This resource contains details about a patient's eligibility for services, equipment, or prescriptions, typically before a patient visit.
A healthcare organization may use this resource to request estimates or quotes, as well as a patient’s financial responsibility, before a visit or order.
A payer, employer, or other entity processes the request and returns a general benefit summary or quote based on the patient’s insurance plan. The response comes in a CoverageEligibilityResponse resource type.
This is different from a preauthorization request. Learn about preauthorization requests.
$submit
Submit a coverage eligibility request to a payer, employer, or other entity responsible for insurance payments.
A coverage eligibility request determines:
- whether the payer, employer, or other entity has a particular subscriber or dependent on file; and
- healthcare eligibility and/or benefit information about that subscriber and/or dependent.
The response returns a bundle of resources in a CoverageEligibilityResponse resource type.
cURL request example
Request Body Schema
- resourceTyperequired, string
Identifies the type of the resource
Value:Bundle
- typerequired, string
Indicates the purpose of this bundle - how it is intended to be used.
Value:collection
- entryrequired, Array of CoverageEligibilityRequest, Patient, Coverage, Location
An array of FHIR resources. At a minimum, a CoverageEligibilityRequest should include the following entries:
- CoverageEligibilityRequest - the most important part of the request - contains references to all other resources, and the query in
item
- Patient - the patient the claim is about
- Organization - at least one resource representing the party responsible for making the claim. Additional organization resources may carry information such as pharmacy, payor, or policy holder.
- Coverage - the patient's insurance
Additional resources such as RelatedPerson should be included in scenarios where the Patient is a dependent of the coverage holder.
- resourcerequired, object
The Resource for the entry. The purpose/meaning of the resource is determined by the Bundle.type.
- resourceTyperequired, string
Identifies the type of the resource
Value:CoverageEligibilityRequest
- idrequired, string
The internal tracking identifier for this eligibility request. This id will be returned on the CoverageEligibilityResponse.
- statusrequired, string
The status of the resource instance.
Possible Values:active
,cancelled
,draft
,entered-in-error
- purposerequired, Array of string
Code to specify whether requesting: prior authorization requirements for some service categories or billing codes; benefits for coverages specified or discovered; discovery and return of coverages for the patient; and/or validation that the specified coverage is in-force at the date/period specified or 'now' if not specified.
Possible Values:auth-requirements
,benefits
,discovery
,validation
- patientrequired, object
The Patient that you want to run eligibility checks for. This may be different than the policy holder
Must be a resource of type
Patient
.- referencestring
A reference to another resource. This is typically either a relative reference which includes the resource type and ID, or an internal reference which starts with
#
and refers to a contained resource.
- createdrequired, string
The date when this resource was created.
- insurerrequired, object
The payer that the request should be submitted to.
Must be a resource of type
Organization
.- referencestring
A reference to another resource. This is typically either a relative reference which includes the resource type and ID, or an internal reference which starts with
#
and refers to a contained resource.
- insuranceArray of object
Financial instruments for reimbursement for the health care products and services.
- coveragerequired, object
The patient's coverage that should be used to make the eligiblity determination.
Must be a resource of type
Coverage
.- referencestring
A reference to another resource. This is typically either a relative reference which includes the resource type and ID, or an internal reference which starts with
#
and refers to a contained resource.
- focalboolean
A flag to indicate that this Coverage is to be used for evaluation of this request when set to true.
- businessArrangementstring
A business agreement number established between the provider and the insurer for special business processing purposes.
- CoverageEligibilityRequest - the most important part of the request - contains references to all other resources, and the query in
- resourceTyperequired, string
Identifies the type of the resource
Value:Bundle
- typerequired, string
Indicates the purpose of this bundle - how it is intended to be used.
Value:collection
- entryrequired, Array of CoverageEligibilityResponse, Patient, Coverage, Location
Contains at least one CoverageEligibilityResponse and other resources relevant to the coverage check.
- resourcerequired, object
The Resource for the entry. The purpose/meaning of the resource is determined by the Bundle.type.
- resourceTyperequired, string
Identifies the type of the resource
Value:CoverageEligibilityResponse
- idrequired, string
The internal tracking identifier for this eligibility request. This id will be returned on the CoverageEligibilityResponse.
- statusrequired, string
The status of the resource instance.
Possible Values:active
,cancelled
,draft
,entered-in-error
- purposerequired, Array of string
Code to specify whether requesting: prior authorization requirements for some service categories or billing codes; benefits for coverages specified or discovered; discovery and return of coverages for the patient; and/or validation that the specified coverage is in-force at the date/period specified or 'now' if not specified.
Possible Values:auth-requirements
,benefits
,discovery
,validation
- patientrequired, object
The Patient that the elgibility results are being reported for. This may be different than the policy holder
Must be a resource of type
Patient
.- referencestring
A reference to another resource. This is typically either a relative reference which includes the resource type and ID, or an internal reference which starts with
#
and refers to a contained resource.
- createdrequired, string
The date this resource was created.
- requestrequired, object
The initial CoverageEligibilityRequest.
Must be a resource of type
CoverageEligibilityRequest
.- referencestring
A reference to another resource. This is typically either a relative reference which includes the resource type and ID, or an internal reference which starts with
#
and refers to a contained resource.
- outcomerequired, string
The outcome of the request processing.
Possible Values:queued
,complete
,error
,partial
- insurerrequired, object
The payer that the request should be submitted to.
Must be a resource of type
Organization
.- referencestring
A reference to another resource. This is typically either a relative reference which includes the resource type and ID, or an internal reference which starts with
#
and refers to a contained resource.
- insurancerequired, Array of object
Financial instruments for reimbursement for the health care products and services.
- coveragerequired, object
The coverage of the patient.
Must be a resource of type
Coverage
.- referencestring
A reference to another resource. This is typically either a relative reference which includes the resource type and ID, or an internal reference which starts with
#
and refers to a contained resource.
- itemArray of object
Benefits and optionally current balances, and authorization details by category or service.