Grant & Weber has recognized the growing rise in charity care requests, as well as the importance of following the standards set forth by AB774, and therefore has specifically developed a new department to handle accounts requesting charity care. The charity applications handled by this department, including all notations and any information collected, are held separate from our collection staff.

Keeping this information separate is required by the AB774 charity bill that became Health and Safety code section 127400. The passing of SB350 resulted in specific changes including the fact that hospitals, collection agencies, and assignees cannot use information acquired during the charity eligibility process to aid in the collection process, and so forth.

The following are the steps put in place by Grant & Weber to handle the charity care process.

1. The initial collection demand letter apprises the patient of their right to apply for charity care.

2. The patient contacts Grant & Weber to request a charity care application or our staff may identify patient charity care eligibility.

3. File is removed from collections and is then given to the charity care processing department.

4. Depending upon client facility, the processing clerk sends the appropriate charity application to the patient. The file is advanced 30 days awaiting response from patient.

5a. If the application is received and complete, as reviewed by the processing department, the application is forwarded to the appropriate facility. File is then advanced an additional 30 days.

or

5b. If application is not complete a letter is sent to the patient requesting the missing information.

6. If info is then completed, as set forth in #5a above, the facility responds with 3 choices: CWO (charity write off), PAR (partial write off), or ACT (active account, request denied).

7. If a complete charity write off is approved, the patient is notified. If a partial charity care is approved, the patient is notified by Grant & Weber and the collection of the remaining patient responsibility is initiated. If the application is denied, the file is re-desked to a collector without the charity care application or any information related to.

This added service offers a valuable benefit to our clients by streamlining the charity care process while also allowing a “turnkey” recovery on these types of accounts. Basically put, with Grant & Weber, there is no longer the need to put your collection agency on hold while following up with extensive charity care requests and formalities.

As always, Grant & Weber takes great pride in offering value-added services to our clients and is always striving to ensure that we meet with all industry standards and regulations. This service is just another example of why Grant & Weber is the leading authority in medical debt collection industry.