At hospitalcodeguide.com/, we recognize that healthcare billing and medical debt information directly impacts your financial well-being. We hold every article, billing code table, and dispute letter template to strict accuracy, sourcing, and verification standards.
1. Primary Source Requirement
We do not rely on anonymous forums or secondary blog summaries for regulatory facts. Every statutory protection, billing rule, and income threshold cited on our website must be verified against official US federal or state government sources, including:
- CMS.gov: Medicare Physician Fee Schedule lookups, NCCI bundling rules, and federal Independent Dispute Resolution (IDR) / Patient-Provider Dispute Resolution (PPDR) guidelines.
- IRS.gov: Treasury Regulations under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(r)(4) through 501(r)(6) governing Financial Assistance Policies (FAP), Amount Generally Billed (AGB) limits, and Extraordinary Collection Actions (ECAs).
- HHS.gov / ASPE: Annual US Federal Poverty Level (FPL) guidelines published each January for the 48 contiguous states, D.C., Alaska, and Hawaii.
- State Attorneys General & Departments of Health: State-specific hospital fair pricing acts (such as California AB 1020, New York Fair Medical Debt Reporting Act, Colorado HB 23-1126, and Illinois Fair Patient Billing Act).
2. Annual & Regulatory Audit Schedule
US healthcare billing figures and federal limits change on a regular schedule. Our editorial team audits and updates existing articles on the following calendar:
- January / February: Updating all Hospital Charity Care tables with the newly released HHS Federal Poverty Guidelines and CMS annual CPT/HCPCS fee schedule updates.
- Quarterly Reviews: Reviewing federal No Surprises Act administrative rules, CFPB credit reporting updates, and state legislative bans on medical debt reporting.
3. Transparency & Corrections Policy
Every guide includes a visible Last Updated date and a numbered Official US Regulatory Sources & Footnotes section at the bottom of the page so readers can verify the underlying statute or manual directly. If you spot an outdated figure, broken government link, or coding discrepancy, please contact our editorial desk so we can verify and issue a timestamped correction within 48 hours.