Olympic Medical Center’s Financial Assistance Program is expanding its sliding scale to support more patients in need, OMC officials announced in late June.

The program provides financial assistance for qualifying patients who need help paying for emergency or medically necessary care they receive in an OMC facility or by an OMC provider, according the a press release.

The updated financial assistance sliding scale, also known as charity care, provides a higher discount to patients for services on and after July 1.

“Olympic Medical Center is committed to serving all patients, including those who lack health insurance coverage and who cannot pay for all or part of the essential care they receive,” patient financial services manager Jennifer Dyrseth said.

“The expanded financial assistance sliding scale means more patients may qualify for financial assistance, including many who may not have previously qualified.”

The financial assistance sliding scale, OMC representatives said, is based on family size and income: Patients who qualified for small discounts before will now qualify for large discounts moving forward. Patients who previously qualified for OMC’s 80-, 60- or 45-percent approval brackets now qualify for a 100 percent discount, while those in the 40- or 30-percent discount brackets now qualify for 75 or 50 percent.

Services received before July 1 will be evaluated using the previous scale, and qualified services received after July 1 will be evaluated on the updated scale.

Patients can also reach out to OMC Financial Services to receive assistance signing up for health insurance through the Washington Health Benefit Exchange.

For more information, contact an OMC patient financial service representative at 360-417-7111 or 800-854-2844.