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charity care

chrty_care_amt
finance·Updated Jun 14, 2026

Definition

ISO-11179 Definition

Free or discounted healthcare services provided by a healthcare organization to patients who meet defined income and financial need criteria, representing a community benefit obligation for nonprofit hospitals and a patient assistance program for other providers. Charity care is distinct from bad debt — charity care is intentionally provided at no or reduced cost to qualifying patients while bad debt represents services provided with expectation of payment that was not collected. The IRS requires nonprofit hospitals to maintain and publicize written financial assistance policies and to screen patients for financial assistance eligibility before pursuing extraordinary collection actions.

Community benefit reporting requirements mandate disclosure of charity care amounts provided annually. Healthcare data teams track chrty_care_amt by service type, payer category, and patient demographics to measure community benefit program impact, ensure compliance with financial assistance policy requirements, and distinguish charity care write-offs from bad debt in financial reporting.

Standard Abbreviation

chrty_care_amt

Category

finance

Production DDL — FACT_CLAIM_TRANSACTION

FACT_CLAIM_TRANSACTION.sql
CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE FACT_CLAIM_TRANSACTION (
    clm_txn_key     INTEGER        NOT NULL  -- surrogate key,
    clm_id          VARCHAR(50)    NOT NULL  -- claim identifier,
    mbr_key         INTEGER        NOT NULL  -- FK to DIM_MEMBER,
    prvdr_key       INTEGER        NOT NULL  -- FK to DIM_PROVIDER,
    clm_typ_cd      VARCHAR(10)              -- claim type code,
    tot_chrg_amt    DECIMAL(18,2)            -- total charged amount,
    tot_alwd_amt    DECIMAL(18,2)            -- total allowed amount,
    tot_pd_amt      DECIMAL(18,2)            -- total paid amount,
    cntrct_adj_amt  DECIMAL(18,2)            -- contractual adjustment,
    denial_ind      CHAR(1)                  -- denial indicator,
    denial_rsn_cd   VARCHAR(10)              -- denial reason code,
    prior_auth_nbr  VARCHAR(30)              -- authorization number,
    clm_lag_days    SMALLINT                 -- claim lag days,
    days_ar         SMALLINT                 -- days in AR,
    load_dt         TIMESTAMP_NTZ  NOT NULL  -- load timestamp
);

Standard Snowflake DDL for the canonical finance table. Convert to BigQuery or Databricks →

Why This Term Matters

Healthcare data terminology is foundational for any data engineer working in this industry. Precise understanding of standard terms enables accurate schema design, reduces downstream data quality issues, and ensures pipelines meet the regulatory and interoperability requirements imposed by HIPAA, HL7 FHIR, and CMS reporting frameworks. Without this foundation, even technically well-built pipelines produce data that fails validation when it reaches payers or regulators.

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