EPISODE 37: House Bill 3320: How Oregon Can Help Eliminate Medical Bills

Episode 37 

House Bill 3320: How Oregon Can Help Eliminate Medical Bills

Medical debt is one of the biggest financial stressors facing seniors and families—but a new Oregon law is quietly changing that.

In this episode of the Team Senior Podcast, Jamie Callahan sits down with Tesa Park of Park Health Insurance to break down House Bill 3320, a financial assistance program that went into effect in 2024 and applies to nonprofit hospitals across Oregon.

You’ll learn:

• What House Bill 3320 is and why it was created
• Who qualifies for free or deeply discounted hospital care
• How income and household size affect eligibility
• What to say when the hospital asks about financial assistance
• Why many medical bills can be reduced—or completely written off

If you or someone you love has ever worried about hospital bills, deductibles, or medical debt, this is essential information you don’t want to miss. 

At Team Senior™, our mission is to guide you and support you through the maze of Southern Oregon Long-Term Care.

📞 For Team Senior resources, call: 541-295-8230

Or visit our website for more information: https://www.teamsenior.org/

Transcript

TEAM SENIOR PODCAST 

Episode 37: House Bill 3320 - Financial Assistance for Medical Bills in Oregon

Host: Jamie Callahan
Guest: Tesa Park, Park Health Insurance

JAMIE CALLAHAN: Hi, this is Jamie Callahan with the Team Senior Podcast. Our goal is to simplify aging. Society grooms us to plan for retirement, but what about life beyond retirement, where the rubber meets the road? Perhaps you've had a stroke, or you've been diagnosed with cancer, or maybe you're forgetting things and now you have dementia. That's our area of expertise, and we are here to share our insight.

And now, the Team Senior Podcast.

Hi there. This is Jamie Callahan with the Team Senior Podcast, and I could not be more excited to share some information with you about House Bill 3320. It is a financial assistance bill that was created in 2023, went into effect in 2024, and I have Tesa Park here to tell us all about the ins and outs of who qualifies, who doesn't qualify—all of those things. Tesa, I want to give you an opportunity to introduce yourself and what you do.

TESA PARK: Yeah, my name's Tesa Park. I'm with Park Health Insurance. Although I do health insurance, really my niche or my area of specialty is anything Medicare-related. And so I work with a ton of seniors, and specifically a ton of low-income seniors. So in the midst of helping my seniors and helping them with their Medicare needs, a common theme is, "Tesa, I can't afford this. How do I afford my copays, or how do I afford the amount that I get billed later on down the road after going to the hospital?"

JAMIE: So this was very exciting for me to learn because we work with so many seniors that are struggling financially—how am I going to pay for groceries, much less a huge bill that they're about to receive from the hospital? And as we see that Medicare is cutting and making your deductibles higher and higher, the state of Oregon went out on a limb here. This is amazing. And they created something for Oregonians that is going to help you tremendously. And that's what I want to talk about. So first of all, explain to us what House Bill 3320 is supposed to do, and then we're going to take a deep dive into lots of ways that it will help everyone.

TESA: Sure. So the basic gist of it is it was created to alleviate the burden of medical debt on low-income patients—not just Medicare patients, but all of us, all Oregonians and—

JAMIE: Any one of any age.

TESA: Yes.

JAMIE: This is not specific to seniors—

TESA: But this is a huge help for seniors.

JAMIE: Exactly.

TESA: And it's applicable to all nonprofit hospitals in the state of Oregon. So locally, that would be Asante facilities and Providence facilities.

JAMIE: Yeah, so I want to be clear. The hospitals that will service folks that need things from the hospital—surgeries, broken bones, car accidents, whatever that looks like in Southern Oregon—all of our hospitals are covered because they are Asante and Providence, and they are both nonprofits. And this bill only applies to nonprofit hospitals.

TESA: That is correct. And obviously only medically necessary treatments as well.

JAMIE: Oh, sure. You're not going to go in and get some plastic surgery and then have it written off.

TESA: Probably not.

JAMIE: Okay. So the gist of this bill says that if you are under 300% of the federal poverty level, which is FPL, it equals free care provided by the hospital. Walk us through that.

TESA: Yeah, so if you go to the hospital and you give them your insurance information, you get whatever treatment or care you need. The basic idea is that your insurance will pay their portion, and then whatever is not paid is then billed to the patient, or to you. And then that's the scary moment where you're waiting for a few weeks for that ugly bill to show up in the mail. But if you are under the federal poverty line—under 300% of the federal poverty line—then that amount is written off. So if you went and got a bunch of medical care done, you end up a few weeks or a few months later getting a bill for the remaining balance that the insurance company did not pay. Let's just say it was $3,000. And the representative from Asante or Providence, or wherever it may be, asks you if you want to hear about the financial assistance program. You want to say, "Absolutely. Yes, absolutely yes."

JAMIE: You don't want your pride to get in the way. This is where you want to lean on the financial assistance that's being provided.

TESA: Yeah. So then after they get a little bit of information from you, which primarily is just going to be: What is your gross income, or your job income, and then how many people are in your household? If, when they figure that out, and if your gross income level is below the 300% of the federal poverty level, then that bill that you got—the $3,000 bill that we're using—it's gone. It's ripped up, torn up, it's written off, and you end up owing nothing.

