Tips for charity care screening
Patient Access Weekly Advisor, June 25, 2008
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Successful charity care screening begins with understanding your facility’s charity policy and procedures. Typically, charity policies include the following components:
· Requirement that patient resides in the United Sates
· Assessment of patient’s family size
· Assessment of patient’s individual or family income, as appropriate, that is supported either by the most recent three months’ pay stubs or the most recent income tax return, whichever favors the patient
· Consideration of the patient’s liquid assets, normally assets that are available within the next 12 months
· Exclusion of the value of the patient’s primary residence
· Portion of patient’s current income that will be available for payment plan purposes; normally no more than 10% is considered available
· Definition of “medically indigent” for individuals whose outstanding medical bills exceed a defined dollar amount or defined percentage of assets
· Charity care scale (fixed or sliding) used to determine qualification for financial assistance
Using your organizational charity policy as a conversation guideline, you are now ready to meet with the patient to discuss financial assistance options.
Note: This tip was featured in The Patient Access Director’s Handbook. To learn more about this book, click here.
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