Home care mileage and expense reimbursement policy: a template

1. Purpose and scope

This policy covers how [Agency name] repays employees for business driving in their own vehicles and other approved expenses. It applies to [all employees] [staff who travel for work]. It is meant to be an accountable plan under IRS rules, so reimbursements under it are not wages unless it says so.

2. What counts as business travel

2.1 The agency pays for business miles: between visits during the workday; between a visit and the office, a pharmacy, a supply store or another agency errand; and to required training or meetings away from your usual work location.

2.2 Home to your first visit, and your last visit home: [choose one]

• [Option A: these are commuting and are not paid.]
• [Option B: these are paid only where the agency’s tax adviser confirms they are business travel, such as drives to a temporary work location by staff based at the office.]
• [Option C: the agency pays for miles beyond [X] each way, through payroll as taxable wages.]

Note: Paid commuting miles are taxable wages and, for non-exempt staff, count in the regular rate for overtime.

2.3 After a personal stop between business stops, the agency pays for the direct route only.

3. Rate

3.1 The agency pays [the IRS business standard mileage rate] [[X] cents a mile] in effect on the date of the drive, not the date you claim or are paid.

3.2 The rate covers fuel and every other cost of running your vehicle; the agency does not pay those separately. [Any amount above the IRS rate is taxable wages.]

Note: If you pay below the IRS rate, unreimbursed vehicle costs, which the Labor Department may value at the IRS rate, must not take a non-exempt employee’s pay for any workweek below the minimum wage or cut overtime owed.

4. Drive time

For non-exempt employees, driving between visits, and from the office to a visit when you must report to the office first, is paid work time, recorded in [timekeeping system] and paid through payroll, separately from mileage.

5. Logging a drive

5.1 Record each business drive at or near the time: the date, start and end points, business purpose, miles and visit reference [from the agency’s scheduling records]. Daily or weekly logs are fine; estimates are not.

5.2 Never put a patient’s name, diagnosis, condition or visit notes in a mileage log, expense claim or receipt note. [Visit addresses [may be entered as the start or end of a drive] [are not entered: log the visit reference and enter the miles].]

6. Deadlines

6.1 Submit drives and expenses within [30] days. Claims more than 60 days old [are paid through payroll as taxable wages] [need approval from [title]].

6.2 Return any advance or overpayment within [120] days of the expense.

Note: IRS rules treat 60 days to account and 120 days to return any excess as reasonable; Illinois allows 30 days to submit unless the policy allows more. Check state law before refusing a late claim.

7. Approval

Claims within this policy are approved [automatically] [by your supervisor]; anything outside it needs approval from [title]. No one approves their own claims.

8. Payment

Approved claims are paid [by direct deposit] within [X] days of approval, and never later than 30 days after you submit them.

Note: Iowa and New Hampshire set a 30-day limit; Iowa also requires a written reason for any refusal.

9. Parking and tolls

Business parking and tolls are paid on top of mileage, with a receipt when one is available. Parking at the agency office is [not paid] [covered by [arrangement]].

10. Supplies and other expenses

10.1 Use agency stock first. Buy items for the agency [only with your supervisor’s approval] [up to $[X] a purchase without approval], and submit the itemized receipt with what it was for, coded to the visit reference or routine stock, never a patient’s name.

10.2 The agency provides the protective equipment your job requires, such as gloves, and pays you back in full if you have to buy it.

11. Gifts to patients

Never give a patient cash or a cash equivalent, such as a gift card. A gift to a Medicare or Medicaid patient must be worth no more than $15, and one patient’s gifts no more than $75 a year in total, the HHS Inspector General’s nominal value. [The agency applies the same limits to every patient.] [[Title] keeps each patient’s yearly total.] [Gifts to physicians or other referral sources: [not allowed] [only with approval from [compliance officer]].]

12. What isn’t reimbursed

Commuting under section 2.2, personal detours, traffic and parking tickets and other fines, your own vehicle’s running costs (the mileage rate covers them), [alcohol] and [other items].

13. Car allowances

[The agency pays no car allowance.] [A car allowance of $[X] a [month] is taxable wages, reported on your W-2.]

14. Records

The agency keeps logs, receipts and approvals for [X] years. Employees who hand theirs in and are reimbursed generally don’t need copies. [Medicare-certified agencies: keep them where auditors can trace each expense from the cost report.]

15. State and local law

Where a state or local law gives employees more, such as reimbursement of all necessary expenses or a shorter payment deadline, that law applies. [List your states and cities.]