Title
Evaluation of Sliding Fee Discount Schedules for Medical, Behavioral Health and Dental Services - Riley
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One of the core components for the Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) program is the sliding fee discount schedule. The goal of the discount schedules is to provide services to patients at reduced cost while also balancing the FQHC's need to cover the cost of providing the service.
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) requires all FQHCs to evaluate their sliding fee scales at least once every three years. This information was last presented to the Governing Council in 2021. The evaluation should look at whether the discount schedule and charged fees are appropriate for the client population.
Lake County Health Department and Community Health Center (LCHD/CHC) staff specifically looked at the medical, behavioral health and dental services sliding fee discount schedule. The collection rate was looked at as a means of evaluation and a market survey was done. No patient is turned away from LCHD/CHC based on inability to pay so a higher collection rate suggests that the fee is more affordable for our patients.
The attached table shows that collection rates for medical, behavioral health and dental services have decreased compared to the previous FY's. The majority of the 2021 and 2022 data is not comparable to 2023 primarily because the FQHC has been operating in an environment of increased telehealth, and dental services were limited to reduce the risk of COVID-19 exposure. As a result, patients are not coming into the office as often to bring in their sliding fee information. To help address that, our fee policy was temporarily modified to give patients 90 days post-pandemic to apply for a reduced fee. This was reduced back to 30 days in April 2023.
The market search data of other providers, per the attached table, determined that the LCHD/CHC nominal charge is similar to other comparative health centers, but dental servic...
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