Insurance & Medical Bills · Health coverage and bills
Hospital bills, financial assistance and surprise bills
In this guide
- California hospitals must have charity care and discount payment policies for eligible patients.
- Eligibility generally extends to patients with household income up to 400% of the federal poverty level.
- Federal and state laws limit many surprise bills from out-of-network providers.
Hospital financial assistance
California’s Hospital Fair Pricing law requires general acute care hospitals to have written charity care and discount payment policies. Recent changes expanded eligibility to patients with income up to 400% of the federal poverty level and to those with high medical costs, and limit when hospitals can send bills to collections.
- Hospitals must give patients notice of their financial assistance policies and applications.
- Patients can apply before or after receiving a bill.
- Each hospital’s policy and application can be looked up through the state’s Hospital Fair Billing Program.
Patients denied assistance can file a complaint with the Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI).
Surprise bills
The federal No Surprises Act protects people from many surprise bills for emergency care and for certain out-of-network care at in-network facilities. California law adds protections for non-emergency services from out-of-network providers at in-network hospitals and other facilities. In these situations, patients generally owe only their in-network cost-sharing.
Itemized bills
Patients can ask a hospital or provider for an itemized bill, which lists each charge and can help identify errors.
Official sources for this guide
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