JAMIE: This is amazing. So essentially what I'm hearing you say, and again, this is under House Bill 3320, it is the financial assistance program. And we have talked with people—the hospital's actually going to call you and introduce this concept. You don't have to do a bunch of investigating, you don't have to go figure this out on your own. My understanding is that if you have a procedure in the hospital, they're going to call you and they're going to ask you: Do you want to hear about the financial assistance program? And here's how it's going to go down. You had a surgery for a heart attack. It costs $50,000. Your insurance paid $42,000 of that, and you have a bill left over for $8,000. If you are 300% of the federal poverty level, the hospital is going to waive that bill. You are going to owe zero as long as you're under the 300%.

TESA: Yep. As long as you're under it. So then—and we'll get into specific numbers of what 300% is in a moment—but maybe you're just over the 300% level. So they have—so under 300%, free care. Zero. You pay zero. Yeah. If you are between 300% to 400%, then it's a sliding scale, or what we say is discounted care. I know in the past, at least with Asante, that would usually equate to about 85% of that remaining amount that you were billed—85% of that getting written off, which is still amazing.

JAMIE: Still huge. So if you owe $10,000 and 85% of that gets written off, you have a bill now for $1,500 bucks.

TESA: You can catch your breath and not absolutely feel like you're sinking.

JAMIE: Yes. Yeah.

TESA: Just to continue the FPL level—for it, it changes each year. So for 2026, the FPL for a single-person household is $46,960 for a single-person income.

JAMIE: $46,960 for a single-person income.

TESA: Yes. And then for a two-person household, husband, wife, or—when maybe you're looking at the FPL—300% FPL is $63,450.

JAMIE: Okay. Two people, $63,450.

TESA: And then going to the 300% to 400% range, that means a single person—if you earn between $47,000 and about $62,000—you're going to be on that sliding scale. You're going to get a huge amount discounted off the bill. And then if you're a two-person household, it's between about $64,000 to $84,000.

JAMIE: Okay. So let's throw out a completely different scenario. And we're going to use two different examples, but I think that the end result is going to be the same. If we take a senior who's 80 years old, they're not going to have a family of four. So maybe this is a bad example. Let me stop myself for a second. So let's use the example that you are a family of four—husband, wife, two children—and your income is $100,000, $150,000. What does that look like? How do we calculate that?

TESA: In that case, you would probably—if it's your two-person household—then the other factor that has to be considered is, there's a lot of families that are multi-generation now. Maybe grandma and grandpa, or the seniors are mom and dad are seniors, and they're still more or less financially responsible or helping adult children or an adult child. The dollar amount, the income you gave of $100,000, that would be over the 300% to 400% range. So if it's just the two of them—

JAMIE: Got it.

TESA: And so they wouldn't qualify for any discounted care. But maybe they have adult children or people that they are basically the financial resource for that they're helping or assisting, that then could bring them back down into the range.

JAMIE: I don't know the exact—I would imagine with all things Medicaid, all of these different insurances, it's based on how many people are living in your family.

TESA: Yes.

JAMIE: But just these numbers alone are a huge help.

TESA: Yeah. It's amazing. And most people did not know about it. Truth be told, I found out about it from some of my clients who had gone into the emergency room for heart issues. The care came up to $80,000, and my client called me stressed out and so worried. And then he called me back a day later and said, "Oh, problem solved, Tesa." He said they wrote off the whole amount.

JAMIE: That is so unbelievable.

TESA: Yeah. And it's just great because it's not only seniors and Medicare folks, but it's everyone. And I got to actually take advantage of it myself this summer. And so I have firsthand knowledge that, yeah, it really does—it really is an opportunity for everybody out there.

JAMIE: Yeah, this is a huge blessing in Southern Oregon. I had no idea about this, so I was so excited to get you in the studio and talk about it. Yeah.

TESA: The one other thing I should add is it's typically good for, or once you qualify, you're going to qualify for either a seven-month period, or with documentation and whatever they request in terms of that, it could be as long as 12 months.

JAMIE: Got it. So I will say, because I've worked a little bit on some legislative things in the past, when you look up House Bill 3320 in order to do some research on what it is and what it means, you do have to look up the state of Oregon House Bill 3320, and you have to put in the year 2023. I do know that they reuse the house—like the bill numbers—every year. So it's specific to the year. If you look up House Bill 3320 and you look up 2023 in the state of Oregon, you should be able to get more information about this. But the truth is, who you want to be asking is your hospital. They're the ones that are going to be rolling back the benefit to you.

TESA: Yeah. With Providence, you should be able to look online or look up the numbers specifically for a financial counselor, is what they call it. And then if it's Asante, you're going to look up or get in touch with the financial assistance department. Both are amazing.

JAMIE: This is so great. Tesa, thank you so much for bringing this to our attention. I am so grateful. You can reach Tesa at Park Insurance, and I'm going to let you share a little bit more information about how people can get in touch with you.

TESA: Sure. So again, my name's Tesa Park, and I specialize primarily in just Medicare-related insurance. And you are welcome to check out our website at parkhealthinsurance.com. It's full of all sorts of great info. Or of course, reach out to us by phone at 541-761-7788.

JAMIE: Thank you, Tesa. Again, Tesa Park—no "S." I always try to put an "S" on her name. And the number is 541-761-7788. I close the same way. If you have any questions or you think about this podcast in the future and you want to get back in touch with her, but you cannot remember how to reach her, just give us a call. You can always call Team Senior, and we will get you in touch with anyone that has been on our podcast or any other resource we're aware of in Southern Oregon. Thank you so much.

Thank you for listening to the Team Senior Podcast. We're here every week sharing new and relevant information. Remember that we're just a phone call away. Team Senior can be reached at 541-295-8230. Again, 541-295-8230. Until next time, this is Jamie Callahan.

END OF TRANSCRIPT