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

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Wisconsin program

Help reducing hospital bills (financial assistance)

Your hospital's financial assistance policy can reduce eligible bills, including some costs left by insurance.

What it is

Your hospital's financial assistance policy can reduce eligible bills, including some costs left by insurance.

A hospital bill can qualify for assistance even when you have insurance. The hospital's written policy explains the discount and application rules. Separately billed doctors may have different policies.

Eligibility rules
  • Children's Wisconsin allows insured patients to apply. Its policy requires residence in its geographic service area or use of a Children's primary-care medical home.
  • Medical College of Wisconsin doctors and other non-employed community physicians billing separately fall outside that hospital policy.
What you get
  • A reduction or write-off of eligible hospital bills under the hospital's own policy.
  • A review of unusually large medical expenses where the policy allows it.
If you decide to apply
  1. Your social worker can help you decide whether to talk with the hospital financial counselor for its policy and any available collection hold.
  2. Bring income information, insurance details and the bills. Ask which separately billed doctors have their own assistance forms.

Your hospital's financial counselor; Children's Wisconsin: 414-266-5700; Marshfield: 715-389-4475 · Official page ↗

Good to know

A hospital discount does not automatically cover separately billed doctors. Each billing organization may need its own review.

Other details
  • Children's Wisconsin's policy, effective February 10, 2025 with a 2026 income appendix, writes off eligible bills at or below 300% of poverty. Above 300% through 350%, the discount is 80%. Above 350% through 400%, it is 65%.
  • Above those lines, Children's Wisconsin can review bill size and financial stability case by case. Its financial counseling number is 414-266-5700.
  • UW Health/American Family Children’s and Marshfield use their own assistance policies. A financial counselor can identify the policy for your child’s service date, campus and each billing organization, including any insured balances.
  • Federal nonprofit-hospital financial assistance rules and federal surprise-billing protections may also matter, depending on the hospital and bill.
  • Your hospital's written policy controls assistance for its own bills. At hospitals subject to federal nonprofit-hospital rules, a timely financial-assistance application can pause extraordinary collection actions while eligibility is decided; this is not a promise that all bills or collection contacts stop. Your social worker can help confirm the hold in writing and obtain separate policies for doctors who bill independently.
  • Children's Wisconsin's policy covers its Milwaukee and Fox Valley hospitals and its own doctor groups; a Medical College doctor who bills separately is outside it. Approval covers bills from the first service date through 180 days after the decision.
  • For a Marshfield bill, the social worker can help the billing office confirm the policy in force for the service date. That includes full and partial discounts, how long approval lasts and which separately billed doctors are covered. A rule labeled for Minnesota is not a Wisconsin protection.
  • Children's Wisconsin decides within 30 days and accepts applications for 240 days after the first bill. A nonprofit hospital cannot sue you or send the bill to collections for at least 120 days after the first bill.
  • A billing dispute does not extend a court deadline. A legal-aid review can address any collection letter, interest, credit-report entry, garnishment, lien or itemized-bill issue for the actual debt.

Federal background: Nonprofit hospital financial assistance.

Official sources
Ask your social worker

“Which hospital and doctor bills could receive assistance, what conditions apply, and would you help us request a review if it could reduce what we owe?”

Why I’m asking: I want to understand the actual hospital policy before assuming an insurance balance is 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 for the written policy and application, and for a hold on collections in writing.

Your social worker

The financial counsellor gives you the policy, the form and the deadline.

The care team

Records and letters when the application asks for them.

Who decides
The hospital, under its own policy.
Ask the billing office
“Can I have your written financial assistance policy and the application form, and can collections be held while it is decided? Are the doctors who bill separately covered by it?”

How to apply

First step: Ask the hospital's financial counsellor for the written policy and the application form, and ask in writing for collections to be held.

  1. Ask the financial counsellor for the written policy and the application before paying anything.
  2. Ask in writing for collections to be held while the application is decided.
  3. Ask whether doctors who bill separately are inside or outside that policy.

Official application / program page ↗

Where it starts: Ask the hospital's financial counsellor for the written policy and the application form, and for collections to be held while it is decided.

What to gather

  • Every bill and statement so far
  • This month's household income
  • The names of doctors who bill separately

How long: The hospital sets its own timescale; ask for it when you get the form.

What a yes looks like

A written policy in your hand, an application submitted, and collections on hold.

What a no looks like, and the next move

The hospital says you are over its line. Ask about the high-bill route and about a payment plan with no interest.

Watch out

  • Not finding a state law is not the same as there being no help: ask the hospital.
  • Doctors who bill separately are often outside the hospital's policy and have their own.
  • State rules on medical debt and credit reporting were not verified, so do not assume either way.

The numbers and the rules

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

What it is worth

No statewide charity-care line was found; the hospital's own written policy and the federal rules are the route.

Legal protection: The state directs families to the hospital's patient services department for its own policy · Federal non-profit hospital rules and surprise-billing rules still apply and are listed separately

What it costs the family: None to ask.

The eligibility facts, as published

Statewide law
not found in the sources that opened; not established as absent
Route
the treating hospital's own financial assistance policy
Debt rules
state credit-reporting, interest, garnishment and lien protections unverified

The trap: Do not read "we did not find a law" as "there is no help". Children's Wisconsin publishes a real schedule: the bill written off in full at or below 300% of the poverty guidelines, 80% off at 350% and 65% off at 400%, with insured patients able to apply too.

Where I read this

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