Written by a parent, not a doctor. Nothing here is medical advice.

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Kentucky program

Help with your hospital bill

Your hospital’s financial-assistance office can review bills under its written policy.

What it is

Your hospital’s financial-assistance office can review bills under its written policy.

A hospital bill can be reviewed even when you have insurance. The financial counselor can explain the policy and application. Separate doctors’ bills may follow different policies.

Which policy applies
  • The policy must cover the particular hospital, clinician, service and account. Separate doctor, transplant and pharmacy bills may use different rules.
  • Federal nonprofit-hospital requirements apply to hospitals subject to those rules. They do not guarantee a discount on every hospital bill.
  • Norton lists Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, Ohio and Illinois for nonemergency assistance, with no emergency-care residency restriction. UK’s separate uninsured discount has no residency test.
  • If treatment is outside Kentucky, that hospital’s own assistance, transplant, pharmacy and billing policies need checking. The Kentucky examples below do not establish another hospital’s terms.
What you get
  • A review for help with eligible hospital balances, even when you have insurance.
  • An itemized bill and an explanation of the collection protections that apply.
UK HealthCare and Norton examples
  • UK HealthCare cancels eligible balances for families with income up to 300% of poverty, and it also looks at what you own and owe. Approval runs six months from the application.
  • The UK policy covers its specified enterprise accounts, including covered KMSF physician and College of Dentistry accounts. It does not cover King’s Daughters or St. Claire accounts.
  • UK approval runs six months forward from application. Eligible earlier accounts can fall within 240 days of the first statement, subject to good-standing and other rules. Accounts already assigned to collections are excluded from this ordinary policy. Earlier payments are not automatically refunded.
  • UK’s separate 60% uninsured discount has service exclusions. It is not an income band above 300% of poverty. Ordinary financial assistance excludes insured balances for missing authorization, noncovered services or voluntarily out-of-network care.
  • UK directs blood and marrow transplant assistance to A07-070 and medication assistance to A07-135. Ask the counselor for those policies and their financial tests and approval periods for the actual accounts. An ordinary-policy exclusion does not mean all help ends.
  • Norton gives free hospital care to families with income up to 350% of poverty, with a separate savings test. It looks at income over recent months, not only this month, and approval lasts up to a year.
  • Norton can consider eligible insured balances after the required insurance and other-program process. Approval lasts no more than 12 months from the application signature. A higher income does not establish a separate guaranteed discount band.
  • Ask the Norton counselor to confirm in writing that the Children’s Hospital and Children’s Cancer Institute accounts fall under the policy; one of Norton’s own lists leaves them out.
  • For balances above a hospital’s assistance line, the counselor can discuss any other policy, payment plan or discretionary help. That conversation does not promise a discount.
If you decide to apply
  1. Ask the hospital financial counselor for the policy, application and itemized bills for each hospital, doctor and pharmacy account.
  2. Have income, insurance and requested financial records ready. Ask for written confirmation of which collection actions pause during review.

UK HealthCare: 855-211-4707; Norton financial assistance: 502-479-6300 or 800-874-3979 · Official page ↗

During an assistance review
  • Norton cannot sue you or report the debt for 120 days after the first bill, and it must warn you 30 days before doing so. You can apply for assistance up to 240 days after that first bill.
  • A timely Norton assistance application suspends extraordinary collection actions during the required completion and review process. Its incomplete-application procedure also matters. Ordinary statements or calls can continue.
  • Norton’s policy addresses refunds of qualifying prior payments over $5 and reversal of applicable extraordinary actions. UK and separate billers need their own policy check.
  • Ask the counselor which protection applies during an appeal and to any account already in collections. An assistance request does not automatically stop every collection activity or court deadline.
Good to know

UK HealthCare uses separate transplant and medication-assistance policies. For Norton children’s bills, the counselor needs to confirm the policy for each account.

Debt and legal protections
  • A legal-aid adviser can check the state and federal protections for each bill, including interest, credit reporting and any review hold. Hospital policy is separate from general debt law.
  • Kentucky does not stop a hospital bill from reaching your credit report, so ask about assistance before a bill goes to collections.
  • For ordinary debt, Kentucky’s weekly wage-garnishment limit is the lesser of 25% of disposable earnings or earnings above 30 times the federal minimum hourly wage. Disposable earnings are what remains after legally required deductions.
  • If a bill ever reaches a court judgment, Kentucky protects the first $217.50 of your weekly take-home pay and caps what can be taken above that at a quarter. A legal-aid adviser can check the papers.
  • Support, tax and bankruptcy orders have different rules. Protected benefits or property may require an exemption review. A hospital’s assistance decision does not automatically cover a separate doctor’s bill.
  • Kentucky Court of Justice Legal Help lists regional services. The service checks eligibility and whether it can take the case; a referral is not a guarantee of representation.

Federal background: Hospital financial assistance.

Official sources
Ask your social worker

“What help could the hospital offer, what are the limits, and could you help us decide whether to request financial assistance?”

Why I’m asking: I want to understand the assistance available before making decisions about hospital bills.

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 and keep the reply.

Your social worker

The hospital financial counsellor gives the policy, the application and the itemised bill.

The care team

Records and letters when the application asks for them.

Who decides
The hospital.
Ask the billing office
“Please send your written financial-assistance policy and application, an itemised bill, and confirm you will hold collections while the application is decided.”

How to apply

First step: Ask the hospital's financial counsellor in writing for the policy, the application and a hold on collections, before paying anything.

  1. Ask for the written financial-assistance policy before paying anything.
  2. Ask for an itemised bill and check the dates against the admission.
  3. Ask in writing for a hold on collections while the application is decided.

Official application / program page ↗

Where it starts: Ask the hospital in writing for its financial-assistance policy, the application, an itemised bill and a hold on collections.

What to gather

  • Every bill and statement, with dates
  • The plan's explanation-of-benefits statements
  • Proof of household income

How long: Federal charity-care rules give a hospital application window after the first bill; ask the counsellor for the hospital's own deadline in writing.

What a yes looks like

A written decision saying how much of the balance is written off.

What a no looks like, and the next move

Ask for the reason in writing, ask about a large-bill or hardship route, and ask what the appeal is.

Watch out

  • Kentucky's general debt rules are not medical-debt protections. Do not read the interest and garnishment limits as special treatment.
  • Nobody established that Kentucky has no charity-care law. If a hospital tells you the state requires nothing, ask for that in writing.

The numbers and the rules

The arcane layer, kept on purpose. Checked September 11, 2026.

What it is worth

No statewide charity-care law was found. What you can ask for is the hospital's written policy, an itemised bill and a hold on collections.

  • $120 — Days one Kentucky system holds extraordinary collection action from the first post-discharge bill (hospital policy, not state law)
  • $25/week — General wage-garnishment ceiling as a share of weekly take-home pay (ordinary debt rule)

Legal protection: The hospital's written financial-assistance policy and application · An itemised bill on request · A hold on collections while an application is decided

What it costs the family: Nothing to ask.

The eligibility facts, as published

Residency
Kentucky
Applies to
any hospital bill; the hospital's own policy governs, with the federal charity-care rules behind it

The trap: Kentucky's general debt rules are not medical-debt rules. The legal interest default is eight percent a year, a judgment carries six percent compounded, and a creditor can take the lesser of a quarter of weekly take-home pay or the amount above thirty times the federal minimum wage. Those are ordinary debt rules, not a special protection for medical bills.

Where I read this

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