't abuse the milegae, but I also round off, no way am I counting tenths of miles! If it took me 5.8 miles to get somewhere, I count 6, next visit if it took 3.1, I count three. It all balances out.

Hope that helps a little. :)

lisadavis · Apr 2, 2002

my office is in the middle of our 7 county coverage area. my home is at one end of the coverage area. if i see a patient between my home and the office i claim the miles from home to office and bill it to client funding source. if i do not see a client then i do not charge the 55 miles to office. same thing for going home. now if the patient i see is on other side of office then i bill all the miles home to client only if the office is not open when i start my trip. technically you cannot charge miles from a closed office. if the office is open then i only charge the miles from the office to client's home. i too have been told no one gets paid to drive to and from work but i think this is a bogus statement that higher ups apply to home care nurses and should not because part of our job is driving......you cannot get to a client's home without driving:cool:

hoolahan, ASN, RN · Apr 2, 2002

So true Lisa, esp in your case when it may take an hour or more to get there!!

KP RN · Apr 3, 2002

Good question!! Mileage is very confusing, and agencies vary greatly with their interpretation of the rules. At my agency, we get $.36 per mile, beginning at our first pt home, and ending at the last pt home (or office).

I always thought that I could claim mileage from my house to the first pt home on weekends or holidays when our office was closed.

Recently, I was informed by the powers-that-be that the office "never closes" because they have an answering service and a nurse always on call, even though no one is working in the office which is locked up. Doesn't make sense to me, but no point in arguing.....

wenron · Apr 6, 2002

Hi,

we get to charge .27 cents per mile. We start at the agency and end at the agency. We also get paid per hour and see 4-5 pt's per day. If I have an admit, I see 3 per day. I know, we have it the easiest I've seen, but it's hard to get nurses in my area in to HH....or nurses period.

sf5391 · Jun 2, 2002

At our agency we no longer get paid mileage as long as we work on a pay-per-visit basis. We instead get a trip charge of 2 dollars a visit. On the face of it that sounds fairly good, but I work in a rual area and it is not unusual to drive 60 to 70 miles in between visits. So at frequently we loose money. Its great money for the nurses who work in the city.

LISAJO · Jun 3, 2002

If the first stop is over 10 miles from my home, which the office is only 5. I always document the mileage. LUNCH, what is that???????????????

CardioTrans, BSN, RN · Aug 21, 2002

We are allowed to count mileage beginning at the first patients home, and then we have to end it at the last pts home or at the office....... on weekends........ we count from our home and back. Alot of the nurses who live too far from the office to count there....... they arrange their patients with one being super close to their home as the first........ then they arrange one super close in the afternoon as the last.

sjsap · Sep 17, 2002

WHere I work they pay mileage at $.30/mile, but they won't pay if you go to the office at the beginning of the day or go home from the office. So, we see patients on the way to and from the office, usually. They also deduct 20 from the mileage total for the day and pay the remainder, which I think is not fair, but at least they pay something for the mileage.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"It is not enough to be busy; the question is, What are we busy about?" H.D.Thorough

renerian, BSN, RN · Sep 17, 2002

IRS says mileage to your job and home is not reimburseable......only mileage in between. Now if you start your day at the office you can take it from office then forward till either your last client of the day or to the office again. Is that how your company is doing it?

If you track your mileage and the what the company is paying you is less than the governmental ammount which I think is now up to 36.5 cents per mile you can deduct the difference on your taxes but your records need to be impeccable.

renerian

reneian

renerian, BSN, RN · Sep 17, 2002

Forgot to say in home health, the position I just left as the mileage was excessive, we did not have areas by that meaning we worked all over in 7 counties and I was putting between 500 to 800 miles per week on my car........4 new cars in 11 years..

renerian