JustCare

Tag: Charity care

  • Do you qualify for hospital charity care?

    Do you qualify for hospital charity care?

    Back in October 2021, I wrote a post for Just Care on how to lower your hospital costs if your income is low. Many people who qualify for charity care are unaware that they might qualify for a free or low-cost hospital care under a hospital’s policy. If you are able, before going to the hospital, find out whether it offers charity care, and, if so, who qualifies and whether any physicians are excluded from their charity care policy.

    The Affordable Care Act requires non-profit hospitals to offer charity care to people with low incomes. They might reduce their charges or, in some cases, cancel them altogether if your income is below a certain level. But, most people don’t know about this requirement, and hospitals don’t often tell you about it.

    Since it became law, many nonprofit hospitals have made it a lot more difficult for people struggling to pay for their hospital care to get charity care. Moreover, some physicians who provide you care at the hospital might not be covered under the hospital’s charity care policy, reports Filipa Carvalho for the Lown Institute. However, hospitals must disclose their financial assistance policy (FAP), including which physicians are covered and which are not.

    If your income is low, it’s wise to ask your hospital about its policy for providing charity care and for an application before you are admitted to the hospital. You might want to see about using a different hospital if it appears that it will be challenging to get charity care.

    When using a hospital offering charity care (a non-profit hospital), even if your income is higher than the hospital’s income limit, you should still apply, if paying the bill will put you in medical debt. You have 240 days from receiving a hospital bill to apply, and it could save you thousands of dollars.

    If the hospital sends a collection agency after you, call the hospital and let the staff know you are applying for charity care and you’d like them to stop the collection agency from trying to get you to pay.

    Here’s more from Just Care:

  • Providence Health sued for failing to provide charity care to low-income patients

    Providence Health sued for failing to provide charity care to low-income patients

    No question that corporate health insurers are driving up health care spending. The higher their costs, the more money they make. Some hospitals are helping the insurers and hurting patients, with high charges, facility fees, and aggressive billing practices. MedPage Today reports on a lawsuit against Providence Health for failing to provide charity care to its low-income patients, as required by law.

    Washington State’s Attorney General alleges in a lawsuit that Providence Health violated its obligation to its neediest patients. Instead of providing them with charity care, as required by law, it is failing to tell them about its charity care policy. What’s worse, it is billing them for the full cost of their care, sending their accounts to collection agencies and pushing them into medical debt.

    It’s easy to appreciate that for-profit hospitals engage in aggressive billing practices. But, Providence Health, which operates 14 hospitals in Washington State and is the state’s largest hospital system, is a non-profit. In just two years’ time, Providence sent the accounts of 46,783 patients with incomes between 151 and 200 percent of the federal poverty level to collection agencies.

    Washington State requires all hospitals to do what they can–“make a reasonable effort”– to ensure that eligible patients learn about the charity care they offer. They are not supposed to send their accounts to collection before they have made this effort.

    Instead, Providence Health has its representatives lead patients to believe that they must pay their bills, notwithstanding their income level. Staff are told not to back down when patients report that they cannot pay their bills. Staff are supposed to ask for half upfront and then work out a payment plan with patients.

    The suit claims that Providence sends many bills to collection with full knowledge that patients are low-income and cannot pay the bills. Whatever money it can extract, it wants. It appears that McKinsey & Company, a management consulting firm, helped Providence come up with the plan to avoid screening patients for charity care. Providence provided staff with scripts to use with patients that hid the availability of charity care from them.

    That makes it a lot easier for Providence to talk the talk–claim that it offers free care to patients with incomes under 300 percent of the federal poverty level–without walking the walk.

    Staff charged with collecting on hospital bills must reach specified targets and are assessed publicly. Not surprisingly, the lawsuit alleges that Providence Health does not make patients aware of its charity care policy when they are admitted, on discharge, or after patients explain that they cannot afford to pay for their care.

    Here’s more from Just Care:

  • How to pay less for your hospital care

    How to pay less for your hospital care

    If your income is low, you might be able to pay less for your hospital care. Among the many elements of the Affordable Care Act is a requirement that nonprofit hospitals provide financial assistance to patients with limited means. Kaiser Health News reports that most people do not know about this law that can keep them from medical debt.

    Most hospitals in the US are nonprofit. Under federal law, these hospitals must forgive your hospital bills if you make less than a certain income. But, there are a lot of people who qualify for “charity care,”–full or partial help paying for their treatment–who do not know they are eligible.

    Jared Walker founded an organization, Dollar For, that helps people get the charity care to which they are entitled and avoid medical debt.

    What should you do to apply for charity care? Find out what your hospital’s policy is. It likely won’t be on the hospital website’s home page or easily searchable on its website. To find the hospital’s policy online, try googling the name of the hospital and “charity care” or “financial assistance.”

    Once you find the policy, you should also have an application. If you can’t find the policy through a simple google search, call the hospital and ask for a copy of it, along with an application.

    Are you eligible for charity care? Hospitals all have different policies. For example, one hospital might charge you nothing if your income is below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. It might lower your out-of-pocket costs if your income is between 200 and 300 percent of the federal poverty level.  You probably will need to show proof of income.

    What if you’re not eligible? You should still apply if your income is low and you can’t afford the cost of care. For example, if the hospital’s policy only covers uninsured people but your costs with insurance are super high, it’s still worth applying. It’s also worth applying if your income is higher than the cut-off, but you can’t afford your hospital costs. In these and all cases, write a letter to accompany the application that explains your financial situation.

    How long do you have to apply? Under federal law, you have about eight months (240 days) from the date of your hospital bill to apply for financial assistance, and your hospital might give you much longer.  Unfortunately, that could be after the hospital has sent your bill to collection. (A hospital can hire a collection agency to try to collect the money you owe as soon as six months after it first bills you.)

    What if a collection agency is going after money from you for your hospital care? Let the agency know that you have applied to the hospital for charity care. And, ask the hospital to call off activity by the collection agency.

    What’s the best way to send my application and letter? Hand-deliver or fax them in order to be sure the hospital receives your letter and application and that they do not get lost in the mail. If you opt to fax them, see if your public library will fax them for you.  You can also fax them through an online app.

    To be sure, getting charity care is not the easiest undertaking. But, it’s worth the effort. You could save yourself thousands of dollars and avoid medical debt.

    Here’s more from Just Care: