Charity Care: Tools to Manage the Uninsured Population

Your hospital doesn't have to lose millions of dollars every year providing care to the uninsured. Charity care for the uninsured patient population is a universal problem for healthcare providers. Now you don't have to struggle through this controversial issue any longer. Charity Care: Tools for Managing the Uninsured Population provides strategies and case studies you can use to meet the challenges inherent in providing charity care. This comprehensive resource will help you assess risk and develop appropriate policies and procedures to educate your revenue cycle team. Healthcare financial management and consulting expert Sandra Wolfskill, FHFMA, provides best practices, case studies, and sample policies and forms to help you build or refine the foundation of your charity care program. All of the files are included on an accompanying CD-ROM so you can download, customize, and use the tools you need right away. Tools you need to get the job done Charity Care: Tools to Manage the Uninsured Population gives you contemporary insights into the charity care issues you face every day. It provides: - best practices - risk assessments - implementation guides to assist in redesigning your approach to charity-related activities - case studies that highlight what your peers have done to address charity care claim processing Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction to charity care issues The human equation Uncompensated care Changes in the charity-care arena Tax exempt status-federal level Chapter 2: Legal background Hospital charges Class action litigation and the uninsured The government reaction to the uninsured Knowing what information is public Chapter 3: Accounting principles and state programs Applicable accounting principles Accounting principles for charity care State laws and programs Chapter 4: Strategies to assess risk and identify opportunities for improvement Identify current charity care processes The risk assessment process Chapter 5: Best practices: The ideal revenue cycle and charity processing Pre-service processing: Scheduled patient workflow Time of service processing: Scheduled patient workflow Time of service processing: Unscheduled patient workflow Post-service processing Charity policies and procedures Charity eligibility processing: Eligibility scales and forms Chapter 6: Implementing contemporary financial assistance policies and procedures Getting started Pre-service process Time of service process Post-service process Communicating with patients and physicians Outsourcing charity processing Chapter 7: Case studies Case study 1: Camden-Clark Memorial Hospital Case study 2: "Hospital"-regional medical center Case study 3: West Virginia University Hospitals and University Health Associates You'll discover strategies to initiate and implement change in the way your hospital delivers charity care, improve operations, and increase patient satisfaction with the hospital's billing and collections operation. Chief financial officers, PFS directors, revenue cycle directors, billing and collection managers, and anyone involved in making decisions about your organization's charity care position will find Charity Care: Tools for Managing the Uninsured Population an invaluable investment.