{"id":52345,"date":"2021-10-18T19:05:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-19T02:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/news\/do-you-need-to-pay-for-your-covid-hospital-stay\/"},"modified":"2021-10-18T19:05:00","modified_gmt":"2021-10-19T02:05:00","slug":"do-you-need-to-pay-for-your-covid-hospital-stay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/news\/do-you-need-to-pay-for-your-covid-hospital-stay\/","title":{"rendered":"Do you need to pay for your COVID hospital stay?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Thousands across King County who have been hospitalized for COVID-19 are likely burdened with medical bills, but financial assistance is available.<\/p>\n
The average hospital bill for someone with COVID-19 is around $50,000, according to FAIR Health<\/a>, and for cases with complexities, that number skyrockets to over $300,000.<\/p>\n Washington state law requires hospitals to offer free or reduced costs for patients who make under a certain income, according to Senate Bill 6273.<\/a> This financial assistance is known as “charity care.”<\/p>\n The law requires hospitals to provide free care that is medically necessary for patients with incomes below 100% of the federal poverty guidelines and discounted care for patients with incomes below 200% of the federal poverty guidelines, according to the Department of Health<\/a>. However, many local hospitals have higher thresholds for free care.<\/p>\n For example, at MultiCare hospitals, people who earn up to 300% of the federal poverty guidelines are eligible to have their hospital bills cut by 100%, according to the MultiCare website. CHI Franciscan has the same threshold of 300% of the federal poverty guideline to qualify for free care, according to their financial assistance policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n