Sliding Fee in Cost Estimation

The sliding fee program offers differential pricing with adjustments based on the annual income and family size of a patient or person.

Sliding fee schedules are attached to a patient or person or a specific encounter or chart in NextGen® Enterprise PM. When you attach a sliding fee schedule to an encounter, a percentage of the estimated amount specified on the Estimate Patient Cost window is automatically adjusted.

In cost estimation, a patient or person eligible for sliding fee adjustments can only use the self-pay mode of payment.

In NextGen® Enterprise PM, you can do the following:

• Attach sliding fee schedules at the chart level or encounter level for a person or patient.
  Note: The system does not combine encounter level and chart level sliding fees while judging which to apply. Encounter level sliding fee always take precedence over chart level sliding fee.
• Apply multiple sliding fee schedules at an encounter level or chart level for a person or patient.
  Note: When you add multiple sliding fee schedules of the same type (line item-based or encounter-based) at the encounter level or chart level, a sequencing order is used to pick the sliding fee in which it is positioned.
• Apply a sliding fee schedule discount for person or patient responsibility estimated amounts (Total Pat Est Amt) and calculate discounts based on the active sliding fee schedule in the cost estimate.
• Control the access to the sliding fee schedules of various practices in an enterprise.
• Generate a report on the sliding fee schedule adjustment discounts.

The mode of applying a sliding fee at the patient or person's estimated amounts is encounter-based or line-item based. Line item-based sliding fee takes precedence over encounter-based sliding fee.

For information on encounter and line-item based sliding fee, go to NextGen Healthcare Success Community, and download the latest File Maintenance Master Files Guide for NextGen Enterprise.