Updated September 4, 2026. Quick answer: North Dakota requires the local human service zone, not the hospital itself, to arrange and pay for necessary hospitalization for a poor person.
This guide is limited to the cited North Dakota poor-relief source and its stated scope.
What changes in North Dakota
- Within the limits of its appropriation, the human service zone must promptly provide necessary medical services covered under its written general-assistance eligibility standards for any poor person in the zone.
- Necessary covered hospitalization must be furnished by the human service zone upon approval, or subsequent ratification, by the zone director or the director’s designee.
- The zone must also cause the necessary covered medicines prescribed by a physician to be furnished to the same person.
Where this rule stops
This is a county-level poor-relief backstop administered by the human service zone, not a rule that binds a hospital’s own charity-care policy directly; a reader applies through their zone, not the hospital’s billing office.
How to verify before you apply
- Identify the hospital or facility covered by the source and obtain its current policy.
- Ask for the current written policy and application instructions.
- Compare the policy with the official source below before relying on any threshold, discount, or deadline.
Related hospital-assistance guides
Primary source
Read N.D. Cent. Code § 50-01-13. Verify the current official text and the facility’s current policy before acting; this is a source-backed planning guide, not individualized legal advice.