Jared Walker: Crushing medical debt for thousands of Americans

Jared Walker, founder of Dollar For

When we recently spoke with Jared Walker, founder of Dollar For, over the course of our short conversation, Jared shared with us that $84,000 in medical debt was crushed for someone who is not only burdened by medical debt but also recovering from a medical emergency.

Medical debt is the number one cause of bankruptcy in the United States, with nearly half of Americans carrying some form of it. Dollar For estimates that hospitals fail to distribute about $14 billion in financial assistance annually.

What started as a grassroots crowdfunding effort has grown into a nationwide movement, and if Jared Walker and Dollar For have their way, the organization might not need to exist at all.

What inspired you to start Dollar For?

Seeing my own family struggle with medical bills motivated me to help others facing similar challenges, so I was mainly crowdfunding to help cover medical debts.

Then I found out about charity care, a law requiring nonprofit hospitals to offer financial assistance and bill forgiveness to eligible patients. I realized many of the people I was crowdfunding for could have benefited from this if they knew. When I explored it further, I realized how difficult it was to navigate, so I decided to take the burden off others and filled out their paperwork for them. Within a few months, we helped eliminate $1 million in medical debt.

In 2021, I was trying to raise awareness about charity care with a TikTok video, and it reached 35 million views. At the time, Dollar For was just me, but I quickly realized this was much bigger than one person could do alone.

How does Dollar For work today, and what kind of impact have you made so far?

We’ve built a national database of hospital financial assistance policies and can determine eligibility in seconds. We created an easy online application and advocate directly with hospitals on behalf of patients. We do all of this for free, funded by donations and philanthropy.

Today, we have 15 full-time staff, and last year alone, we crushed $55 million in medical debt; since launching, we’ve submitted over 41,000 applications on behalf of patients and have eliminated more than $135 million.

One of our core values at Dollar For is to celebrate, and we have a team chat to share every single win with one another. Because every bill represents a real person and a real life changed. That daily visibility into impact keeps us moving forward together.

What is something people misunderstand about medical debt or the people carrying it?

A medical crisis should not mean a financial crisis.

There is so much shame around medical debt, and collections can trap families in cycles of poverty, but charity care was designed for these situations, and yet is still relatively unknown. Medical debt is not a personal failure; it’s a systems failure.

If you’re struggling to pay a hospital bill, or know someone who is, always check if you qualify for financial assistance first. Many people disqualify themselves before they even apply, yet a family of four making under $100,000 may still qualify for discounts or relief.

How has incorporating AI and technology helped you scale and change your capacity?

At its core, this work involves forms, paperwork, and outdated processes. It’s time-intensive, but not inherently complex once you know the system. By integrating AI into our workflow, we’ve increased the number of people we can help with the same-sized team. It allows us to streamline documentation and submission and focus human energy where it is most needed—on communicating with patients and eliminating debt.

What have you learned through this process?

There is no lack of need.

The biggest barrier is enforcement. All hospitals are required to have charity care policies widely publicized, but the rules are vague, and that could mean only one poster on an emergency room wall.

Applications often require fax machines, mailed paperwork, or supplemental documentation that is difficult to obtain, and every hospital has its own guidelines, making the process overwhelming and tedious.

Technically, oversight exists, but the follow-through is at best limited.

What does long-term success look like for you?

Success means we shouldn’t have to exist.

Hospitals should be required to screen patients for financial assistance before sending a bill. Access should be proactive, simple, and transparent, not something patients have to discover while navigating a health crisis.

Until then, we will eliminate as much medical debt as possible, using data to push for better policies and enforcement. We aim to eliminate $1 billon in medical debt in the next three years and prove that the system can work better for the people it’s supposed to serve.

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