Arkansas program
Reduce your hospital bills (financial assistance)
Your hospital's financial-assistance policy may reduce a bill. The billing office decides under its written rules.
What it is
Your hospital's financial-assistance policy may reduce a bill. The billing office decides under its written rules.
A financial counselor can check your treating hospital’s assistance policy and each bill. The hospital’s income calculation and covered services decide the discount. An Arkansas Children’s policy does not apply automatically to a different hospital or separately billing doctor.
Eligibility rules
- At Arkansas Children's (Little Rock and Northwest), a family under 250% of poverty has the whole eligible bill canceled. Above that the discount steps down: 40% up to 275%, 20% up to 300%, 10% up to 400%. The bands run April 2026 to March 2027 and apply to what insurance leaves.
- These Arkansas Children’s bands apply only to its Little Rock and Northwest hospitals and eligible charges. For treatment elsewhere, the treating hospital’s counselor must identify its own policy. No automatic above-400% hardship formula is promised.
What you get
- Possible reduction of eligible hospital bills under the hospital's policy.
- An itemized bill and a written assistance decision to help explain the balance.
Coverage and limits
- Arkansas Children's says it does not send families to collections or court over unpaid bills.
- The policy includes eligible hospital balances and professional charges from UAMS Faculty Group Practice and Arkansas Children’s Medical Group. Other separately billed clinicians may have different policies; the financial counselor can check each name and bill.
If you decide to apply
- Ask the social worker to identify your treating hospital’s financial counselor and discuss whether assistance is worth requesting.
- Bring the bills and the income and insurance records the application requests.
- Ask which collection activity pauses during review and keep the answer with the bill’s due date.
Your treating hospital’s financial counselor; Arkansas Children’s billing office, 501-364-2500 · Official page ↗
After you apply
- At Arkansas Children’s, full-help approval covers eligible outstanding balances and the following six months. The counselor can confirm the end date of a partial-discount approval. A complete review usually takes about 30–45 days under hospital policy; that is not a statewide statutory deadline.
Good to know
Once your application is in, a nonprofit hospital must pause collections and lawsuits while it decides. Ordinary statements can still arrive; keep them.
Other details
- A complete, timely assistance application has federal protection from extraordinary collection actions at a covered nonprofit hospital, and Arkansas Children’s says it does not use those practices. Routine statements are different. If a bill or collection action still seems wrong, the social worker can help you reach a consumer-protection or legal-aid service as well as the billing office.
- A nonprofit hospital cannot send a bill to collections or sue in the first 120 days after the first statement, and you can apply for assistance for at least 240 days. While a complete application is under review, collection pauses.
Federal background: Financial assistance duties at nonprofit hospitals.
Official sources
“Could the hospital reduce any of our bills, and which charges would remain? If assistance is worth applying for, could you help with the policy, application and collection-hold request?”
Why I’m asking: I want to understand what we actually owe before making a payment plan.
More background and detailed requirements
Additional program information and published rules
Who does what
The three parts, side by side. The agency decides; nobody on this page does.
You
Ask in writing, keep copies, and do not pay a lump sum before the assistance decision.
Your social worker
The hospital financial counselor takes the application and can hold the account.
The care team
Records and letters when the application asks for them.
- Who decides
- The hospital billing office decides assistance; there is no verified Arkansas regulator for hospital bills.
- Ask the billing office
- “Can you send me your financial-assistance policy and application, an itemized bill, and hold collections while we apply?”
How to apply
First step: Write to the billing office for the financial-assistance policy, the application and an itemized bill.
- Ask for the financial-assistance policy and application in writing.
- Ask for an itemized bill before you pay anything.
- Ask the billing office to hold collections while the application is decided.
Official application / program page ↗
Where it starts: Write to the billing office asking for the financial-assistance policy, the application and an itemized bill, and ask them to hold collections while you apply.
What to gather
- Every bill and statement
- The insurance explanation of benefits
- Proof of income
How long: Arkansas Children’s describes about 30–45 days for a complete review. Other hospitals set their own processing expectations.
What a yes looks like
A written discount or write-off, and the account held while it is decided.
What a no looks like, and the next move
Ask for the appeal route inside the hospital and for a payment plan with no interest.
Watch out
- Do not pay a lump sum before the assistance decision.
- Arkansas Children’s policy bands are hospital-specific, not a verified statewide minimum.
The numbers and the rules
The arcane layer, kept on purpose. Checked September 11, 2026.
What it is worth
The treating hospital’s policy may reduce eligible bills. Arkansas Children’s published bands give full help through 250% of poverty and partial discounts through 400%, subject to the policy.
Legal protection: A nonprofit hospital must have a written financial-assistance policy and publicize it · Arkansas Children's states in its own policy that it does not use extraordinary collection practices
What it costs the family: None to ask.
The eligibility facts, as published
- Applies to
- Any hospital bill; the federal duties apply to nonprofit hospitals
- State law
- unknown: no controlling Arkansas charity-care or medical-debt provision was recovered
The trap: Do not read "no state law found" as "Arkansas has no rules". It means we could not open the statutes; ask the billing office and the Attorney General's office.
Where I read this
- Billing and insurance — Arkansas Children's, read September 10, 2026
- Arkansas General Assembly — Arkansas General Assembly, read September 10, 2026
- Financial assistance — Arkansas Children's, read September 10, 2026