Updated September 4, 2026. Quick answer: South Dakota requires counties to cover hospitalization costs for a medically indigent resident who applies within two years of discharge.
This guide is limited to the cited South Dakota poor-relief source and its stated scope.
What changes in South Dakota
- To receive assistance under this chapter for hospitalization costs, a person must be medically indigent as defined by the statute.
- The person, or someone acting on their behalf, must apply to their county of residence for assistance within two years of the date of the hospital’s discharge.
- This is a county poor-relief program, administered separately from any hospital’s own federal financial assistance policy.
Where this rule stops
The statute does not set a specific income percentage in the section itself; medically-indigent status is defined by a related section, and the two-year application deadline is a hard cutoff a reader needs to track.
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 S.D. Codified Laws § 28-13-32.3. Verify the current official text and the facility’s current policy before acting; this is a source-backed planning guide, not individualized legal advice.