We want to see your hospital bills

July 25, 2024

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We’re starting a new investigation and need your help. We’re looking into something we’ve talked about a lot on this show: hospital financial assistance — also known as “charity care” — which most hospitals are legally required to offer.

Something like 60 percent of people might qualify to have their hospital bills reduced or even forgiven through charity care — but of course nowhere close to 60 percent of people actually get that assistance.

A lot of people just don’t know about it. (A survey our friends at Dollar For ran last year found that more than half of patients who might qualify for charity care had never even heard of it.)

Which raises a question: How exactly are hospitals telling you and me about charity care — you know, fulfilling their legal obligation to let us know we just might qualify to have our medical bill forgiven?

This is where you come in: we want to see a LOT of bills from hospitals. If you got one any time in the last year would you please you share it with us here?

Even if you weren’t worried about how you’d pay — we just want to see what your hospital was saying about your options (like payment plans vs charity care). We want to see what’s in bold type and what’s in fine print.

And if you were at all worried about how to pay, we’d like to hear the story. Did anyone mention charity care to you? Or what? And how’s it going?

We also need your help spreading the word to friends and family. Spread the word to your friends and family, share our form with them.

Finally, if you’re looking for charity care support, or just to see if you might qualify, you can go to Dollar For’s website and use their screening tool to see if you’re eligible, and their team of amazing volunteers can take it from there. And you can find more information on charity care in our First Aid Kit newsletter.

That’s all for now. We’ll be back with more new episodes in a few weeks.

In the meantime, you can send us other stories and questions. Or call 724 ARM-N-LEG.

Of course we’d love for you to support this show.

Please note that this transcript may include errors.

Dan: Hey there!

If you’ve listened to this show, you’ve probably heard me talk a lot about … charity care. Something like 60 percent of people might qualify to have their hospital bills reduced or forgiven.

But nothing like 60 percent of people getting hospital bills actually get that kind of help through charity care. Not even close.

Jared Walker: Millions of people now have declared bankruptcy over medical bills that they legally didn’t even have to pay if they knew about this. And that’s like … that should upset people.

Dan: That is Jared Walker — he and his nonprofit Dollar For have been helping people get charity care for years and spreading the word on TikTok and Instagram.

Jared Walker: If you make under a certain amount of money, the hospital legally has to forgive your medical bills.

Dan: I’ve learned a ton from them. And a survey they ran last year found that more than half of patients who might benefit from charity care … had never even HEARD of it. And lots of others were confused, or even embarrassed. People like Casey, who we met last year:

Casey: I didn’t know where to go, and it seems so weird asking for charity …

Dan: Which raises a question: How exactly are hospitals telling you and me about charity care ‚Äì you know fulfilling their legal obligation to let us know we just might qualify to have our medical bill forgiven?

Dollar For’s research suggests a lot of hospitals play this information a little close to the vest.

So, I want to look at a LOT of hospital bills. See what they say about charity care — versus, say, starting a payment plan. I wanna see what’s in bold type and what’s in fine print.

And I could use your help. If you’ve gotten a bill any time in the last year or so, would you share it with me? Even if you weren’t worried about how to pay it, I just wanna see what it says about your options.

I mean, if you were worried about how you were gonna pay it, one: Oy, I am so sorry. That is the worst. And two, I’d like to hear the story. Did anybody mention charity care to you — or what? And how’s it going?

AND finally, whether you’ve got a bill to share or not: Could you help get the word out that we’re doing this? Like, you know, tell everybody you know — especially if you know they’ve been to a hospital — that we’d like to see as many hospital bills and hear as many stories as we can?

There’s a link for all of that, it’s https://armandalegshow.com/bills/. There’s a form to upload bills there. There’s also links to the folks at Dollar For — who are there to help anybody apply for charity care.

And there’s a little video I’ve made, with links to share it around. Of course, we’re gonna keep anything you send us under lock and key.

The link again is https://armandalegshow.com/bills/. There’s a link wherever you’re listening.

Thank you so much. We are looking forward to seeing what we can learn from you. Meanwhile, we’ll have a new episode in a few weeks. Till then ‚Äì take care of yourself.