The sliding fee schedule simplifies the process of determining patient discounts by automatically adjusting fees according to the patient’s income bracket. This system ensures that individuals with lower incomes can access necessary healthcare services at a more affordable rate.

Set up a sliding fee schedule

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Click Preferences and Company Preferences.

Scroll down to the Enable Sliding Fee section and select Yes from the drop-down menu.

Click Save to apply the changes. To ensure the preferences are properly configured, log out and then back in. 

After logging back in, click Utilities.

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Click Practice Setup and then Sliding Fee.

To manage the master sliding fee, enter the patient salary ranges in the "Beginning Salary" and "End Salary" columns. Then, select the patient responsibility for each corresponding dependent column. Be sure to click "Save" to apply the settings.

The patient's responsibility can be entered as a dollar or percentage amount.

Setting up a sliding fee for a patient

Navigate to the Patient Dashboard Demographics screen (click on the patient’s name in the dashboard) for applicable patients.

 Select the “Sliding Fee” button to open the “Patient Sliding Fee” screen.

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Check "Enable sliding fee for this patient" at the top of this screen.

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The information you’ll need includes: 

  • Patient's Salary - The patient's total annual income. 
  • Spouse's Salary - The annual income of the patient's spouse. 
  • Other Income - Any additional income the patient receives, aside from their salary.
These three amounts are summed in the sliding fee table row. 
  • Number of Dependents - The number of individuals the patient is financially responsible for, such as children or a non-working spouse. This figure is used to determine the appropriate sliding fee table column.
  • Verified Date - The day your practice received the necessary documents to verify the patient's eligibility for a sliding fee. 
  • Calculated Sliding Fee - The amount the patient is required to pay, either as a percentage or a fixed dollar amount. 
  • Documents Received - The supporting documents collected from the patient to verify the information required for this section. 
These forms let you accurately charge the patient’s applicable fee.

Automatic Write-Off of Patient Balance when the Patient Does Not Have Insurance 

Create patient encounters just as you would when using a standard fee schedule. 

For the sliding fee to apply, ensure that the case type is "Self Pay." 

After entering the required information, click “Save.” A pop-up will appear, confirming that a zero-dollar patient payment is created for the encounter..." as shown below.

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In the example below, we are creating a 13% sliding fee for a patient.

mceclip3.pngAssume you charge them $100 in an encounter. They will pay $13, with an adjusted amount of $87. Below, the sliding fee has been applied and the patient balance is $13, which was calculated based on the master sliding fee. We can also see the adjusted amount is $87.

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The adjustment code ADJ: SLIDE indicates that this was a sliding fee adjustment. 

Automatic Write Off of Patient Balance when the Patient Has Insurance 

The sliding fee can be applied to all patients, even if they have insurance. 

To get started, create patient encounters just as you would when using a standard fee. schedule. 

In the example below, assume the patient has a 9% sliding fee.

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Also, assume you charge them $100 in an encounter. Once you have completed the necessary information, click “Send Claim.”

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Be sure to save the encounter. In this example, assume insurance covers $50.

Continue to the I-Payment screen to post the insurance payment. Click "New Payment."

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Here we are applying an insurance payment of $50 for this encounter. After you click "Save and Post", you can see in the encounter how much the patient still owes after insurance and after the sliding fee has been applied.

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