A hospital bill: what you are owed
Many people who get a hospital bill qualify for help paying it and never hear about it. Check your income against the line, read the rules the hospital has to follow, and print a letter asking to be screened. Nothing you type leaves this device, and it is not saved. The hospital decides whether you qualify.
Colorado: the rules every hospital follows
Colorado Hospital Discounted Care covers every general and critical access hospital, every freestanding emergency room, and the physicians who work in them.
Source: Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing. Checked 21 October 2026.
Another state: what nonprofit hospitals must do
Most hospitals are nonprofit. Federal tax law (IRS section 501(r)) requires them to have a financial assistance policy. Each hospital sets its own income limits, so ask that hospital for its policy.
Source: IRS, section 501(r)(4). Checked 21 October 2026.
For help reading a hospital's policy and filling in its application, Dollar For is a national nonprofit that does this and charges the patient nothing.
A letter asking to be screened
Fill in what you know, print it, and give it to the hospital's billing office, or copy the words into their message form. Keep a copy and write down the date you sent it: the deadlines count from then.
This page explains published rules; it is not legal advice, and the hospital and the state decide. The poverty line used here is the 2026 HHS guideline for the 48 states and DC (source); the hospital uses its state's own table, which can differ a little. The rules as data: hospital-aid.json. Facing the Medicaid work rule too? Keep your Medicaid.