Financial Assistance with Hospital Bills Made Easy

You are listening to Boomers Today with your host Frank Sampson. Oh, welcome to Boomers Today. I’m your host, Frank Sampson. Of course, each week we’re doing you important and useful information on issues facing baby boomers, their parents and other loved ones.

And I can’t thank you all enough. I do take the time on each each one of our shows to thank all of you. And I want to thank all of you because so many of you are sharing our shows and you know the end of the podcasts with family and friends, and I know why you do, because we have great guests, and so many of you are listening on various means Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Iheartrado, Audible, or you could just ask the Luxo Siri to take you to Boomers Today Radio. So thank you so much for all your support.

And as I say, we all you know we do have good guests and we’re not going to disappoint you today because we have with us Jared Walker, who is the founder of Dollar four. It’s the nonprofit dedicated to eliminating medical debt by making hospital financial assistance known and easy and fair. Inspired by his own family struggles and medical bills, Jared started a dollar four started Dollar four. Since twenty twenty one, it has grown into a nationwide movement, a racing over one hundred and twenty million dollars in hospital debt.

So, Jared, thank you so much for joining us on boomers today. I really appreciate it. Yeah, thank you so much for having me. Yeah, there’s a lot to learn here.

It’s fantastic what you have done, what you have accomplished. So I’d love to hear a little bit more about the history. I touched upon it and just your quick bio, but love to learn more on how kind of what happened with the family and how you got this going and how long you’ve been doing it. Yeah, definitely.

So I started Dollar four originally as Dollar for Portland. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest in Portland, Oregon, and I watched my own family go through a medical crisis and realized, you know, when you have a medical emergency, a lot of times you have a financial emergency. And for us, it was my wife and I were sitting at home. She got a phone call her aunt had passed away from cancer.

And a few minutes later I got a phone call my cousin had gone into labor seven weeks premature baby needed a heart surgery to live, and you know, same day, same hour, our families were hit with these you know, medical emergencies, and I remember a big conversation at the time was well, how are we going to pay for it? And you know, how much is this going to cost? And that really really upset me that that was, you know, the conversation that we were having. So that’s kind of what sparked the idea. I originally actually started as like a crowdfunding platform. So I was, you know, helping people in Portland, Oregon pay hospital bills through crowdfunding.

Mm. Wow, wow, that’s fantastic. So well, it’s not fantastic that they had to go through that, it’s fantastic what you’ve accomplished. So that’s that’s wonderful.

So just so I want to you know, be clear, are we talking about families that have insurance, don’t have insurance? Or it could happen to either, So it can happen to anybody. So you know, when at the time, and you know, the stats may have changed a little bit, but when I was originally you know, thinking about this idea, the medical debt is the number one cause of bankruptcy, so that that still holds today. But one of the stats I read this is, you know, twenty twelve was that about seventy eight percent of those people that declare bankruptcy because the medical bills have insurance. So it’s absolutely something that can impact and you know, we’ll get into hospital financial assistance in charity care later, I’m sure.

But you know, if you’re insured, uninsured, underinsured, you know, you’re on Medicare, did this this applies to you? Gotcha? Gotcha? So and I would think that it’s probably more common just because of care needs. But with older adults and many older adults who are you know, retired and you know, maybe on fixed incomes, I would expect that, you know, just one big bill could could totally tear them apart. Is that is that what you see quite often? Yeah? Absolutely, you know, it’s it’s one of those things where medical debt is is just it can impact so many parts of people’s lives. Right, you get a medical bill and then all of a sudden, you you can’t make your rent payment, you can’t you know, pay utilities, you can’t put food on the table.

So a lot of times we see people, you know, making sacrifices of things that they shouldn’t have to because they got an unexpected medical bill, or you know the stat of one in four Americans will just neglect care that they need because the cost. Right right right, and and so what’s your experience. I know there are some hospitals that are for profit or some hospitals that are nonprofit. Is there a difference between for profit or nonprofit hospitals or relates to these matters? Yeah, so there there’s a difference.

So you know what what all start to kind of hospital charity care and hospital financial as systems. So this is actually a rule in the Affordable Care Act, so section five oh one R of the Affordable Care Active if you want to look it up, but it’s it’s a requirement for nonprofit hospitals, which is actually about sixty five percent of hospitals in America are tax exempt their nonprofit and in order for them to keep that tax exempt status, they have to provide community benefit. And within community benefit is something called charity care or hospital financial assistance, and this is basically it requires hospitals to reduce or even completely eliminate your hospital bills if you meet their income requirements. So there are you know, every single nonprofit hospital in America has to have these policies, but also almost every single for profit hospital has them as well, So you know, there’s a little bit of difference on like the requirements, but almost every hospital in America has a charity care program there you know, will help you with your hospital expenses if you meet the income requirements.

