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

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Minnesota program

Help with a Minnesota hospital bill

Minnesota adds charity-care screening and a price limit for qualifying uninsured hospital services.

What it is

Minnesota adds charity-care screening and a price limit for qualifying uninsured hospital services.

Minnesota hospitals must try to screen eligible uninsured patients for financial assistance. A separate law limits charges for qualifying uninsured services. The receiving hospital’s own policy matters too, especially for care outside Minnesota.

Who can qualify
  • The screening duty concerns patients who are uninsured or whose insurance status is unknown to the hospital.
  • The charge limit applies to qualifying uninsured services when annual household income is under $125,000.
  • The state rules cover private, nonprofit and municipal hospitals.
  • An insured person can still have an uninsured service. An insurance card alone does not settle whether the state price limit applies to a particular charge.
What you get
  • A cap at the lowest commercial insurance rate for qualifying uninsured services below $125,000 in yearly household income.
  • Charity-care screening and restrictions on starting specified collection steps while an application is pending.
What the help includes
  • The hospital must attempt charity screening within 30 days.
  • While a charity application is pending, Minnesota bars the hospital from starting specified collection and financing steps. This does not pause every bill, existing collection action or court deadline. The hospital confirms any additional hold during an assistance appeal.
  • The statutory cap overrides inconsistent wording in the hospitals’ agreement.
  • The hospitals’ agreement also addresses reasonable payment plans. The billing office can explain the arrangement for the remaining balance.
  • The cap means the hospital cannot charge you more for an uninsured service than it charges its lowest-paying private insurer. Financial assistance can then reduce that amount further.
If you decide to apply
  1. Ask the social worker or financial counselor to review the bill and possible financial assistance with you.
  2. If you decide to pursue it, the billing office supplies the application and itemized bill and explains the income, asset and insurance records needed.
  3. The counselor can explain the charity decision, any uninsured-service price reduction and which collection hold applies.

Your hospital’s financial counselor or billing office. · Official page ↗

After you ask
  • The hospital reviews the financial-assistance application and bill. The commissioner and attorney general can enforce the screening duty.
Good to know

An income band is only a starting check. Insurance, assets, the hospital’s policy year and the actual bill still matter.

Other details
  • A written request and dated application help show when the review began.
  • Each hospital sets its own income bands and asset rules.
  • Children’s Minnesota Minneapolis and St. Paul share the posted system policy: uninsured full adjustment through 275% of poverty, then reduced charges above 275% through 350%. Insured families through 350% can receive a 30% deductible-and-coinsurance adjustment; point-of-service copays are excluded.
  • At Children's Minnesota, an approval covers bills you already have and one year of new ones, for care billed by Children's itself. Doctors who bill separately are not included; ask which accounts the approval covers.
  • Mayo’s posted policy provides full adjustment through 200% of poverty and a 50% adjustment above 200% through 400%, with income and asset tests. For 2026 it uses 2025 poverty guidelines: the three-person annual references are $53,300 and $106,600; for four people, $64,300 and $128,600. These income references alone do not approve assistance.
  • Mayo generally requires in-network insurance. Defined emergency or preapproved unique-care exceptions can apply. Mayo also checks U.S. citizenship, permanent residence or its specified full-time student-visa category. Cooperation with available coverage, application documents and a signed service agreement is required.
  • Qualifying Mayo-employed clinicians are included. Contracted clinicians use a separate dated list. Certain post-transplant medicines and research-linked services are excluded.
  • Mayo approval lasts no more than one year from the first day of the first service month, or until the last day of the month of the next ACA open-enrollment period, whichever comes first. Reapplication may be required at least every 180 days. The award letter confirms the end date.
  • Essentia’s July 1, 2026 policy gives full relief through 200% of poverty and half-off in its published 201%–300% band. The counselor confirms fractional values just above 200%. Approval lasts 12 months. Liquid assets are limited to $75,000 for a single person or $150,000 for a family, including qualifying spendable retirement accounts.
  • Essentia also checks insurance, network, service area and covered entities or clinicians. Retail pharmacy and other Attachment A exclusions remain separate. Its catastrophe route has a once-in-a-lifetime condition, with the remaining policy requirements still applicable.
  • Fairview’s counselor supplies the current income bands, insured-patient rules, assets test, approval duration and covered-clinician list. Another hospital’s policy does not substitute for Fairview’s.
  • If your child is treated outside Minnesota, that hospital's own assistance policy applies, not the Minnesota price cap. Ask its financial counselor early.

Federal background: Hospital financial assistance.

Official sources
Ask your social worker

“Could the hospital reduce our bill through financial assistance or the uninsured price limit? What would each route cover, are there drawbacks, and could you help with the application?”

Why I’m asking: I want to understand what the hospital can reduce before treating its bill as final.

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 date, and file the charity application.

Your social worker

The hospital financial counsellor screens you and holds collection while it is pending.

The care team

Records and letters when the application asks for them.

Who decides
The hospital, under state law; the attorney general enforces.
Ask the billing office
“Please send the financial assistance application and an itemised statement, hold the account while the application is pending, and apply the Minnesota limit on charges for uninsured services.”

How to apply

First step: Write to the billing office asking for the charity application, an itemised statement and a hold on collection.

  1. Ask the billing office in writing for the charity application and an itemised statement.
  2. Say in the same letter that the account is not to go to collection while it is pending.
  3. If income is under $125,000 a year, ask in writing for the charge limit for uninsured services.

Official application / program page ↗

Where it starts: Ask the billing office in writing for the charity application and an itemised statement, and say the account is not to go to collection while it is pending.

What to gather

  • Every bill and statement
  • Proof of annual household income

How long: The hospital has to attempt the screening within thirty days.

What a yes looks like

A rewritten bill at the lowest commercial rate, or a charity decision.

What a no looks like, and the next move

A refusal to screen, or collection during an application, is what the attorney general enforces.

Watch out

  • This is a price cap, not free care; there is still a bill.
  • Ask in writing, so the date the application was made is on the record.

The numbers and the rules

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

What it is worth

Charges for uninsured services capped at the lowest commercial rate where household income is under $125,000 a year, with screening attempted within thirty days and no collection while an application is pending.

  • $125,000/year — Annual household income line for the charge limit
  • $30 — Days within which the hospital must attempt the charity screening

Legal protection: The hospital has to try to screen an uninsured patient for charity care within thirty days · Listed collection and financing steps cannot start while a charity application is pending · The price cap overrides inconsistent wording in the hospitals' own agreement · The commissioner and the attorney general can enforce the screening duty

What it costs the family: None to ask.

The eligibility facts, as published

Patient
uninsured, or insurance status unknown to the hospital
Income
annual household income under $125,000 for the charge limit
Hospitals
private, nonprofit and municipal hospitals

The trap: This is not a free-care law. It limits the price to the lowest rate the hospital accepts from a commercial insurer, which is a large cut from the list price but still a bill. Ask for an itemised statement and file the charity application in writing so the collection bar bites.

Where I read this

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