Patient Financial Responsibility

• Patients are never turned away from St. Jude because of their inability to pay.
• All patients accepted for St. Jude treatment get care whether or not they or their families can pay for it.
• You will never have to pay for services provided at St. Jude.

If your child has insurance, we bill their insurance. We bill insurance for the costs that would be due at any other hospital. This helps us continue doing some of the world’s most advanced research. It also allows us to cover:

• Treatments
• Copayments
• Deductibles
• Coinsurance
• Other costs that insurance does not cover

If your child is a patient of a St. Jude Affiliate, you will not pay for affiliate services that are directly related to the reason your child was accepted. St. Jude pays the affiliate for your copayment, deductible, or coinsurance. The affiliate may also be paid by your insurance company. If you have no insurance, the affiliate may require you to apply for a federal or state insurance program to get care at the affiliate. If so, St. Jude staff or the affiliate staff will help you. The affiliate will not ask you to pay your bill if you have no insurance.

All St. Jude patients qualify for this financial help. St. Jude does not try to collect unpaid bills from any patient or patient family.

St. Jude does not have an Emergency Department, so it does not give care for emergency medical conditions. But we do provide urgent care to all St. Jude patients when needed, without discrimination. We will not send a bill or ask you to pay for urgent care delivered at St. Jude.

Our Patient Registration staff and patient assistance coordinator can help you find out if your child qualifies for Medicaid if you have no health insurance.

Please tell a Patient Registration staff member right away if you are approved for Medicaid, Medicare, Tricare, or have changes to your private insurance. If your child is an affiliate patient, also let the affiliate office know of any changes.

Patient Registration phone: 901-595-2010 (toll-free: 1-866-278-5833, extension 2010)

Patient assistance coordinator phone: 901-595-2670 (toll-free: 1-866-278-5833, extension 2670)

Your insurance company may make you call or visit a primary care physician (PCP) before they consider paying for your child to see another doctor. Ask your insurance company if you must contact a PCP before getting treatment at St. Jude or elsewhere.

If your insurance company requires a PCP referral, please try to get one from that doctor before treatment takes place. Give the referral details to St. Jude Patient Registration right away. Call them at 901-595-2010 (toll-free: 1-866-278-5833, extension 2010). 

In the Affiliate Clinic, please call the front office staff.

Yes. Please check with your insurance company to find out if you need a PCP referral when your child has services outside St. Jude. If your insurance plan requires a referral, please call your PCP and request one. If you get a PCP referral for services outside St. Jude, please give those details to a St. Jude Outside Professional Services staff member. Call them at 901-595-5755 (toll-free: 1-866-278-5833, extension 5755). If you call this number after hours, you may leave a voice mail with the referral details.  

If your child is sent for services outside St. Jude that are approved in advance and scheduled by St. Jude, remind the outside provider that your child is a St. Jude patient.

If you have insurance, please give the provider your insurance information. Then they may call St. Jude, if needed, to find out if we will pay for the medical visit in case insurance does not.

If we send your child to an affiliate area for any service, make sure that the St. Jude affiliate clinic sees your child first before you go to any other appointment in the area. Appointments scheduled at the affiliate may not appear in St. Jude MyChart or the Our St. Jude app.

If your child is not a patient at a St. Jude affiliate and you get bills from providers for services outside St. Jude that were approved in advance, please call Outside Professional Services. Call them at 901-595-5755 (toll-free: 1-866-278-5833, extension 5755). 

If your child is a patient at a St. Jude affiliate and you get bills from providers in the affiliate area or have questions about what St. Jude will pay for there, please call the St. Jude affiliate clinic.

If you have billing questions or need to know what St. Jude will pay for, please call Outside Professional Services. Call them at 901-595-5755 (toll-free: 1-866-278-5833, extension 5755).

If any of your insurance information changes, call Patient Registration right away. Call them at 901-595-2010 (toll-free: 1-866-278-5833, extension 2010). If you are an affiliate patient, also call the affiliate to update your information.

