Great Iowa Treasure Hunt
By Katie Lohnes, CPA
We all have heard of the Great Iowa Treasure Hunt and maybe even found some money with our name on it! But where does this money come from and how does it affect you in your medical practice?
Every year, if not more often, medical practices should review their records to determine if they have any amounts that are owed back to patients, insurance companies or vendors due to overpayments or refunds on goods or services. In most practices, these amounts are paid back to the owners by issuing refund checks. In my experience, these refund checks are often never cashed. If these checks go uncashed for 3 years and there is no contact with the owner, they become unclaimed property and need to be reported to the State of Iowa under the Great Iowa Treasure Hunt program. In this article, I will explain the process of reporting unclaimed property.
Step 1: Identify all items of unclaimed property by June 30th. All amounts must be reported, but any individual unclaimed property that is under $50 can be aggregated and reported as one item of unclaimed property. No additional details, such as name or address, are required for reporting the aggregated property. However, you are required to retain a detailed listing for your reference in case the owner comes forward to claim the aggregate items.
Step 2: Attempt to contact the owners of the unclaimed property between June 30th and October 31st by sending a letter to their last known address. It is important to note that you are not required to send a letter to the owner whose property value is less than $50. During this time, you will also want to enter the owner’s information along with the amount of the unclaimed property into the reporting software.
Step 3: Submit the report and remittances via check, ACH or wire transfer by November 1st. Electronic reporting is required in Iowa and there are two free options available: HRS Pro software or manual online reporting. HRS Pro software should be used if a business has several unclaimed properties to report, as it allows you to import data. On the other hand, manual online reporting can be used if you only have a small amount of unclaimed properties and you would prefer to manually add your entries online.
If you would like more direction or need assistance with this project, please let us know as we would be happy to help. Just send us an email or call anyone on our healthcare team!
You can also find more information on reporting unclaimed property to the Great Iowa Treasure Hunt at https://greatiowatreasurehunt.....
Katelyn Lohnes, CPA | Supervisor
KLohnes@MHCScpa.com