Dollar For

Dollar For assists patients and families in accessing and navigating hospital financial assistance policies to eliminate medical debt by leveraging hospital charity care programs. Since 2021, Dollar For has crushed over $55 million in medical debt for more than 4,400 patients.

The Problem
Medical debt is likely the single most important driver of economic instability in our country today. Americans are saddled with a staggering $140 billion in medical debt, and it is the number one cause of bankruptcy. Unexpected medical costs are the most common crisis to push someone over the edge from “barely hanging on” to a downward spiral of poverty. This debt is concentrated in poor communities and disproportionately affects Black and Brown Americans. Medical debt has profound effects on those who experience it directly; it contributes to stress, increases the risk of health issues such as high blood pressure, and impacts access to credit. It also has systemic effects, including exacerbating wealth inequality and undermining drivers of economic progress like savings and home buying.

But there is a solution: Section 501(r) of the Affordable Care Act requires nonprofit hospitals to offer free care to patients near the federal poverty line. However, hospitals do not make it easy to access these programs, and legal accountability is almost entirely absent. Dollar For has calculated that hospitals miss more than $14 billion a year in free care. As a result, millions of people are driven into poverty by medical bills they should not be required to pay.

The Solution
Dollar For uses technology, advocacy, and hands-on patient support to put millions of dollars back in the pockets of the people who need it most. Using their proprietary database of over 8,630 hospital financial assistance policies and a custom-built screening tool, Dollar For helps patients quickly determine if they might qualify for financial assistance. Since 2020, Dollar For has screened over 117,000 patients for charity care eligibility.

For eligible patients who complete their intake form, the Dollar For patient advocacy program supports them in applying for financial assistance that may have otherwise seemed out of reach. To date, Dollar For has submitted over 16,000 financial assistance applications on behalf of patients.

Over the next two years, Dollar For aims to submit over 50,000 financial assistance applications and build direct relationships with hospitals to support the processing of another 75,000. They will pilot tools to expedite and automate charity care screenings and application reviews within hospitals and identify policy opportunities that improve hospital processes and patient charity care outcomes. The data from this work will provide powerful fodder for their long-term effort: driving policy changes so charity care is universally known, accessible, and regulated throughout the country, ultimately eliminating medical debt as a driver of poverty.