So if if the family has a choice of a hospital that they could go to for care, would you recommend if there’s a choice to go to a nonprofit or it’s just more making them aware. You know, I think that as long as they have a policy, I think a lot of people you know that it’s a I would say an unlikely scenario. Usually when people are headed to the emergency room and they’re looking up like, oh, which hospital should you know, like it should be for profit or nonprofit. A lot of times, you know, you get a ride from the ambulance and they just they take you wherever they’re going to take you, right, So I would say, yeah, if you’re in a situation where you’re able to, you know, look it up in advance, you can definitely look to see what these policies are and make your decision from but I think most of the time you just kind of end up at the at the hospital.

Yeah, right, right, So the I’m sure we’re going to go through a lot of suggestions you have for families, uh, you know, throughout throughout this interview together, this discussion together, but one in particular, if the family knows that they’re going to need some sort of financial assistance, Okay, at what point do they bring that up? They bring it up early, or at what point did they bring it up to the hospital? Yeah, I think I think at any point before, during, and after is fine. That The rule on this is two hundred and forty days. So that’s a good number to keep it in the back of your head by the time you get your first bill. Well, once you get that first bill, the clock starts ticking, and then you know, the minimum requirement for hospitals is to provide two hundred and forty days to be able to apply for financial assistance.

If you are able to, you know, think ahead and look at these policies and fill out the paperwork and stuff beforehand. Great, but a lot of times what happens is people go get care and then they get the bill and then they apply and there’s absolutely no problem with that. That’s you know, probably ninety nine percent of everyone we serve as in that situation. And that is that the is that the time that you can step in and help At that time when they get that bill and they got two hundred and forty days to talk to an organization like yours for help or you want to at what point do you usually start working with a family.

Yeah, it’s about at that point. So yeah, right when when they get the bill, that’s usually when they when they come to us, and we can absolutely help at that point. So how do they know about you? I mean, obviously we’re doing a podcast. We want to try to educate the families to make make them aware of your organization.

But uh, how generally, how does a family even know you exist? Yeah? So you know a lot of people here about dollar four. Like you said, you know, podcasts and and and interviews on the news. We are on social media. We have a strong social media presence, so we talk about these issues.

We have hundreds and hundreds of partner organizations. So all the way from you know, American Cancer Society to your small local church that will you know, tell people about our program and refer you to dollar four. Uh. And you know we we also do you know, traditional ads, Google ads and and you know, if you’re search online, you know, hey, I need help with my hospital bill, dollar four will will probably pop up.

And you know, our our program is completely free. If you’re a patient that has a hospital bill and you want to see if you can get help, you know we we might be able to reduce or even complete eliminate that through these programs. And we never charge a dime. That’s fantastic.

So let’s address that now because it’s really important. Certainly, we’re going to spend some time and go through any other you know, suggestions you have for families who are dealing with this. But if you’re getting donations, if somebody that is listening to this right now and has some interest in learning more on how they could help, because maybe they’ve been through this with a loved one and you know, they want to help your organization, how do they go about doing that? Yeah, so dollar four dot org. We are a nonprofit.

We are fully funded through philanthropy donations, so all you know, all of our services are completely free. We’re you know, we’re nonprofit that helps people with hospital bills and applying for financial assistance. So that is like, you know, that’s what we do. That service is completely free and if you know one, if you have a hospital bill, you can absolutely go check to see if you’re eligible and use our free tools.

And we have patient advocates that help you and advocate on your behalf and if you’d like to support, you can absolutely do that as well. That’s great. That’s great. So Jary, we’re going to take a real quick break, I promise, just to really recognize our sponsor and we come back.

Certainly we’ll let people know again how they could get a hold of you. But then I have a number of questions for you. Have more of suggestions I think you could give to our listeners. It’ll be really important for everybody to hang in there and you’re going to learn a lot when we get back.

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So to learn more, go to www dot Beyond Driving with Dignity dot com. That’s beyond Driving with Dignity dot com to connect you with a senior care authority advisor in your area. We are back now with Jared Walker on Boomers Today and so Jared, let’s I know we mentioned, but I want to mention it again, just how people pople could learn more about about you and what you’re doing. Yeah.

So, dollar four dot org we are a nonprofit. We help people with hospital bills, so we help patients supply for hospital financial assistance. You can see if you’re eligible dollar four dot org. It’s completely free.

We’re fully funded through donations and in philanthropy. So if you if you need help, you have a hospital bill that you can’t pay, you can definitely check to see if you’re eligible and we’d love to help. Great, great, So, Jared, let’s continue conversation. Uh, maybe the dues and don’ts.

