BILLING EXEMPTIONS (354.1)    FILE (1)

DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE.
if a patient can be exluded from any type of billing for a period of
time.  The initial use of this file is for storing the time sensitive
data related to whether or not a patient is exempt from pharmacy copay
requirement due to income below the pension level.
 
The file then maintains the audit trail of changes to exemptions and
historical data about exemptions.  The data in this file should be
retained for approximately the current calendar year and the past
calendar year.  The ability to purge data in this file will be added
at a future time.
 
 
Per VHA Directive 10-93-142, this file definition should not be modified.
Under normal operation it is not necessary to edit the fields in this
file directly.  The option Manually Change Copay Exemption (Hardships) can
be used to update and correct entries by creating a new exemption.
If many patient records have problems the option Print/Verify Patient
Exemption Status can be used to correct the entries.
 
This file will hold the time sensitive data that is used to determine