Medical debt, even for people with health insurance, drives thousands of Hoosiers to file bankruptcy each year. Hoping to help people avoid that outcome, a nonprofit is offering Know Your Rights workshops.
Medical debt is a top barrier to financial well-being, and the Indiana General Assembly this year decided to convene a summer committee to study the problem. That news was welcomed by the Indiana Community Action Poverty Institute.
With a grant from the Health Foundation of LaPorte, the institute is offering two virtual workshops over Zoom, July 30 and Aug. 7, to make sure people know their rights when it comes to medical debt.
Lauren Murfree is a policy analyst with the institute. She says there are already laws on the books giving patients rights that many people she’s talked with aren’t aware of. For example, the No Surprises Act of 2022 requires care providers to give a good faith estimate of what a procedure will cost. The actual price must come within $400 of that.
“A really important thing is to ask for a good faith estimate, and so that can really protect you if the provider says, ‘Hey, you’re going to pay X, Y, Z,’ and then it comes back for the same charges of care, higher than $400, and you have some kind of fallback that you can file a dispute against that," Murfree says.
Murfree says the workshops also will offer tips to help people avoid accumulating medical debt in the first place.
The workshops are meant for LaPorte County residents but since they’re virtual, anyone can participate and registration is required.
