Dollar For advocates to make charity care fair for patients nationwide.
Bridging the Chasm: Closing the $14 Billion Access Gap In Charity Care
To understand how much charity care falls through the gaps each year, Dollar For reviewed hospital tax filings and publicly available studies. Affordable Care Act (ACA) regulations require nonprofit hospitals to adopt charity care policies, yet charity care is not applied to many eligible patient accounts. We found that hospitals fail to provide at least $14 billion annually in charity care to patients, instead recording unpaid, unaffordable bills as “bad debt.”
The Path to Charity Care: Exploring the Journey & Roadblocks to Financial Assistance for Medical Bills
In late 2023, Dollar For conducted a survey to understand patients’ experience with charity care. We found that only 29% of patients with hospital bills they cannot afford are able to learn about, apply for, and receive charity care.
Letter to IRS to Issue Clear Guidance on Hospital Financial Assistance Regulations
In December 2024, Dollar For submitted a letter to the Internal Revenue Service highlighting key recommendations to ensure hospitals fulfill their responsibility to support patients in need. Dollar For’s recommendations to the IRS include eliminating residency restrictions, prohibiting insurance-based discrimination, improving public awareness of charity care, and clarifying application deadlines.
US Nonprofit Hospitals Have Widely Varying Criteria To Decide Who Qualifies For Free And Discounted Charity Care
In November 2024, Dollar For and partners released a new study revealing major differences in how U.S. nonprofit hospitals decide who qualifies for financial help with medical bills. These inconsistencies lead to inequitable access to financial assistance and should be addressed by state and federal policymakers.
Public Comment to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
In August 2024, Dollar For prepared and submitted a public comment around the idea of banning medical debt on consumer credit reports.
Public Comment to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
In July 2023, the United States Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of the Treasury solicited public comment on medical credit cards, loans, and other financial products used to pay for health care. Dollar For prepared and submitted a comprehensive report based on our experiences supporting patients with medical debt.
Pointless Debt: Oregon Report
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.