Indiana program
Help with hospital bills and collection notices
Indiana hospitals must explain payment assistance, and hospital policies can reduce eligible bills.
What it is
Indiana hospitals must explain payment assistance, and hospital policies can reduce eligible bills.
Insurance can leave a hospital balance that still qualifies for financial assistance. Indiana's notice law is a route to the application, not a statewide promise of free care. Your hospital decides help under its own income, asset and bill rules.
Eligibility rules
- Since July 2026 every Indiana hospital has to tell you about its assistance program and give you an application before it sells a bill or sues, whether or not you have insurance.
- Riley considers a two-parent family up to 250% of poverty and a single parent up to 300%, and can cap what you owe at 5% of your yearly income.
- Peyton Manning's July 1, 2026 policy offers full assistance through 250% of poverty and sliding discounts through 400%. Assets, community and other policy conditions also apply.
- Beacon's posted policy offers full assistance through 200% of poverty and discounts through 350%, subject to its conditions.
What you get
- Possible cancellation or reduction of eligible hospital charges, including some bills left by insurance.
- At Indiana hospitals, assistance notice and reasonable efforts to provide an application before specified collection actions.
What the help includes
- Riley's personal-hardship branch can reduce an approved responsibility above 5% of annual household income to 5%, subject to policy conditions.
- Above 400% of poverty, Peyton Manning's means-tested branch can give 75% assistance when qualifying medical debt equals or exceeds gross household income.
- Beacon's catastrophic branch can give a 75% discount when medical expenses exceed 150% of annual gross income and the family cannot pay.
- Peyton Manning's July 2026 ordinary schedule reduces eligible bills by 100% through 250% of poverty, 90% from 251%–300%, 80% from 301%–350% and 75% from 351%–400%, subject to other conditions.
- Beacon's posted 2025 ordinary schedule reduces eligible bills by 100% through 200% of poverty, 75% from 201%–300% and 69% from 301%–350%, subject to other conditions.
If you decide to apply
- Ask the hospital financial counselor for the written assistance policy and application.
- Have income records, recent pay changes and the account numbers of the bills ready.
- Ask which bills the policy covers and whether collections can pause while the hospital decides.
Hospital financial counseling: Riley, 888-531-3004; Peyton Manning, 800-582-8258; Beacon, 574-647-7167 · Official page ↗
After you ask
- The hospital must explain assistance at registration, discharge or the first bill under the notice law.
- Indiana's law requires reasonable efforts to notify you and provide an application before debt sale, assignment to a collection agency or litigation. It does not stop all ordinary billing or create an automatic hold on every application or appeal.
- Riley's policy gives 120 days before extraordinary collection action and 240 days to apply after the first statement. A complete application has a 90-day decision period.
- Riley assistance for the underlying condition runs through the remainder of the approval calendar year. Beacon's posted policy generally gives six months forward. Peyton Manning's counselor confirms the approval period in the award letter.
- Peyton Manning's internal assistance appeal is due within 14 calendar days after denial receipt. Beacon's counselor confirms its current appeal deadline.
- Federal nonprofit-hospital rules can require a pause in extraordinary collection actions for a timely assistance application. The counselor identifies the applicable conditions; a requested hold is not proof of a granted or legally required hold.
Good to know
Each hospital's policy names which separate bills it covers. An oncology group billed under another name can fall outside it, so the counselor's list of included billers matters.
Other details
- The hospital's help may not cover every separate bill. Riley includes specified IU Health Medical Group and retail-pharmacy services, while Peyton Manning uses a covered-provider list. Beacon's posted list excludes Michiana Hematology/Oncology, so that oncology bill needs its own review. A counselor can identify the billing entity and whether federal rules or the hospital's policy require extraordinary collections to stop while a timely assistance request is decided; simply asking for a hold does not prove one has been granted.
- An out-of-state hospital follows its own jurisdiction and policy. Indiana's notice law is not automatically a rule for that bill.
- Indiana does not stop a hospital debt from going on your credit report. If one appears, a legal-aid lawyer can check whether it is accurate. Court papers keep their own deadline.
Federal background: Hospital financial assistance.
Official sources
“Could the hospital reduce any balance insurance leaves us? What limits or drawbacks should we understand, and could you help with the assistance application and any collection hold if it fits?”
Why I’m asking: I want to understand the hospital's help before agreeing to payments we may struggle to make.
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 the dates, and say if you were never given an application.
Your social worker
The hospital financial counsellor supplies the application and the written policy.
The care team
Nothing.
- Who decides
- The hospital decides the assistance; the state health department enforces the notice duty.
- Ask the billing office
- “Can I have the hospital payment-assistance application and the written policy, and a hold on collections while it is decided? Indiana law requires the application before any collection action.”
How to apply
First step: Ask the hospital financial counsellor in writing for the payment-assistance application and the written policy.
- Ask the hospital in writing for the payment-assistance application.
- If a collection letter has already arrived, say the application was never offered and ask for a hold.
- Keep every letter and every date.
Where it starts: Ask the hospital in writing for its payment-assistance application and for a hold on collections while it is decided.
What to gather
- Every bill and letter, with dates
- The account numbers
- Household income
How long: No statutory clock. The hospital's own policy may set one.
What a yes looks like
An application in your hand and a written hold on collections while it is decided.
What a no looks like, and the next move
If the hospital refuses, say the chapter requires the application before collection and ask for that in writing.
Watch out
- This is a notice law, not a statewide free-care line. What you get still comes from the hospital policy.
- Collection action includes selling the bill to an agency and suing, so the duty bites before either.
Dates that change this
2026-07-01: The chapter takes effect July 1, 2026. Its exact reach across hospital types and how the health department will enforce it were NOT FOUND.
The numbers and the rules
The arcane layer, kept on purpose. Checked September 11, 2026.
What it is worth
A written offer of payment assistance before any collection action, enforceable up to $1,000 a violation.
- $1,000 — Maximum civil penalty per violation
Legal protection: Written notice of the payment-assistance programme at registration, discharge or the first bill · Signs in registration areas and emergency departments, and information on any patient portal · A reasonable effort to notify you and give you an application before selling the bill to a collection agency or suing
What it costs the family: None.
The eligibility facts, as published
- Scope
- Indiana hospitals, from July 1, 2026
- Definition
- the statutory charity definition covers uninsured and underinsured people, using the hospital's own financial criteria
The trap: This is a notice and application law, not a statewide free-care percentage. What you actually get still comes from the hospital's own policy.
Where I read this
- House Enrolled Act 1271 (2026) — Indiana General Assembly, read September 10, 2026