How over 27,000 Mass. residents got medical debt wiped out
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Some 27,000 eastern Massachusetts residents are getting letters in the mail with rare good news: They're the latest beneficiaries of a debt relief initiative, and some, if not all, of their medical debt has been wiped out.
Why it matters: One in eight Massachusetts residents has medical debt, per the state's Center for Health Information and Analysis.
- Among Black residents, that number is one in five.
Driving the news: Undue Medical Debt, with funding from the Atrius Health Equity Foundation, acquired some $42 million in medical debt earlier this year and forgave it.
- That amounts to an average of $1,560 per recipient, though they owed anywhere from $50 to $100,000, per Atrius.
- They focused on residents who earn at or below the federal poverty level or who have medical debt at or above 5% of their their annual income.
By the numbers: This round cleared medical debt for nearly 19,900 residents in Barnstable County.
- It also benefited residents in Plymouth, Middlesex, Bristol, Dukes, Essex, Nantucket, Norfolk and Suffolk counties, per Atrius.
Threat level: People saddled with medical debt tend to forego medical care to avoid accumulating more debt, says Ann Hwang, president of the Atrius Health Equity Foundation.
- The debt may also hamper people from getting loans to pursue higher education.
How it works: Undue Medical Debt buys debt for pennies on the dollar, just like debt collection companies do.
- The debt could cover anything from emergency room visits to cancer treatment to mental health services.
- With donations, including from Atrius and individuals, the nonprofit has forgiven the debts of millions of Americans.
- Undue Medical Debt mails a letter with a confirmation number to recipients.
Recipients don't have to pay any taxes associated with having the debt forgiven, per Allison Sesso, president and CEO of Undue Medical Debt.
- There's no way to apply for the debt relief or to find out if you're a recipient of the program unless or until you get that letter.
Zoom out: Atrius has committed nearly $10 million overall in grant funding to eliminate $500 million in medical debt with Undue Medical Debt, Health Law Advocates and other groups.
- About $5 million is set aside to cover debt relief. Undue Medical Debt has spent roughly $700,000 so far to acquire the combined $84 million of unpaid medical bills.
- In the first tranche of funding, Undue Medical Debt cleared $42 million in debt for over 25,000 people last year.