“I’ve worked in healthcare for 19 years. 17 were as first responders, the last two have been in finance. Listen to me very carefully.

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PAY FULL PRICE FOR ANY MEDICAL SERVICES YOU RECEIVE, ESPECIALLY FOR EMERGENCY TREATMENT!

Every hospital, whether it openly advertises it or not, has a finance department that offers things like fee scaling, bill reduction, and bill itemization.

Before you open a care credit account and put your medical debt on a high interest credit card, before you put your balance on a payment plan with billing, before you do any of those wild things that will bury you even deeper into a pit, call your hospital, ask to speak to the finance dept, and ask for fee scaling or bill reduction.

They will probably ask you for documents like ID, proof of address and proof of income. But as long as you can prove your household income below a certain threshold (typically <500% Federal Poverty Level), you are eligible for some level of financial assistance. The amount will vary based on where you fall on that scale of the FPL, but if your income is low enough or you can prove you’re in a state of deep financial hardship, you have a high possibility of getting your bill reduced significantly, if not completely cleared.”