I would like to be able to filter the Expense Log

Window, to limit the optionns for selection. For

example, when I'm entering a doctor visit, I don't

want pharmacies listed among the Provider choices or

drugs listed among the Service choices. When I'm

entering a drug, I only want pharmacies among the

providers, but no doctors, and I only want drugs

listed among the Services.

There can be more criteria (supplies, labs,

hospitals, etc.)

Much of this will depend on the information we can

enter about a provider, service, or drug. (In the

meantime, PLEASE add a Notes field to each of these.)

I have no issue with the notes fields. Other than that, I'm not really comfortable with this suggestion. My concerns are threefold.

1. As much as I respect the QMEM developers, I don't trust them enough to decide for me when certain things may or may not appear in a dropdown. I would also anticipate a flood of "Where is X on the Y dropdown?" questions on these forums.

2. There's also the issue that not all of the limitations you mentioned are strictly true. Is it not still true that doctors will give out samples of certain medications? <Serious question. Now that I'm thinking about it, it hasn't happened to my family in a while.> I still want to track the history that a person took the medication, but it wasn't a pharmacy that provided it to us. The more criteria you want added, the more likely this is to occur.

3. Of course, I leave my biggest concern for last. If you haven't done so already, I strongly urge you to <url=http://www.quickenforums.com/thread.jspa?threadID=600006718&tstart=0&mod=1143231091769>read this thread on the current perception of QMEMs performance</url>. This would add even more things that QMEM would have to figure out on the fly.

Finally, in an attempt to help you deal with potentially very long lists, may I suggest tabbing into a field with one of these dropdowns <like Provider> and start typing the name. I've found very few lists in any program were the first three letters of an entry would not get me very close to the item I was wanting.

-Tony

Dclewis and Tony, thanks as always for the great suggestions.

We've tried to keep a balance between providing enough capability to handle most medical-expense needs and enough flexibility to handle the myriad complexities.

This also means though we're trying to stay away from getting too specific or "cute" in deciding whether, for example, something should show up if someone's selected doctor or pharmacies. Tony's right not to trust us.

But dclewis, you've brought up an important topic, about addressing doctor-service pairings differently from pharmacy-drug pairings. MEM V2 matches up with insurance in considering them as similar provider-"product" pairings, but maybe we should revisit this for the future.

In the meantime, providers and insurers do have notes fields (Lists > Providers or Lists > Insurers; open an item, you'll see its Notes, which are also printable in contact lists). We didn't include Notes for Services or Drugs but I'll take that as a suggestion for the future.

Thanks,

Bruce

dclewis said:

I would like to be able to filter the Expense Log

Window, to limit the optionns for selection. For

example, when I'm entering a doctor visit, I don't

want pharmacies listed among the Provider choices or

drugs listed among the Service choices. When I'm

entering a drug, I only want pharmacies among the

providers, but no doctors, and I only want drugs

listed among the Services.

There can be more criteria (supplies, labs,

hospitals, etc.)

Much of this will depend on the information we can

enter about a provider, service, or drug. (In the

meantime, PLEASE add a Notes field to each of these.)

I pretty much agree with Tony and don't think pure programming code could be used to accurately pair Providers with Services ... there are just too many variables. <Side note: Quicken Bruce, I like your use of Pair in this context. Sounds like we might be trying to pair fine wine with fine food.> ?:|

If folks think this is a desirable feature, the user will probably need to be involved. For example, when adding a Service, you would need to specify the Providers which might be associated with the service. I think it would add another level of complexity to the setup process and another level of complexity to the program code.

On a personal basis, my procedure is pretty much the same a Tony. I tab to the field, start typing, and the right service shows up ... most of the time. ;-)

Wayward