Non-Profit Spotlight: Dollar For Helps anyone struggling with medical bills

by Blake Fussell

Ashley Harrison, a young woman from Chicago, visited a suburban emergency room with severe chest pain and muscle aches. Two days later, doctors discovered she had cancer and transferred her to another hospital. Over the next seven weeks, Harrison fought off the disease and began to feel like herself again. But after she beat cancer, she still had another issue to face; a $36,000 bill for her two-night stay in the emergency room. The bill lingered for more than two years. Harrison began getting calls and letters, prompting her to pay her debt. As a mother of a one-year-old child, she began searching for assistance with the bill and soon discovered Dollar For. After six months of work to assist her, Dollar For managed to get the entire bill canceled by the hospital, which took the financial burden away from Harrison so she could return to a normal life.

Who is Dollar For?
Dollar For is a national nonprofit that crushes medical bills by making charity care known, easy, and fair.

What is charity care?
The Affordable Care Act requires nonprofit hospitals to offer financial assistance programs to keep their tax-exempt status. These charity care programs reduce or eliminate medical bills for low and middle-income patients.

How does Dollar For help?
Dollar For helps patients check if they are eligible for financial assistance at their hospital, prepare and submit applications, and eliminate medical bills. Services are completely free - no strings attached.

Who qualifies for help?
Dollar For will try to help anyone with a hospital bill regardless of income, bill size or citizenship status. Eligibility for charity care at a hospital is usually based on income level, household size and the age of the bill. Each hospital sets its own policy and rules.

What if a bill is in collections?
Nonprofit hospitals must consider applications for all bills less than 240 days old, even if it has already been sent to collections. Some hospitals consider applications for older bills.

What if the bill has already been paid?
If a patient qualifies for charity care, the law requires nonprofit hospitals to refund any payments made towards that bill.

What if a patient has insurance?
Each hospital sets its own guidelines for if or how they provide financial assistance to insured patients. Many, but not all, will waive debt not covered by insurance companies. Dollar For will help anyone regardless of their insurance status.

What about other medical bills?
Unfortunately, the charity care rules only apply to nonprofit hospitals. Doctors and others who work at hospitals sometimes bill patients separately. They will not always automatically waive bills even if a patient qualifies for hospital charity care.

Dollar For recommends first getting approved for charity care at the hospital, then giving copies of the approval to others who are billing the patient. For bills incurred outside of a hospital, the patient will need to call the billing office to see if any financial assistance programs are available.

We invite you to learn more at dollarfor.org. This is an excellent resource to share with individuals who are struggling with medical bills.


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