Dollar For is a national nonprofit that crushes medical bills by empowering patients and advocating on their behalf.
The Affordable Care Act requires nonprofit hospitals to offer charity care programs to keep their tax-exempt status. These financial assistance programs reduce or eliminate medical bills for low-to-middle income patients.
Unfortunately, hospitals hold all the power. There is almost no federal oversight of charity care, so most hospitals do the bare minimum to educate patients about these programs. A recent study showed that 72% of nonprofit hospitals spent less on charity care and community investment than they received in tax breaks. Combined, nonprofit hospitals in 2018 received $17 billion in tax breaks that were not passed on as community benefits.
Dollar For is here to help. We educate patients about these programs, help patients navigate the application process, and call out hospitals that don’t follow regulations. We have already crushed over $19 million in medical bills. Our work is entirely funded through philanthropic grants and donations. Our services are completely free – no strings attached.
A medical crisis shouldn’t mean a financial crisis.
Dollar For crushes medical bills by making charity care known, easy, and fair.
Our 2021 viral TikTok on the basics of charity care was seen by over 30 million people. We currently have over 125,000 social media followers. Dollar For has been featured on National Public Radio, the Wall Street Journal, Kiplinger, Kaiser Health News, Consumer Reports, and many other publications. See our pressroom for a full list of press and media.
Our passionate community of supporters educates people in their communities. We also build local awareness of charity care programs through partnerships with other nonprofit and service-focused organizations to spread the word.
Our online eligibility screener—powered by our custom-built database of over 8,200 hospitals—helps patients quickly see if they are likely to qualify for financial assistance.
For eligible people, Dollar For offers self advocacy and full service options to help submit financial assistance applications:
Our escalation team helps fight when we think a hospital has made a bad call. They send formal appeals and legal demand letters, and engage local partners or regulators when appropriate.
We also leverage our media connections to call out hospitals that are breaking the law and use strategic advocacy partnerships to plan for bigger change.
In February 2023, Dollar For released “Pointless Debt: How Oregon hospitals skirt financial assistance laws to charge patients—without increasing revenue.” This report is the summation of months of research to explore the impacts of Oregon’s charity care law for both patients and hospitals. The result is a scathing analysis of how hospitals have failed to implement the law and how patients are being hurt by pointless medical debt.
Dollar For is accepting applications from compassionate, energetic, and detail-focused customer service or administrative experts to join our patient advocacy team. We will be hiring for both full-time and part-time team members. Learn more.
Dollar For is a a US 501(c)(3) public charity, EIN 46-0889864