Nonprofit Group Details Oregon Hospitals Not Following Charity Care Law in Report 

By Consumers for Quality Care, on March 22, 2023

A recent report from an Oregon-based nonprofit organization is shedding light on nonprofit hospitals that don’t follow the laws regarding charity care but instead engage in predatory debt collection practices aimed at low-income consumers, according to Becker’s Hospital Review. 

Dollar For sets out to educate consumers on their rights with medical debt and bills. 

This report highlights the extent to which nonprofit hospitals have ignored charity care laws in the state.

Since 2020, all nonprofit hospitals in the state have been required to give discounted care to consumers whose income falls within 200 percent of the federal poverty level. The report concluded that not all nonprofit hospitals are screening patients as they should, “but are instead sending low-income patients to collection.”

The report revealed that over two-thirds of nonprofit hospitals in the state spent less on charity care after the 2020 law went into effect than they did in 2019. The report also found that nearly half of those who were sued for unpaid medical bills were entitled to receive charity care.

In an interview, Dollar For’s Founder, Jared Walker, stated that “these laws are safety nets for people who deserve to be screened before being subjected to the devastating consequences of medical debt — it’s time we start using them accordingly.”

CQC urges nonprofit hospitals to uphold their end of the bargain by providing charity care to those who need it and by being more transparent with patients about their eligibility for discounted care.