Charity care application online

Quick Guide to Charity Care Programs

In Triage Cancer's free Quick Guide to Charity Care Programs, you'll learn the five steps to accessing Charity Care from your hospital:

1. Check if you are eligible
2. Fill out your hospital’s application
3. Send your application to the hospital
4. Follow up with the hospital
5. Appeal, if needed

Nonprofit hospitals are required to offer free or discounted health care to patients with certain incomes. This is called charity care, but could also be called patient financial assistance or ability to pay programs. Charity care can include inpatient and emergency room services. Nonprofit hospitals are required to post their financial assistance policy online and in the hospital. Hospitals must also pause sending a bill to collections while they are reviewing a financial assistance application. Some for-profit hospitals also offer financial assistance programs.

5 Steps to Charity Care

1. Check if you are eligible

Each hospital’s charity care programs have different rules. These are the key things that you need to find out:

• What are the income or other requirements to qualify?
• What is the deadline to apply? How do you apply?
• Who should you call if you have questions?

You can find information about your hospital’s charity care program by typing the name of the hospital and the words “financial assistance” into Google or another internet search engine. Make sure you have found the link for the right hospital as many hospitals have similar names. You need to find and download two things:

• the financial assistance policy
• the application

Hospitals offer charity care to patients who are uninsured or underinsured, based on their household income level. Households are people who live together and are responsible for each other’s bills. For example:

• 2 parents and their 2 minor children would be a household of 4.
• 4 roommates who live together and pay taxes separately would each be a household of 1.
• An adult who lives with their parents, but files their own taxes and is not claimed as a dependent by the parents, would also be a household of 1.

Nonprofit hospitals are required to give patients 240 days to apply for financial assistance. The 240 days starts from the day the hospital sends you the first copy of the bill, not the day that you visit the hospital. Some hospitals will give even more time to apply. It’s always worth calling the hospital to find out if they will accept a financial assistance application, even if the deadline has passed.

If you have any questions about the financial assistance rules at your hospital, the best place to start is to call the hospital financial assistance department directly. You can usually find a phone number on the financial assistance website or in the financial assistance policy. This number may be different from the hospital’s billing office. When you call, make sure to ask for the financial assistance department.