§ 16-18-2-52.5 — "Charity care"; "financially indigent"; "medically indigent"

Indiana § 16-18-2-52.5

• Jurisdiction: Indiana
• Title 16: HEALTH
• Art. 18: GENERAL PROVISIONS AND DEFINITIONS
• Ch. 2: Definitions

Text

5. (a) "Charity care", for purposes of IC 16-21-6, IC 16-21-9, and IC 16-40-6, means the unreimbursed cost to
a hospital of providing, funding, or otherwise financially supporting
health care services:
(1) to a person classified by the hospital as financially indigent or
medically indigent on an inpatient or outpatient basis; and
(2) to financially indigent patients through other nonprofit or
public outpatient clinics, hospitals, or health care organizations.
(b) As used in this section, "financially indigent" means an
uninsured or underinsured person who is accepted for care with no
obligation or a discounted obligation to pay for the services rendered
based on the hospital's financial criteria and procedure used to
determine if a patient is eligible for charity care. The criteria and
procedure must include income levels and means testing indexed to the
federal poverty guidelines. A hospital may determine that a person is
financially or medically indigent under the hospital's eligibility system
after health care services are provided.
(c) As used in this section, "medically indigent" means a person
whose medical or hospital bills after payment by third party payors
exceed a specified percentage of the patient's annual gross income as
determined in accordance with the hospital's eligibility system, and
who is financially unable to pay the remaining bill.

Legislative History

As added by P.L.94-1994, SEC.1. Amended by P.L.188-2025, SEC.3.