South Carolina program
State help with an inpatient hospital bill
The Medically Indigent Assistance Program can sponsor an eligible inpatient hospital stay.
What it is
The Medically Indigent Assistance Program can sponsor an eligible inpatient hospital stay.
An inpatient bill may qualify for state sponsorship when other coverage does not settle it. Hospital social services can review this option with the hospital’s own assistance policy. It is narrower than Medicaid.
Eligibility rules
- The income ceiling is 200% of the poverty line.
- There is a savings test as well as an income test: no more than $500 in cash and bank accounts, $35,000 of equity in your home and $6,000 in other property. The hospital's social services office does the count.
What you get
- Sponsorship of an eligible inpatient episode after other payment sources are reviewed; some families may still owe a MIAP copayment.
What the help includes
- Hospital social services is one route to request sponsorship of the admission.
If you decide to apply
- Ask the hospital’s financial counselor about the Medically Indigent Assistance Program.
- Have admission dates, the bill, income records and information about savings and other assets ready.
South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, with the hospital · 888-549-0820 · Official page ↗
If you decide to go ahead
- For a planned admission, the paperwork goes in before your child is admitted; after an emergency admission the hospital starts it. Each stay is reviewed on its own.
Good to know
This covers inpatient stays, not routine clinic visits or medicines. Healthy Connections offers broader coverage when your child qualifies.
Other details
- The hospital’s own financial-assistance policy is a separate possible source of bill help.
Official sources
“Could this admission qualify for state sponsorship, and how would that compare with hospital assistance? Could you help check the income, savings and insurance rules?”
Why I’m asking: I want to understand the options for an inpatient bill we may have to pay.
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 for it by name and supply income and asset information.
Your social worker
Hospital social services can start the application.
The care team
Records and letters when the application asks for them.
- Who decides
- The Department of Health and Human Services, with the hospital.
- Ask the billing office
- “Medicaid has not covered this admission. Can we apply for the Medically Indigent Assistance Program, and what are the income and asset tests?”
How to apply
First step: Ask the hospital's financial counsellor about this programme by name.
- Ask the hospital's financial counsellor about this programme by name, alongside the hospital's own assistance policy.
- Ask what the income and asset tests are in writing, because the dollar figures are not published.
Official application / program page ↗
Where it starts: Ask the hospital's social services or financial counsellor about the Medically Indigent Assistance Program by name.
What to gather
- The hospital bill or admission dates
- Proof of household income
- A note of savings and other assets
How long: No published timeline.
What a yes looks like
Written sponsorship of the eligible inpatient episode and any family copayment. The statute says hospitals receive no reimbursement under this program.
What a no looks like, and the next move
Usually income or assets. Ask about the hospital's own assistance policy in the same conversation.
Watch out
- It covers inpatient stays only, not clinic visits or medicines.
- If your child already has Healthy Connections, that cover is wider and this is the back-up, not the first call.
The numbers and the rules
The arcane layer, kept on purpose. Checked September 11, 2026.
What it is worth
Sponsorship of an inpatient hospital stay for a household at or under twice the poverty line, with asset tests.
- $200 — Income ceiling, as a share of the poverty line
Covers: Sponsorship of eligible inpatient hospital care
What it costs the family: An application is free; eligible families at 100%–200% of poverty may owe a sliding MIAP copayment, which the hospital confirms.
The eligibility facts, as published
- Income
- at or below 200% of the poverty line
- Assets
- Up to $35,000 primary-home equity, $6,000 equity in other real/taxable personal property including vehicles, and $500 liquid resources. A family farm of up to 50 acres held at least 25 years may be excluded; hospital social services confirms family-unit and counting rules.
- Scope
- inpatient hospital care
- Route
- hospital social services is one application route
The trap: It is an inpatient programme. It does not help with clinic visits, medicines or the doctors who bill separately.
Where I read this
- SCDHHS — Program Eligibility and Income Limits — South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, read September 10, 2026
- South Carolina Code of Laws — Title 44, Chapter 6, Medically Indigent Assistance — South Carolina General Assembly, read September 10, 2026