Sometimes patients need medical care at a location other than St. Jude or its affiliates. Generally, we cannot pay for medical care that takes place outside of St. Jude or our affiliates.

Examples include:

• Visiting a local emergency room for fever and neutropenia (unless you are the patient of a St. Jude affiliate and are receiving care in the emergency room of the affiliate hospital)
• Having your child’s blood counts checked in a pediatrician’s office
• Seeing a specialist in your home area

Medical care provided at another facility may be covered under certain conditions if approved for payment in advance. Our medical staff may offer care recommendations. They may refer your child to outside providers for care, or even help arrange for that care. But this does not mean that St. Jude will pay for those services.

When your child needs non-emergency care outside of St. Jude or an affiliate clinic as part of their treatment, your primary medical team must approve payment of the services in advance.

To confirm that the service is approved, call Outside Professional Services at 901-595-5755 (toll-free: 1-866-278-5833, extension 5755). St. Jude only covers medical care in your home area if we have agreed beforehand to accept financial responsibility.

If you get a bill for services that you feel St. Jude should cover, please call Outside Professional Services.

1. Services for St. Jude LIFE study participants, who have graduated from clinical care, that are not required by the research protocol
2. Devices such as:
   • Rehabilitation-related devices or prostheses that are lost or damaged by the patient through neglect. This includes hearing aids and assistive listening devices
   • More than 1 definitive prosthesis (final prosthesis provided after the patient is finished growing or has completed cancer-directed therapy)
   • Wheelchairs or other assistive devices supplied solely for patient convenience
   • Strollers
3. Certain medicines such as:
   • Coagulation factor concentrates or injections (shots) such as Hemlibra, except under urgent situations when medically required products cannot be obtained through medical insurance or state assistance programs
   • Human growth hormone
   • Medicines used to treat spinal muscular atrophy
4. Fertility expenses such as:
   • Pregnancy and abortion-related expenses
   • Fertility evaluations and expenses for retrieving and storing sperm or eggs for patients who will not or have not received therapy at St. Jude that could affect sexual organs (testes, ovaries)
   • Storage of sperm or eggs after the patient is 35 years old
5. Home health services such as:
   • Home health services if approved St. Jude staff determine that the patient is medically able to visit the office of a home-area provider (except for services by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Home Care, LLC)
   • Private-duty nursing or custodial-type care
6. Procedures such as:
   • Solid organ transplants, unless the transplant is needed as a result of cancer or its treatment
   • Routine dental services, unless the patient has a very weak immune system, has received therapy that will weaken the immune system, or will receive or has received radiotherapy to the mouth
   • Dental restoration unrelated to the disease or treatment for which a patient is being seen at St. Jude, unless it is needed to ensure safe delivery of treatment for the primary disease
7. Other services not covered by St. Jude:
   • Convenience items and services, such as TVs, phones, strollers, and wagons
   • Medical services given in the patient’s home area other than approved home health or hospice
   • Consults or services sought by the patient or the family, other than those approved by St. Jude
   • Air ambulance transports not approved in advance by the St. Jude Memphis ICU attending doctor or hospital clinical director (or designee)
   • Routine psychiatric and psychological care delivered outside St. Jude or its affiliates
   • Medical, psychiatric, and psychological care for patient caregivers not approved in advance by the hospital clinical director (or designee)
   • Rehabilitation services, including audiology services, delivered outside of St. Jude or its affiliates

If you feel that an exception to the policy is needed, talk to your attending doctor at St. Jude. They can discuss the situation with you and possibly request an exception from the hospital clinical director.

We want you and your child to thrive long after leaving St. Jude. Because you must pay for your own health care after leaving St. Jude, we will help you learn about resources that can help. Our staff will also help you and your family find health care closer to your home. To learn more, read the Patient Transition Guide.