Employees working from home during the coronavirus pandemic claimed some outlandish expenses this year, including pricey exercise bikes, facelifts and private jets.
Emburse, an expense management software company, released a compilation Wednesday of some of the craziest expenses it has seen claimed this year, some of which were actually approved. That included $1,895, which was approved as a contribution for an employee's Peloton Bike under the explanation of “for health and wellness.” On the other hand, a $7,600 expense claim for a facelift was submitted under the category of “repairs and maintenance” but was rejected, despite the pressing need to look one’s best during a Zoom meeting.
Craig Kurtzweil is the chief data & analytics officer for UnitedHealthcare's commercial business. In this role, he leverages the nation's largest health care data set to identify and share insights that can help people and care providers make more informed health care decisions, make health care more affordable for everyone and improve outcomes. This includes exploring new ways to apply data through machine learning and artificial intelligence, creating the next generation of health care analytics and making data a differentiator in the marketplace for the company.
Craig joined UnitedHealthcare in 2005. Since then, he has focused on enhancing how data and analytics support UnitedHealthcare's largest employer customers. His team works with large and complex clients that require a broad view of data, ranging from cost and utilization to productivity and disability exposure. As part of this work, Craig formed the Center for Advanced Analytics to focus on analytic innovations that change the way we evaluate health care value.
Prior to joining UnitedHealthcare, Craig served as an actuarial consultant at Deloitte.
Trinity Davis, managing director at 360 Privacy, spent 18 years in protective services, focused in the UHNW private family office and tech sector.
He built and led cross-functional teams in executive protection, residential security, travel security management and protective intelligence, spending the last six years in Silicon Valley working in social media and fintech. He moved to 360 Privacy in 2022 to focus on educating the industry on digital executive protection and how physical threats begin in the digital landscape.
Brandon Milhorn has nearly three decades of advocacy, policy, legal and regulatory experience, primarily in and around Washington, D.C., including five years in critical senior leadership roles with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., seven years in the private sector with Raytheon and over a decade of public service as staff director and chief counsel for the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, general counsel for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, as an attorney at the CIA and in two federal court clerkships.
Some expenses weren’t for working from home, but more about getting out of the house safely. An expense claim for a private jet charter costing over $20,000 was submitted and approved under the explanation of “required to limit COVID exposure for international shoots.” Another travel-related expense claim was $2,500 for a helicopter ride, which was not approved.
The $79 expense claim for a dog crate could perhaps be used for travel at some point when that's safer, but in these times it was more plausibly to provide "crate training [for] a new COVID puppy to not run into Zoom meetings."
Below is an infographic produced by Emburse showing this and several other head-scratching claims:
