Scanning documents for a medical claim reimbursement

[y_p_w]

My parents were on a trip overseas where my dad had some medical issues. They did pay but are looking for reimbursement from Kaiser Permanente.

But the big pain is that they recommended sending the claim online with scanned attachments. Only it allows for a max total file size of 20 MB, max 10 total files, and a maximum single file size of 5 MB. I've been playing around at their place with their scanner (which they've never used before as a scanner but as a copier and printer) including installing a driver on my computer that I brought over. I'm telling my mom she might as well just submit the claim by mail (where file size isn't a thing), but someone she talked to with claims insists online is the best way.

But it's turning into an odd math exercise trying to get all of these things in where the quality is readable but I can pack 15 pages into the 10 file/5MB single file/20MB total limits. Obviously combining into PDFs is the way to go. I really wish I could just do all of these as JPEG image files for each page, then reduce file size where it might be a little bit fuzzy, but still readable. But I need to do something about this jigsaw puzzle of fitting everything into their requirements.

At least one thing that seems to be OK is the scan function where I can add pages to an existing PDF file and see how big they get.

 

[GON]

I deal with oversized documents regularly, primarily PDF files.

My soultion is a subscription to Adobe, and saving the PDF as a reduced sized PDF. Other things you caan consider doing is black and white only scan, reduced scan resolution, etc.

 

[Hall]

Keep in mind that many of these places still deal with faxes and think of the quality of those. So, set the scanner's DPI to 75 or so and they usually have a setting for "small", "medium", or "large" file size. Obviously pick "small". I've found that the scanner's built-in PDF tool usually does better than software on computers. Maybe even look for an option that will combine (2) pages into (1) (images will end up side-by-side).

 

[y_p_w]

There's been one page that was easy to just turn into a single image file. They want a copy of their boarding pass stub as proof that my dad was overseas. But that's just one file. If I could turn it into 15 separate image files, I'm pretty sure I could get it down to less than 10 MB of image files using JPEG compression. But I need to use PDFs in order to combine pages. I know there's a way to reduce PDF file sizes, but I'm not that good at this.

The other issue is that they went to a country that doesn't use the Roman alphabet. The guys at Kaiser said they have translators who can read many languages so that's not a problem. But man it either makes for big image sizes or becomes unreadable if I reduce image resolution.

 

[RooflessVW]

Scan using your phone and the Microsoft OneDrive app.

I use it every day for work.

 

[dubber09]

If you don't have MS subscription or account that offers OneDrive, use Microsoft Lens app.

 

[Pew]

Jpg would be worse ime. Can you save the PDF as a reduced PDF?

 

[Fitter30]

Ups store probably help or office supply.

 

[jcy]

on the iphone, open the Notes app, create a new note, tap the paperclip icon in the bottom menu and choose scan document

did you try scanning in B&W btw?

 

[eljefino]

I have an aftermarket PDF "printer" that's not an adobe product.

When I "print" a scanned image to PDF, the default resolution is something stupid like 1200 DPI and the resulting files are huge. Fiddling with the settings got it down to a few hundred kilobytes per page, without affecting readibility, which I feel is appropriate.

Still scan at high resolution, work with a good base file, but play with settings in the PDF thingie.

Edit, openoffice.org writer is the software I used and recommend:

 

[y_p_w]

I have an aftermarket PDF "printer" that's not an adobe product.

When I "print" a scanned image to PDF, the default resolution is something stupid like 1200 DPI and the resulting files are huge. Fiddling with the settings got it down to a few hundred kilobytes per page, without affecting readibility, which I feel is appropriate.

Still scan at high resolution, work with a good base file, but play with settings in the PDF thingie.

Edit, openoffice.org writer is the software I used and recommend:

View attachment 279477

Nah - I've been using MacOS Image Capture, where the default resultion (in DPI) can be selected. There are standard settings, but I can also just enter a number in there, and that's what I just did.

OK. When I had the chance I reduced from 300 to 200 dpi and got 14 pages to pack a lot tighter (about 9.1 vs 18 MB). I guess it's still readable. But I'm not sure how readable 75 dpi would get with a character-based (non-alphabet) foreign language.

When I got back I just scanned all of them (other than the first page) at 200 dpi, made several copies of the big multipage scan, then used Preview in Mac to individually delete pages from each files until it got under 5 MB.

I'm still wondering why 20 MB and 5 MB as total and individual upload limits. This is 2025 and those numbers look more appropriate for 2010.

 

[goblin]

Scan to decently sized jpeg file > Print to PDF using the Microsoft included Microsoft Print to PDF virtual printer > Combine the individual pdfs into one using PDFsamBasic.

There is no feature for everyday use that would require a paid Adobe subscription in my book. Not unless you are deep into forms, collaboration, editing, digital signing and so on. Possibly priceless in an office environment, but exotic for personal use.

 

[Carmudgeon]

For whatever reason, I've found that Image Capture generates larger files than other solutions like Brother's Control Center.

BCC isn't perfect, but I like its workflow better anyway, so I rarely use IC (or Preview's scan function). I like it enough to keep a bootable version of Mac OS around to run it, since it's a 32-bit app that was swept away after Mojave.

You can also try applying one of the Quartz filters (Reduce File Size) in Preview, and saving a copy to see what effect it has.

 

[MurkyAsparagus]

I use Adobe Scan on my iPhone a ton, and know others on Android that do as well. It’s an amazing app and it’s very feature rich, and free! Well, unless you want picture to text conversion.

 

[y_p_w]

Managed to get it done, especially since my dad had two trips to different hospitals and there needed to be a second submission. Mostly just switched it to 200 DPI for some pages and the files got small enough but could still be clear enough to read/translate.

I did help with online forms too. It was a bit frustrating because it logged out and the previous application was lost for the first submission. But it wasn't that long and some of the stuff I actually had written down a notepad style application. So I just needed to do a bunch of cut and paste. The only thing was persuading my mom against asking for ancillary expenses to be reimbursed. Like their lost vacation expenses. I was telling my mom that there was no way Kaiser Permanente was going to be their travel insurance.

 

[Hall]

You can also try applying one of the Quartz filters (Reduce File Size) in Preview, and saving a copy to see what effect it has.

There are much better, downloadable Quartz filters out there on the internet too.

 

[JustinH]

I found some open source software called PDF24, it does a lot of the things that Adobe Acrobat Pro does, but for free. It can do merges and shrink size.

 

[goblin]

Be extremely careful where you download it from though.

 

[andrew_j]

The 5mb upload is so you don’t overload the server and cause security risk on standard web application server.

I use iOS app called TurboScan purchased in 2013 for $6. I would pay that per year as so easy to scan / send documents as pdf . However my $6 purchase is still valid!!

 

[KrisZ]

I just take a picture with my iPhone and then crop to size just the document. They are usually in the 1-3mb in size.

If you have the “live picture” feature turned on, it may cause some problems, if that’s the case, I just take a screenshot of the picture, which will be saved as a png. This file format is widely accepted same as the jpg.