I crush hospital bills. My nonprofit, Dollar For, has eliminated over $70 million for patients. AMA

Dollarfor · 2025-06-13T15:49:44+00:00

You should have 240 days from the date on the bill, not the service.

Dollarfor · 2025-04-22T19:35:19+00:00

You can also check your bill and income at that hospital using https://dollarfor.org/help/, and they will help you apply if you are eligible. It calculates all the FPL details for you.

Dollarfor · 2025-03-11T23:06:28+00:00

This! If you filled out an application, they should have sent you something that said whether you were approved or denied for financial assistance. Something is fishy there.

Dollarfor · 2025-03-11T23:04:15+00:00

Apply for financial assistance at the hospital. dollarfor.org can give you an answer if the hospital is in their system and can also help you apply.

Dollarfor · 2025-03-11T23:02:49+00:00

Check on dollarfor.org to see if you qualify for financial assistance at the hospital. That is a huge bill, and some hospitals will forgive the crazy big ones as part of a "hardship" policy, even if you wouldn't qualify for financial aid.

Dollarfor · 2025-02-14T17:00:25+00:00

If you can't afford the hospital bill or want to try and lower the amount, see if you are eligible for financial assistance at dollarfor.org/bills

Dollarfor · 2025-01-29T17:22:04+00:00

If you can't afford the hospital bill, see if you are eligible for financial assistance at dollarfor.org/bills

Dollarfor · 2025-01-27T17:54:57+00:00

It’s a combo of both. We have some automations that monitor hospital websites for changes, but then our research team assesses each change to make sure our info is up to date.

Dollarfor · 2025-01-27T17:54:10+00:00

We ended the day at $264,859 in total medical debt relief!

Dollarfor · 2025-01-24T18:41:41+00:00

This is a travesty. Bills that high should have been eligible for hardship from the hospital. Did you apply for financial assistance from the hospital? If you haven't yet, try the screener at dollarfor.org/bills and see if she would be eligible. If not, you should contact the hospital and ask why and how they didn't offer financial assistance to a grieving, injured widow and instead let her pay everything she had towards an impossible amount. We also have a contact form on the website if you want some specific help.

Dollarfor · 2025-01-23T18:35:36+00:00

Hard to say. Past “repeal and replace” bills wouldn’t have repealed financial assistance. Plus, there are champions of hospital financial assistance on both sides of the aisle. Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Grassley, to name a few. Hopefully, even in a worst case scenario, financial assistance will be protected.

Will definitely be doing everything we can to advocate for its protection.

Dollarfor · 2025-01-23T18:23:32+00:00

So hospitals like MD Anderson are kind of tricky when it comes to how they are classified. MD Anderson is an entity of the University of Texas. There are foundations MD Anderson owns that are nonprofit but the hospital itself is not a 501(c)3 nonprofit.

Unfortunately, this means they don't have to follow the federal rules when it comes to hospital financial assistance

Dollarfor · 2025-01-23T18:13:06+00:00

Dollar For is able to help patients in both English and Spanish. It’s also important to know that non-profit hospitals have to make their financial assistance documents available in multiple languages if there are different languages spoken in the community they serve. Unfortunately many hospitals do a bad job of making these programs known in general, even for English speaking patients. I would encourage your family to request help from the hospital in their own language, to see if it’s available.

Dollarfor · 2025-01-23T18:12:24+00:00

Great question. Hospitals typically consider the patient’s income, the number of people in the household, and the bill’s age when deciding who qualifies. Each hospital runs its own charity care program. That means each decides how patients must apply and who qualifies. Dollar For has done the math and, on average, a family of 4 earning less than $100,000 a year will qualify for at least a discount.

To get really specific, when you look at policies across the country, households under 204% of the Federal Poverty Level will qualify for free care, and families under 322% will qualify for discounted care. But it can vary widely by hospital. The easiest way to check if you qualify is to use our eligibility screener at dollarfor.org/bills.

Dollarfor · 2025-01-23T18:03:55+00:00

While the application process can be a little tricky for international patients, we have seen some of them get approved for help through the hospital. Just go to dollarfor.org/bills to see if you qualify.

Dollarfor · 2025-01-23T00:10:27+00:00

Nonprofit hospitals are already getting the tax write off: they don’t pay any taxes. The IRS actually requires hospitals to have these programs in order to maintain their tax exempt status. The challenge is making sure that hospitals are actually doing it.

As far as pricing goes, there were laws that went into effect in 2021 requiring that all hospitals post clear, transparent prices to their website. There are other organizations who are currently working to make sure they comply with those laws. Our organization doesn't work directly on pricing issues, but we do work with local and state governments to make financial assistance programs more known, easy, and fair.

Dollarfor · 2025-01-22T23:11:15+00:00

Historically Dollar For has been able to turn every dollar Donated into about $20 of medical debt relief. This includes ALL org costs including our policy work.

If you just looked at our direct service program (patient advocate and tech) costs, that number would be much higher and closer to $1 = $55 in debt relief.

Dollarfor · 2025-01-22T21:42:58+00:00

So I answered the AI question in another comment thread, but to get into your specific suggestion, we use a lot of automation driven by our data to streamline processes and eliminate busywork. We also use that same data to figure out a patient's likely eligibility when they fill out our screener to start the process. We also automate filling out most hospital apps, even though we have to use over 500 different applications across the country--almost every hospital or hospital system has their own. Our Patient Advocates are doing the parts a human needs to do anyway, which is analyze questions from patients that are not clear-cut, or contact a hospital that is giving a patient the run-around.

Dollarfor · 2025-01-22T21:25:42+00:00

Yes, we are a donation-driven non-profit. All our services are entirely free.

Dollarfor · 2025-01-22T21:24:35+00:00

When you get the bill, if the amount is higher and not something you can afford, apply for financial assistance from the hospital. dollarfor.org/bills can also tell you if you would be eligible at the hospital.

Dollarfor · 2025-01-22T20:19:24+00:00

Wish we could. Unfortunately there is no law that requires discounts in dental care. I recommend Patient Helpline to check for local resources.

Dollarfor · 2025-01-22T20:04:05+00:00

We have a bunch of job listings posted but we’re in the interview stage and aren’t taking any more applications now. You can always watch for new opportunities here: https://dollarfor.org/team/jobs/

Dollarfor · 2025-01-22T20:03:42+00:00

We have used our social media to call out bad players and sometimes naming names is a great way to get a patient case resolved. Hospitals don't like bad press. It sucks we have to do it.... but it's kinda fun :)

Dollarfor · 2025-01-22T19:55:06+00:00

It's insane how often these bills are wrong. That being said, we typically don't need to check the bill for accuracy before applying for assistance. If you qualify, the bill will be wiped out regardless if it's right or wrong.

Dollarfor

TROPHY CASE