All right, any advice you can get to family. Let’s start with the don’t the don’ts. I know that you have probably have some suggestions of recommendations of what not to do, at least at the beginning. We want to start there.

Yeah, you know, the there’s a few of them, and it’s it’s always a bummer when when you see these things happen. But you know, you get a big medical bill and number one, a lot of people they just ignore it, right, They just say, hey, you know, put it in the drawer and I’m not gonna I’m not gonna worry about that. That can that can hurt you in the long run. It can it can ruin your credit.

They can you know, they can sue you, they can garnish your wages. They you know, there’s a lot of things that that that they will do in you know, as they try to collect the debt. Another thing that I see people do is just put it on a credit card. That is another one that’s you know, it’s really tough because you know you want to do you know, do the right thing or pay the pay the bill right away.

But if it’s a bill that you can’t afford, you would much rather have debt at a hospital than you would with a credit card that you know it’s probably going to charge you thirty percent. So I always tell people, don’t you know, don’t panic, You actually have time. So the things to keep in mind here is when you get a medical bill, you actually have one year until it will impact you negatively. So you have a year until it will impact your credit score or anything like that, So you actually have time.

You’re going to get a whole bunch of letters and a whole bunch of calls that sound threatening, and you know final notice this and final notice that. Right, I actually have one in front of me. It says, you know, a collection notice. But I know that I have a year until anything is going to you know, negatively impact me.

So you can kind of make a plan, right, You don’t need to throw it on a credit card right away. So one you can apply for financial assistance. See if you’re eligible, maybe that hospital bill can be cut in half or or completely waved through these programs. Another thing I tell people is that you can always ask for an itemized bill.

You know, a lot of they say that eighty percent of medical bills have errors in them, so there might be you know, up charges, or maybe they charge you for something twice, or you know, we’ve all heard of the you know, the one hundred dollar band aid or the you know, the fifty dollars aspirin or whatever. Where you see these on hospital bills. So a lot of times those can be adjusted if you ask for an itemized bill. And then I tell people you can usually negotiate.

You can usually negotiate hospital bills. So you know, if you if you got a thousand dollars hospital bill and you call and you say, hey, I’d like to close this out. I always tell people to ask for the settlement amount. Is there a settlement amount? And sometimes they’ll give you, you know, thirty forty percent off just for paying cash right then and there, gotcha? Gotcha? So before we get to the dues, I mean, those are some of the tones.

But before I get to the dues, what what would you say? I mean, if everybody did this, I mean, not everybody’s eligible but if everybody did this, obviously put a strain on hospitals. Okay, but what what percentage of people do you think do you happen to know are probably eligible for some sort of financial assistance after you know, leaving the hospital and any stats on that. Yeah, great, great question. So on average, if you are a family of four making under one hundred thousand dollars, you are eligible for some sort of discount at a hospital.

So it’s actually a lot of people that are eligible for something. You know, this is like what two hundred and fifty percent of the federal poverty level. Kind of is how they define it at the hospitals. So they’re going to ask you, you know, your household size, how many people live in the home, and then what is the income and if you’re you know, if you’re or within that range, they will they will reduce or write it off, you know.

And I would also say that hospitals are there’s a couple of things here. These hospitals are required to do this because they get tremendous tax benefits. Right, they are tax exempt, so this is kind of part of the whole bargain. Right, they have to provide community benefit in charity care because they’re tax exempt.

So you know a lot of times we people ask us, Okay, well, exactly what you’re saying. If you’re really successful, you help a lot of people. Are is not going to hurt hospitals? And We’ve done study after study. I’ve gone and talked to hospital revenue cycle people and CFOs and the answer is no.

You know, if every single person that was eligible for charity care received it, that would impact a hospital’s bottom line of like zero point seven percent of patient revenue, which is the smallest piece of revenue that hospitals have. Right, They’re getting most of their money from insurance. What this is like out of pocket expenses, So this is like a sliver of a sliver of these hospitals revenues. So definitely, you know, you don’t got to worry about closing down your local hospital for applying for charity care.

Got it? And it’s unlikely a hospital want to collect before they leave, right, I mean, usually it’s whatever. If they’re on some sort of insurance, here’s what insurance pays. But they can leave that hospital knowing they could deal with it later. Right, Yeah, okay, all right, good, good, So let’s talk about some of the dues.

We talked about some of the don’ts. Let’s talk about some of the dues and then if you could get into more specifically how dollar for more specifically you know, helps people if they were to engage with you. Yeah, so you know, I kind of mentioned this. I think number one is definitely see like step one to see if you are eligible for charity care because you might you know, you might not have to go through the whole thing with you know, asking for an itemized bill or negotiating or that that the hospital might just write it off or reduce it right away.

