January 18, 2021, 9:06 am
There’s a trend on TikTok where people share bits of information about the stuff they know that feels like it “should be illegal,” but actually isn’t. Sadly, a lot of the stuff that gets shared is about how to escape things like debt.
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On the other hand, this does mean that there are suddenly people out there who will either be relieved of that debt or who won’t be scared to go to the hospital when they need to.
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A TikTok made by user @dollarfor has gone viral on both that platform and Twitter after being shared by @DareBear1226. It’s about how if you make under a certain amount of money, hospitals are legally obligated to pay for everything. But if you don’t know that, they will happily take your money without telling you.
He starts by saying that most American hospitals are no-profits, which means they have a “Charity Care Policy.”
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“This is gonna sound weird, but what that means is that if you make under a certain amount of money, the hospital will legally have to forgive your medical bills,” he says.
He then takes people through the steps of figuring out how to check the hospital they owe’s policy. Search the name of the hospital and “financial assistance,” then click on the website that comes up to look for their Financial Assistance Policy.
There you can check your family size and income against what they were obligated to pay or write off.
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This is all still complicated for a lot of people, especially those who aren’t technically savvy, but @dollarfor offered to help people work their bills out.
He must not have anticipated going viral, because his DMs are apparently slammed. A lot of people need this kind of assistance:
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That’s why he’s not just a TikToker. The Dollar For organization is dedicated to helping people find the debt forgiveness program they can use to alleviate debt. They even have a simple tool to start figuring out if you are eligible in the case of medical debt.
Might be best to try that first, because I think the DMs are pretty backed up right now.
*First Published: January 18, 2021, 9:06 am
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