Starting January 1st, 2022, NOAH is required to provide uninsured persons, including individuals on our Sliding Fee Scale, with a Good Faith Estimate (GFE) of their expected out-of-pocket costs for services, if the individual schedules the service at least 3 business days in advance, or otherwise requests information about charges. This comes out of an HHS Rule to protect consumers from surprise medical bills. NOAH is excited to have this level of transparency with our patients. There are numerous studies highlighting individuals delaying care for financial reasons, so hopefully this is a step towards reducing that barrier. At this time, there are no GFE requirements related to insured patients.
The NOAH Revenue Cycle Team is responsible for providing all required GFEs to our patients. Our wonderful IT team is in the process of building them a work queue to identify the patients; however, in the interim they will use an Epic report, so there is no extra work required for team members booking appointments. The Revenue Cycle Team will be responsible for meeting the timelines outlined below and will use a template letter that includes the required elements.
Based on your role with NOAH, the impact of this new rule will vary, but here are a couple high-level points EVERYONE at NOAH should know:
- Information about availability of GFEs will be posted in our clinics and on our website.
- If you receive a request or get questions about a GFE, please direct the patient to the NOAH Revenue Cycle Team (billing@noahhelps.org)
- GFEs are based on what services were identified at the time of scheduling. If additional services are provided while the patient is in our clinic, that is ok. There is a disclaimer on the GFE informing the patient of this.
- Additional Training will be provided in January for departments who are most likely to get questions from patients.
More questions?
Big thank you to Lori, Dora, Lisa, Tori, Kc, Michael, and Alicia for their work behind the scenes to successfully launch this new workflow! If you have any questions, please reach out to myself or Lori Donahue.
