Medical Protection

You may be eligible for medical protection status if anyone in your home is seriously ill or has a life-threatening situation, and you are facing having your natural gas or electrical service shut off.

To establish this, have your physician, advanced practice registered nurse (“APRN”) or physician assistant (“PA”) (hereinafter referred to as “medical provider”)  complete the certification of illness form online via our medical web portal within 14 days.

You must continue to pay current bills and arrange for payment of past-due amounts while service is continued. If the length of the serious illness is not specified, the medical provider certification form must be renewed every 15 days.

If the medical provider has specified the length of the serious illness but the serious illness extends beyond that date, the certification must be renewed before it expires. The company may dispute the validity of any medical provider certification form with PURA.

If a medical provider certifies that someone in your home has a serious illness, your electrical or natural gas service will be protected from shut-off during the period of serious illness, as certified by your medical provider, between November 1 and May 1.

In addition, if the medical provider certifies that the medical condition is life-threatening, your service will not be shut off at any time during the period certified by your medical provider. You will only be protected from shut-off during the period certified by your medical provider.

At the end of this period, you will receive a notification that your medical provider must complete a new certification of illness via our medical web portal to continue to be protected from a shut-off.

Please note, state regulations allow Eversource to contest a medical provider's certification. Medical protection status does not release you from your financial obligation to pay the balance due on your account or from normal collection activities.

For the limited purpose of emergency response during outage events, if Eversource is notified that life support equipment is operating at a service address, Eversource will provide municipal authorities with the service address where such equipment is operating. This information is shared consistent with state regulations.

Infant Protection Plan

If you have a child younger than two years old living in your home and you are struggling to pay your energy bills because of financial hardship, your service may be protected from disconnection as long as you meet the eligibility requirements for infant medical protection.  

Who is eligible?  

Eversource's Infant Medical Protection Plan is available to households with financial hardship and a child of 24 months or less, who:  

• Lives in the household,  
• Has been admitted to the hospital, and 
• Has received hospital discharge papers with a note from the medical provider certifying that electric or gas service is needed for the child's health and wellbeing.  

How do I enroll my account in the Infant Medical Protection Plan?  

Steps your medical provider must take:

• Your medical provider must certify the above conditions on our secure medical web portal.

Steps you must take:

• Ask your medical provider to certify the above conditions on our secure medical web portal. By doing this, you are authorizing your medical provider to provide Eversource with all information required for this certification.
• Provide Eversource with the hospital discharge paperwork.
• Provide documentation to support your claim of hardship. Here are ways to submit your documents:
  • Log on to your account at Eversource.com and select Upload Documents in the menu on the bottom of the page to securely submit proof of income such as receipt of public assistance benefits or household income for all adults over 18-years-old.
  • Submit your documents via fax at 1-866-438-6476 or via U.S.P.S. mail at Eversource, Attn: Credit Dept., P.O. Box 270, Hartford, CT 06141. 
  • Contact your local community action agency. Visit 211ct.org or call 211.  

Important Information About Electric Suppliers

To help protect you from paying higher electric rates, the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) requires Eversource to transfer all medically protected or hardship-coded customer accounts away from retail electric suppliers and onto Eversource’s Standard Service electric rate. 

Under this requirement, retail electric suppliers cannot charge early termination penalties or any other fees. You should only be charged for the electricity you receive from the retail supplier — and only up to the date your account is transferred to Eversource’s Standard Service rate.

In many instances, customers are signing retail electric service contracts without realizing their rate can increase over time. Research shows customers with medically protected or hardship-coded accounts who participate with a retail electric supplier pay, on average, more for their electric service than the Standard Service rate Eversource offers.

If the medical protection or hardship code is removed from your account, you can again participate with the retail electric supplier of your choice.