Financial Assistance – Patients
[Pages:2]Financial Assistance ? Patients
Policy and Procedure
Purpose
BayCare Health System hospitals are not-for-profit entities established to meet the health care needs of the residents of the communities they serve. Accordingly, the hospitals provide care for emergency medical conditions, without discriminations, regardless of the patient's financial assistance eligibility. The hospitals also provide other medical care services to certain individuals for which they receive no payment. This policy will provide a systematic method for identifying and distributing uncompensated care (charity) to the residents of the community.
Policy
BayCare Health System will provide charity care to hospital patients that are determined, as part of an application process, unable to pay for services due to financial hardship. Two programs are used to qualify patient for charity: 1. AHCA Charity, under guidelines established by the State of Florida, is available to patients with family incomes under 200% of the federal poverty level or whose hospital related expenses exceed 25% of the annual family income; 2. Hardship Charity, under guidelines established by BayCare Health System, extends beyond AHCA charity limits and includes patients with family income up to 250% of the federal poverty level. Reasonable efforts to notify patients that they may qualify for financial assistance and how to apply include postings in the Admitting Office, emergency rooms, other registration sites, plain language summary of the policy offered at discharge, an alert on billing statements, and the policy will be posted on each facility's website. Free copies of this policy can
Continued on back
n Policy Number: BC ADM 06 n Issued: January 1, 2014 n Approved by: John Gantner,
BayCare CFO
be obtained at each facility's Admitting
prior or subsequent months to
and Financial Assistance office. Patients
the date of service under review.
that have submitted complete financial
iii. Charges not covered under
information and qualified for charity
Medicaid as part of the patient's
will not be subject to any billing and/
share of cost.
or collection efforts, and the patient
iv. Patient referred from community
responsibility will be discounted to
organizations which have
zero. In addition, hospitals provide
agreements with individual
care for emergency medical conditions
hospitals to provide specific
for patients regardless of source of
services to identified patients
payment or lack of insurance coverage
with no charge to the patient,
and no requests for payment will be
e.g. community Free Clinics,
made before a medical screening is
Mammography Voucher
completed. Financial Assistance team
program. Every effort will be
members will be available to patients
made to obtain a financial
during designated times to assist patients
assistance application form to
with determining their eligibility for
consider for AHCA charity.
Federal, State and County financial
These patients will be considered
assistance programs. Final authority
as Hardship Charity in the
for determining eligibility for financial
absence of the screening form
assistance lies with the Director of
or if they do not meet AHCA
Financial Assistance.
guidelines.
1. Criteria used to determine a patient's c. E xceptions may be made for
eligibility for charity are as follows:
individuals exceeding the above
a. Florida Agency for Health Care
criteria when there is a well-
Administration Charity Guidelines:
documented financial hardship
Family income for the 12 months
or extenuating circumstances, e.g.
preceding the determination does
projected decrease of income due to
not exceed 200% of the current
catastrophic illness or injury.
Federal poverty guidelines, and/or 2. M ethod for applying for financial
the unpaid portion of the hospital
assistance: Applications for financial
bill due from the patients exceeds
assistance can be obtained on the
25% of the annual family income.
facility's website and at the Admitting
The total family income cannot
and Financial Assistance Offices. In
exceed four times the federal
addition, a request for mailing the
poverty level for a family of four
application can be made by calling
regardless of the charges due from
(855) 233-1555 or printed directly
the patient
from the organization's website.
b. BayCare Hardship Charity if he/she Documentation that may be required
meets at least one of the following
to determine eligibility is as follows:
guidelines:
a. S igned financial assistance
i. A financial assistance application
application acknowledging that
form with income information
providing false information
indicating family income < 250%
to defraud the hospital is a
of FPL.
misdemeanor in the second degree
ii. Adequate documentation of
(Section 817.50 F.S.)
income and assets in order to
b. Income documented by one of the
make a determination of the
following: W-2 withholding forms,
patient's inability to meet his/her
employer paystubs, previous year
financial obligations. This could
federal tax return, verification of
include patients with Medicaid or
current wages from employer(s),
County eligibility in immediately
from public welfare agencies or
other governmental agency which can attest to the patient's income status for the past 12 months. c. A Medicaid remittance voucher which reflects that the patients' Medicaid benefits for the Medicaid fiscal year have been exhausted. d. V erification of Medicaid coverage for patients that have Medicaid as secondary to Medicare. 3. Once a patient submits a complete application for financial assistance anytime during a year after the service, collection efforts will be halted until a determination of eligibility has been finalized. Should the patient submit an incomplete application, he/she will be notified which necessary information is missing with a copy of the plain language Financial Assistance Policy. This includes collection efforts by the BayCare Central Business Office, and primary and secondary collection agencies. Patients who qualify for financial assistance will have their complete balance adjusted to zero, collection efforts will cease permanently, and notice will be sent to any credit bureau where adverse information had previously been reported. 4. Uninsured patients not qualifying for financial assistance will qualify for a 40% discount from billed charges and additional 10% discount if paid in full within 30 days of the first statement in accordance with the Uninsured Patient Discount Policy. All patients with outstanding balances will be subject to standard collection processing and may result in turnover to a collection agency according to the Collections ? Patient Financial Responsibility Policy. These policies may be obtained by calling (727) 734-6550.
BC1401916-0414
................
................
In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.
To fulfill the demand for quickly locating and searching documents.
It is intelligent file search solution for home and business.
Related download
- k disaster relief and emergency hardship programs
- things to know about financial assistance during
- financial assistance patients
- completing the hardship assistance application
- financial hardship program byram healthcare
- pnc customer assistance 1 hardship assistance application
- covid 19 financial assistance programs by state
- financial assistance for our small business clients
- upmc policy and procedure manual
- financial hardship application for waiver of
Related searches
- financial assistance for medical bills
- financial assistance programs
- financial assistance with car payments
- financial assistance for small business
- financial assistance for families
- veteran financial assistance for bills
- application for financial assistance template
- financial assistance for disabled veterans
- emergency financial assistance for veterans
- global financial assistance scam
- financial assistance for business owners
- financial assistance programs for college