RIP Medical Debt, which uses donations to alleviate unpaid medical bills, reached a deal with Ballad Health to buy—and wipe out—debt owed by 82,000 low-income patients, many of whom shouldn’t have been billed at all
A national charity will for the first time buy medical debt, totaling $278 million, directly from hospitals, a push to speed financial relief to patients, many of whom shouldn’t have been billed at all under the hospitals’ financial-aid policies.
RIP Medical Debt, which uses donations to wipe out unpaid medical bills, has reached a deal with nonprofit Ballad Health, a dominant hospital system in Tennessee and Virginia, to buy debt owed by 82,000 low-income patients. Many likely qualified for free care under Ballad’s policy but didn’t get it, executives at Ballad involved in the agreement said.
RIP Medical Debt will abolish the total amount and is expected to notify households of the debt relief this month. Some bills are 10 years old. “They still owe that money,” said Allison Sesso, RIP Medical Debt’s executive director. “It’s a weight on them.” As many as one in five residents in some ZIP Codes have Ballad debt that will be relieved, she said.
The deal highlights gaps in financial-aid programs by nonprofit hospitals, which get federal, state and local tax breaks in exchange for giving back to their communities. State attorneys general, lawmakers and patient advocates have faulted hospitals for aid programs they say are hard to apply for and poorly promoted.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
The Pandemic Supercharged the Corporate Debt BoomStressed companies piled on debt as interest rates plummeted, but could face a reckoning in the next economic downturn. Total debt for nonfinancial companies hit $11.2 trillion, about half the size of the U.S. economy.
Read more »
Biden Has the Power to Cancel Your Student Debt Right NowOpEd: 'It’d be like waving a magic wand, except the wand isn’t magic, it’s a legitimate legal authority vested in the Department of Education by Congress,' - StrikeDebt CancelStudentDebt
Read more »
Low-Income People—Especially Black and Latinx People—Would Benefit Most From Student Debt Cancellation(Despite Joe Biden frequently suggesting otherwise.)
Read more »
Pandemic Hangover: $11 Trillion in Corporate DebtStressed companies piled on debt as interest rates plummeted, but could face a reckoning in the next economic downturn. Total debt for nonfinancial companies has reached about half the size of the U.S. economy.
Read more »
Canceling Student Debt Doesn't Help Rich People. Is That Why They Hate It So Much?Not cancelling more student debts because rich people might also benefit gives a lot of weight to the 'one bad apple' theory.
Read more »
WSJ News Exclusive | Some California Homeowners Can Get Coverage Again After WildfiresFarmers Insurance will use artificial intelligence to size up an individual property’s risk of wildfire losses and offer coverage to about 30,000 California residents in fire-prone areas
Read more »