What this check does
It compares your household’s yearly income with the 2026 federal poverty guidelines from the US Department of Health and Human Services. For the 7 states in our guide (California, Colorado, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon and Washington), it also shows the levels each state’s law sets for hospital policies, read from the law or the state agency and last checked on October 11, 2026. Poverty figures checked on October 28, 2026.
For other states it explains the federal rules for nonprofit hospitals. Those rules set no income level, so each hospital sets its own, and we give no figure for a hospital or for a state we have not checked. The limits of 38 large health systems, read from their own policies, are on Hospital financial assistance; local hospitals are on find your hospital by state. Have insurance? See what those policies say about patients with insurance.
Some hospital policies reach far above the federal poverty line. Free care may be available up to 600% of the poverty guidelines at NYU Langone Health, 400% at Stanford Health Care, and 400% at Cedars-Sinai, each for eligible patients under its own policy.
It is not a decision. The hospital decides, from its own form, and counts income and the household its own way. Asking costs nothing.
What charity care is, who decides, and every state’s rules with their sources: Hospital charity care.
Ask for the forms
Whatever the result, the next step is the same: ask the hospital for its financial assistance policy, the application form and the plain language summary. The free financial assistance letter asks for all three.
Check the bill itself
Charity care may lower what you owe, but it does not look at the charges. Open your bill in MedBillCheckup: it is read on your device, never uploaded, and the free check shows how many things are worth asking the billing office about. The full list, with the exact questions to ask, is $6.99 for one bill, or included with Pro at $9.99 a month.
Check my bill, freeKnow someone who can’t pay a hospital bill?
MedBillCheckup provides informational assistance only. It does not determine whether a charge is medically necessary, fraudulent, illegal, or definitively incorrect, and it is not a substitute for advice from a lawyer, doctor, insurer, or certified medical billing specialist.