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Sources and verification status

This register identifies source-backed figures with their value, calculation, universe, and source. It also flags current figures that have not yet completed row-level source registration.

The verification rule: a figure is verified only when this page names its inputs, calculation, universe, and source. A current page may still contain an under-review figure; any known exception is flagged below and should not be treated as verified publication evidence. This page exists because an earlier homepage statistic had never been checked and was wrong. A number nobody can trace is a number nobody can correct.
A family of four earning $66,000 can have a bill erased at the typical nonprofit hospital
$66,000
How it is calculated. The median hospital's free-care line is 200% of the federal poverty level. 100% FPL for a family of four in 2026 is $33,000. 200% x $33,000 = $66,000.
Universe. 1,794 nonprofit hospital filers, latest filed year each, reporting a free-care line
HHS 2026 Poverty Guidelines · Federal Register 2026-00755 · Health Affairs: what hospitals actually check · Search any hospital’s own line
Being inside the income line does not guarantee free care. A peer-reviewed study of hospital financial assistance policies found that 64% of hospitals also weigh assets (savings, investments, sometimes second properties), 54% require documentary proof of them, 8.4% require citizenship or local residency, and a significant minority restrict eligibility for patients who have insurance. Policies generally cover medically necessary care rather than elective procedures, and the physician’s bill is often billed separately from the hospital’s. This is why we say a household at this income is “inside the line” rather than that a bill will be erased — income is the first test, not the only one. That same study found income limits ranging from 41% to 600% of the poverty level, closely matching the 40%–600% range in the filings we parse.
71% of patients who qualify for hospital financial assistance never receive it
71%
How it is calculated. Dollar For reports that only 29% of eligible patients receive financial assistance. 100% - 29% = 71%. Denominator is ELIGIBLE patients, not all patients with unaffordable bills.
Universe. National, Dollar For analysis of 2023 hospital expenditure and MEPS data
Dollar For, The Bottom Line (2025)
52% did not report receiving any information about it from their hospital
52%
How it is calculated. Verbatim finding: “Most patients (52%) did not report receiving information about financial assistance from their hospital.” We use the source’s own wording — “did not report receiving information”.
Universe. Dollar For 2023 patient survey
Dollar For, The Path to Charity Care
A family of four can earn $132k and still get a discount at the typical hospital
$132,000
How it is calculated. The median hospital's discounted-care line is 400% of FPL. 400% x $33,000 = $132,000.
Universe. 1,794 filers, latest filed year each
HHS 2026 Poverty Guidelines · Federal Register 2026-00755
Free-care lines run from 40% to 600% of the poverty level, median 200%
40% – 600%
How it is calculated. Minimum, maximum and median of the free-care income limit each hospital reports on Schedule H, Part I. 69 filers set a line above 350%.
Universe. 1,776 filers reporting a free-care line, latest filed year each
IRS Form 990 Schedule H · Every hospital’s own line
This row exists because an earlier version of the homepage stated a range of 100%–350%. That figure was never checked and was wrong. It is the reason this page exists.
The median hospital forgives bills at or below 200% of poverty and discounts up to 400%
200% / 400%
How it is calculated. Median of the free-care and discounted-care income limits reported on Schedule H. An independent Health Affairs analysis of the 2024 Dollar For database found the same two medians.
Universe. 1,776 filers (free) / 1,605 filers (discount)
Health Affairs, US Nonprofit Hospitals’ Charity Care Criteria
1,865 filers, of which 1,794 report a charity-care figure we can measure
1,865 / 1,794
How it is calculated. Every organisation filing IRS Form 990 Schedule H that we could retrieve, deduplicated to one row per EIN at its latest filed year. The smaller number excludes filers reporting $0 or nothing, which we never rank and never impute. One filer can operate several hospitals.
Universe. National, FY2018–FY2025 harvest
IRS 990 e-file XML · How we count
National benchmark-relative amount withheld pending reproducible row-level evidence
Status. The previously displayed national calculation does not have a complete immutable row package in the current evidence set. No replacement amount is presented. A future release must include the full filing universe, source identifiers and digests, calculation code, generated results, and independent reproduction.
Current national data status · Publication requirements
10 filers told the IRS they use collection actions requiring a legal or judicial process
10 filers
How it is calculated. Filers whose latest Schedule H, Part V carries EngagedLegalJudicialProcessInd. The form asks about lawsuits, liens and garnishment together, so a filer that places liens but never sues answers the same way. This is an attestation, not a court record.
Universe. 1,794 filers, latest filed year each
The ten, with links to each filing
Their median charity care is about 40% of that of filers that checked none
0.401% vs 1.058%
How it is calculated. Medians of the two groups: 0.401% / 1.058% = 38%. On MEANS the comparison differs, which is why we name the statistic. n=10 is small and moves easily.
Universe. 10 filers vs 1,703 filers attesting none
The comparison, in full
All 50 states and the District of Columbia, ranked
51 jurisdictions
How it is calculated. A filer appears in every state where it operates a hospital facility, so multi-state systems appear more than once and the state rows sum to MORE than the national figure. The national total counts each filer once.
Universe. Facility join against the CMS-derived hospital list
State table
Raise-tool national comparators are under review and are not source-registered in this release
Status. National margin, reserve, deficit, executive-pay, turnover, and related comparison values used by the raise tool do not yet have a complete immutable row-level evidence package in this release. This row does not add a substitute citation or imply verification. Hospital-specific values linked to an identified filing remain separately source-backed.
Required before verification. Named inputs, formulas, filing universe, source identifiers and digests, generated results, and independent reproduction
Current raise tool · Publication requirements
Use limitation. Until the evidence package is registered, these national comparators should not be cited as verified CashPayMed evidence.

About this data

Where hospital filing figures come from. Hospital-record filing figures are taken from an identified IRS Form 990 or Schedule H and link to that filing. Other rows in this register name their own source and universe; an under-review row is not source-backed evidence. We report what hospitals reported. Where a hospital reported nothing, we say “not reported” — we never estimate, impute, or fill a gap.

What it is not. Where we say a hospital “attests” to something, that describes what it told the IRS. It is not a finding about its actual conduct, and it is not a court record. Figures are as filed for the fiscal year shown and may not reflect current policy or practice.

Draw your own conclusions — from the filings. This site exists so you can read the record yourself. It is published for general information only. It is not legal, medical, tax, or financial advice, it is not a recommendation about where to seek care, and it should not be relied on for any decision without confirming the underlying filing and checking with the hospital directly.

Corrections. If a figure here does not match the filing it links to, we want to know and we will correct it. cashpaymed.org