Question:    Are hospitals required to provide patients with a plain language summary of their financial assistance policy at discharge even if they provided a summary upon admission?

Answer:    No. When the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) Section 501(r) proposed regulations were out for comment, some commenters interpreted the requirement of a plain language summary “before discharge” as requiring distribution “at discharge.” In response to these comments, the final regulations refer to offering the plain language summary as part of either the “intake or discharge process.”