‘Crush’ medical debt
Five tips for accessing a hospital’s ‘charity care’ program
WHAT if a law passed but no one enforced it? That’s essentially what has happened with one small but helpful rule about hospitals and financial assistance for medical bills.
The Affordable Care Act, the health law also known as Obamacare, requires nonprofit hospitals to make financial assistance available to low-income patients and post those policies online. Across the U.S., more than half of hospitals are nonprofit — and in some states all or nearly all hospitals are nonprofit. But many people who qualify for financial assistance — or “charity care,” as it is sometimes known — never apply.
Jared Walker is helping get the word out. He founded Dollar For, an organization that directly helps people use hospital financial assistance policies to overcome unaffordable medical bills. Walker earned the public’s attention early this year through a viral Tiktok he made on a lark, late one night.
In the 60-second video, Walker outlines the basics of applying for hospital financial assistance, in response to a prompt that asks Tiktokers to share “something you’ve learned that feels illegal to know.”
“Most hospitals in America are nonprofits, which means they have to have financial assistance or charity care policies,” he says in the video. “This is going to sound weird, but what that means is if you make under a certain amount of money the hospital legally has to forgive your medical bills.”
The video outlines the basics of applying for hospital charity care, which he says he uses to “crush” medical bills.
Here are five strategies Walker endorses and shares during monthly volunteer training sessions:
1. How do you find the policy?
Walker’s trick for finding a hospital’s financial assistance policy is as straightforward as it gets: Google it. Enter the hospital’s name, followed by “financial assistance policy” or “charity care policy.” The first search results are likely to be an outline of the policy and an application to submit.
Your first instinct might be to go to your hospital’s home page. But that’s probably a mistake. Policies tend to be hidden from hospital website menus, according to Walker. In many states, charity care laws are more specific than what’s outlined in the ACA, and hospitals may be required to display their financial assistance policies prominently.
It’s rare for the policies not to be available