New Hampshire program
Your rights on a New Hampshire hospital bill
New Hampshire limits self-pay hospital prices and gives you rights to an itemized bill.
What it is
New Hampshire limits self-pay hospital prices and gives you rights to an itemized bill.
If a New Hampshire hospital bill arrives, three things are worth checking separately: the self-pay price rule, your right to an itemized bill, and the hospital's own financial assistance policy.
Eligibility rules
- The price limit applies when a hospital bills a self-pay patient for a service.
- When a third party is to pay, the statute permits an itemized statement within 30 days or a shorter bill explaining how to request free itemization.
What you get
- A self-pay hospital price no higher than the amount generally billed and received from insurers.
- Itemization rights, including a free itemized statement on request when a permitted short bill is used.
- A separate opportunity to discuss the hospital’s financial assistance policy.
What the protection includes
- Wages earned for work performed after a collection writ is served on the employer are exempt under RSA 512:21.
- Nonprofit hospitals also have federal financial-assistance and collection duties.
If you decide to apply
- Ask the hospital billing office for an itemized bill and a review of any self-pay charges.
- Have the bills, treatment dates and insurance information for each date ready.
- Ask the financial counselor to explain the hospital’s assistance application and documents.
Your hospital’s billing office and financial counselor · Official page ↗
After you ask
- A corrected bill should show the revised charges. Financial assistance requires its own review.
Good to know
The self-pay price rule does not reduce an insured family’s share automatically. Financial assistance depends on the hospital’s separate policy.
Other details
- A nonprofit hospital must give you at least 240 days from the first bill after discharge to apply for its financial assistance, and cannot send the bill to collections or sue in the first 120 days.
- Hospital assistance is separate from the self-pay price rule, and insured families can qualify under hospital policies. A legal-aid adviser can confirm current New Hampshire medical-debt interest, credit-reporting and appeal protections for your bill.
Federal background: nonprofit hospitals must have financial-assistance policies and follow limits on extraordinary collection actions.
Official sources
- RSA 151:12-b, Hospital Rates for Self-Pay Patients
- RSA 151:12-a, Itemized Bills
- RSA 512:21, Exemptions
- Requirements for 501(c)(3) hospitals under the Affordable Care Act
- Billing and collections, section 501(r)(6)
- Official authority cited in NH Part A, Q8 (reviewed September 21, 2026)
- Official authority cited in NH Part A, Q8 (reviewed September 21, 2026)
- Official authority cited in NH Part A, Q9 (reviewed September 21, 2026)
“Could an itemized bill or the self-pay price rule reduce these charges? Could you help us check the bill and the hospital’s separate assistance policy?”
Why I’m asking: I want to understand which charges can be reduced and whether the hospital can help with the remainder.
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
Write for the itemised bill and the insured rate, and keep the letter.
Your social worker
The hospital's financial counsellor can put both requests through at once.
The care team
Records and letters when the application asks for them.
- Who decides
- The hospital's billing office.
- Ask your social worker
- “Can the billing office send an itemised bill? And if my child was uninsured on any of these dates, can they charge the rate they generally receive from insurers?”
How to apply
First step: Write to the billing office for the itemised bill and, if you were uninsured, for the rate they generally receive from insurers.
- Ask the billing office in writing for the itemised bill.
- If the child was uninsured, ask in the same letter for the rate the hospital generally receives from insurers.
- Apply to the hospital's own assistance programme as well; it is a separate thing.
Official application / program page ↗
Where it starts: Write to the billing office asking for the itemised bill and, if uninsured, for the insured rate.
What to gather
- Every bill and statement
- The dates of treatment
- Whether insurance was in force on each date
How long: An itemised statement is due within 30 days where an insurer is to pay.
What a yes looks like
A rewritten bill at the insured rate, itemised.
What a no looks like, and the next move
The billing office refuses. Put the request in writing citing the statute and apply to the hospital's assistance programme too.
Watch out
- New Hampshire has no statewide charity-care income line; the hospital's policy is separate and has to be applied for.
- The price cap is for self-pay patients, not for an insured family's share.
- No medical-debt rule on credit reporting or interest was published, so do not assume one protects you.
If they say no, quote this: Hospital rates for self-pay patients: RSA 151:12-b. Itemised bills: RSA 151:12-a.
The numbers and the rules
The arcane layer, kept on purpose. Checked September 11, 2026.
What it is worth
An uninsured patient pays no more than the insured rate, an itemised bill comes within 30 days, and wages earned after a collection writ are protected.
- $30 — Days for an itemised statement where a third party is to pay
- $120 — Federal notification period before harsh collection at a non-profit hospital
- $240 — Federal period to apply for a non-profit hospital's assistance
Legal protection: A hospital billing a self-pay patient has to accept no more than the amount it generally bills and receives from insurers for that service · An itemised statement within 30 days where a third party is to pay, and a free itemised bill on request where the short form is used · Wages for work performed after a collection writ is served on an employer are exempt
What it costs the family: None to ask.
The eligibility facts, as published
- Self pay cap
- applies when a hospital bills a self-pay patient for a service
- Itemised bill
- applies to providers who are to receive payment from a third party
- Wage exemption
- wages for labour performed after the writ is served on the employer
The trap: New Hampshire has no statewide charity-care law with an income line. The hospital's own assistance policy is a separate thing and has to be applied for. Do both: ask for the insured rate under the law, and apply to the hospital.
Where I read this
- RSA 151:12-b, Hospital Rates for Self-Pay Patients — NH General Court, read September 10, 2026
- RSA 151:12-a, Itemized Bills — NH General Court, read September 10, 2026
- RSA 512:21, Exemptions — NH General Court, read September 10, 2026
- Requirements for 501(c)(3) hospitals under the Affordable Care Act — Internal Revenue Service, read September 10, 2026
- Billing and collections, section 501(r)(6) — Internal Revenue Service, read September 10, 2026