UW Health offers a generous financial assistance program to patients who are unable to pay for the care provided at UW Health. Patients work with dedicated staff members to apply for financial assistance to cover all or a portion of their bill. In FY22, UW Hospital and Clinics’ financial assistance program provided $20.4 million of charity care at cost.
 
To improve our financial assistance program, finance department leaders conducted a health equity lens review of the financial assistance policy and financial counseling practices at UW Health. While the policy itself didn’t change, a few of the practices around it did, removing unintentional barriers for patients and improving the objectivity of the approval process. The review process revealed that the complexity of the application process posed challenges for patients who did not have access to technology or the needed documentation, and who may be uncomfortable sharing highly sensitive information with strangers. Some patients with overwhelming medical bills did not meet the income requirement for financial assistance, while some UW Health care team members didn’t know help is available as they lacked awareness about the financial assistance policy.
 
With this new awareness in mind, the finance department made the following critical changes:
 

• Began using credit bureau, demographic and behavioral data from a vendor to relieve the burden on patients to provide financial documentation. The vendor provides information that is used to determine which patients are most likely to qualify for 100% financial assistance;
• Implemented an ongoing education program for clinical care teams about the financial assistance policy; and,
• Established a routine review of financial assistance education provided during employee onboarding to ensure it is up to date.

UW Health is proud to provide a generous and equitable financial assistance program.