So you know, you can see if you’re eligible at dollar four dot org. And then if you’re not eligible, let’s say you make too much money or or maybe the bill is too old or something like that, then I would go and ask for that item itemized bill, you know, see if there are any airs. There are tools online that you can use. There’s I think Fair Health Consumer or Healthcare blue Book where you can kind of put in your your hospitals or even a lot of people are using the AI tools now Chat, GPT and all of that to see if their hospital bills are accurate.

And then like I said, you know, negotiating it has always worked for me. I’ve usually been able to negotiate my hospitals. A lot of people don’t know that you can actually negotiate those bills. You know, hospitals they want to close these accounts out just as much as you do, right, They don’t want to have these on their books forever.

And if you offer, you know, something that you can afford a little bit less, then a lot of times they’ll take it. If you can pay cash, and then you know, you can always go on a payment plan. A lot of hospitals have flexible payment plans. So those are the you know, kind of step by step things that I do when I get a hospital bill.

And as far as you know how dollar for help. So what we’ve done is we we have collected every single hospital in the country all of their charity care and financial assistance policies. So there’s about eight thousand hospitals in America. They all have different policies and applications on all of that.

So we’ve put that all into one place on our website where you can put in your household size, your income, and what hospital and it will tell you if you’re eligible at that hospital. So once you find out you’re eligible, you can continue on. We’ve actually created digital applications for every hospital, so you can fill it out on your phone, tablet, computer, and it will automatically fill out that application and submit it to the hospital. And then we have patient advocates that will actually advocate on your behalf, call the hospitals and keep up with you through text and email and try to figure out what’s going on and hopefully lower or eliminate that bill.

So that is what we do, and like I said, it’s you know, it’s a free, free service, and you know we’ve been able to eliminate now over one hundred and forty million dollars in medical debt for people. Fantastic. So you know, I would say the key things when people are confronted with this is number one, if I’m understanding right, you will actually help with the paperwork and filing for financial assistance. Correct.

That’s that’s one key thing. And the other is just the negotiations. I mean, I think I’ll, uh, you know, some people like negotiating that stuff, but I would say most people would go, I just don’t have it in me to do that, And that’s that’s a burden and the hospitals will deal with you. Do you have to get some sort of uh, you know, something in writing from the family to show the hospital that you’re working on their behalf or they’ll negotiate.

With you anyway. Yeah. So we we have every patient you know, sign a like a release form that says, hey, we can ask questions about the billing. So we don’t ask any of you know, we’re not trying to get any medical records or anything like that.

We’re just trying to say, hey, we’re allowed to talk to the hospital about your bill. So we have the patients sign that and then you know, we can call the hospital and get updates. Gotcha. So we have a couple of minutes left.

And the one thing I want to make sure I always try to ask our guests is I don’t want to finish up our podcast today. And you know, you say to yourself, boy, I wish Frank would have asked me this, So what what are maybe you know, a question or two that you were hoping I’d ask you go ahead and to share what you would like to share with our with our listeners. Yeah, I appreciate it. So, you know, I think I think a lot of people have a hard time asking for help.

I think a lot of people even just the name charity care, right, it kind of sounds like, Hey, I’m not a I’m not a charity case. I don’t I don’t need that. You know, that’s not for me or whatever. I always just tell people medical debt is the number one cause of bankruptcy, you know.

It’s it’s what is it to two hundred and twenty billion dollars of medical debt in America. It’s You’re not alone. There’s no shame in having medical bills. And I always encourage people to not disqualify themselves for these programs because a lot of people look at them and say, yeah, that’s not for me.

You know, I’ve I’ve helped a lot of people, include my own parents, you know, my my own parents, they’re on a fixed income, they are on Medicare, and they are you know, have hospital bills, and the out of pocket expenses that come even even when being on Medicare and and having insurance can be a lot. So I’ve you know, helped them through that and it works. I always just tell people, hey, don’t disqualify yourself. It’s it’s only takes a couple of seconds to see if you’re eligible.

So that’s definitely one thing that you know, want to throw in there. And you know, I think I think that might be it. I think just encouraging people to uh, you know, to to see if they’re eligible and see if we can help. Again, it’s it’s a free service and you know, can’t hurt.

Great and go ahead, share your website again with with everybody. Yeah, it is dollar four and that is for fr dollar four dot org. Great, great, Jared, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for all the wonderful things you’re doing.

Thank you. Yeah, and thank you everybody for joining us on Boomers Today. Please please be safe and we’ll talk to everybody next week. You’ve been listening to Boomers Today with Frank Sampson.

To learn more about today’s show, visit boomerstodayradio Dot com and join us next time for another edition of Boomers Today.