Free care first. Billing errors second.
Every nonprofit hospital in America must offer free care to patients who qualify — free care the hospital must offer if you qualify (the law calls it charity care, under the hospital's financial assistance policy). Hospitals still bill an estimated $14 billion a year to patients who likely qualified and were never told. Only about 29% of likely-eligible patients ever receive the help. The difference is usually one form, filed before one deadline.
Check where you stand — free What is charity care?
No upload. No medical records. No diagnosis, no account numbers — an income range and a date are all the checker takes.
The free triage checker
Five questions. The checker compares your income range against the federal floor and your state's own charity-care law, counts your deadline from your first bill, and gives you your first move. Every answer is labeled an estimate — the hospital decides, after you apply. That is exactly why the application matters.
No upload. No medical records. No exact income — a range is all this takes, and nothing you enter leaves this page. We never ask what treatment you had, and we never will.
The date on the FIRST billing statement starts two clocks: the 240 days you have to apply, and the 120 days the hospital must leave you alone. If you don't know it yet, leave it blank — you can come back.
Why the order matters
If you qualify under the hospital's financial assistance policy, the hospital writes off some or all of the bill — including, at many hospitals, bills already sent to collections. This is the biggest door and the one nobody opens for you. An estimated 36,000+ patients have had over $120 million of hospital debt cleared with free help from the nonprofit Dollar For — the help exists; the telling doesn't.
Itemized hospital bills carry recurring errors: duplicate charges, services never received, wrong-code upcharges, inflated emergency-room levels. Checking matters — but second. An error fight can shrink a correct-looking bill; only financial assistance can erase a correct one. Fight errors after you have filed for assistance, not instead of it.
Whatever survives doors one and two gets negotiated — hardship policies, prompt-pay discounts, payment terms you can actually carry — with the deadline tracker running and the escalation ladder behind you if the hospital breaks its own rules.
The law, in plain words
Your state may give you more — a higher free-care line, a longer window, automatic screening, or a ban on medical debt in credit reports. See your state's rules or read charity care explained in plain words.
Get the HospitalBillDecoded Kit — $49
One payment of $49. No subscription. The kit is a web page you can return to and print — the application pack, the error checklist, the scripts, the deadline tracker, and the escalation ladder.
Start with your state
The federal floor is the same everywhere. What your state adds is not: Illinois discounts up to 600% of the poverty guidelines, Washington gives free care to 300% at large hospitals, New Jersey gives you 365 days to apply, Oregon forces hospitals to screen you before billing. Pick your state:
Alabama · Alaska · Arizona · Arkansas · California · Colorado · Connecticut · Delaware · District of Columbia · Florida · Georgia · Hawaii · Idaho · Illinois · Indiana · Iowa · Kansas · Kentucky · Louisiana · Maine · Maryland · Massachusetts · Michigan · Minnesota · Mississippi · Missouri · Montana · Nebraska · Nevada · New Hampshire · New Jersey · New Mexico · New York · North Carolina · North Dakota · Ohio · Oklahoma · Oregon · Pennsylvania · Rhode Island · South Carolina · South Dakota · Tennessee · Texas · Utah · Vermont · Virginia · Washington · West Virginia · Wisconsin · Wyoming
Charity care is free care a hospital gives patients who cannot pay. Federal law (section 501(r) of the tax code) requires every nonprofit hospital to have a financial assistance policy — its written rules for free and discounted care — and to tell patients about it. Many people never hear the words until a bill is already in collections.
Apply. Some states make hospitals screen patients automatically, and hospitals may also find you eligible on their own — but the strongest federal protections, including the duty to return money you already paid, are written around a submitted application. A two-page form is what turns 'the hospital should have helped me' into 'the hospital must decide my application.'
A nonprofit hospital must accept your application for 240 days from your first post-discharge billing statement, and it may not use extraordinary collection actions in the first 120 days. Some states give you longer (New Jersey: 365 days). The free checker counts your dates.
You can still apply. Hospitals must pause collection actions while a complete application is being decided, screening-based eligibility has no such clock in states that require it, and billing errors can be disputed on their own track. See the after-collections guide.
Never. The checker asks for the hospital type, your state, your household size, an income RANGE, and a bill date. No name, no diagnosis, no treatment, no account numbers, no uploaded documents — by design, not by promise. Your eligibility estimate is computed in your browser; nothing is sent anywhere.
The checker tells you where you likely stand. The kit walks the whole job: getting the policy and form, filling the application field group by field group (with income proof when pay stubs don't exist), the itemized-bill error checklist and dispute letter, negotiation scripts for what remains, a deadline tracker, and the escalation ladder up to an IRS Form 13909 complaint when a hospital breaks the rules.
Sources: section 501(r) and 26 CFR §1.501(r)-4 to -6 (federal rules); 2026 HHS poverty guidelines (Federal Register, January 2026); Dollar For / KFF Health News reporting on billed-but-eligible patients (2024–2026). State rules checked October 19, 2026 and cited on each state page. This site is information, not medical, legal, or financial advice.