Today Governor Roy Cooper visited Trinity Moravian Church to learn more about their efforts relieving medical debt through the Debt Jubilee Project. The visit included a roundtable discussion to better understand how recent actions to relieve medical debt could benefit millions of North Carolinians. Roundtable participants included Undue Medical Debt, NC Department of Health and Human Services leadership and an individual that has benefited from debt relief.

While the Debt Jubilee Project has been able to support thousands of North Carolinians in the Triad area, there are currently approximately 90,000 people in Forsyth County with more than $2 million of combined medical debt, and approximately 400,000 with nearly $10 million in medical debt in the Triad area.

“Today I heard the inspiring story of a community that has come together to help relieve the tremendous burden of medical debt for thousands of North Carolinians,” said Governor Cooper. “But they would be the first to tell you that this job is too massive without a lot more help. The actions that we have taken to encourage hospitals to relieve debt for millions of people is the right thing to do for the health of North Carolina families and our state.”

On July 1, Governor Cooper and NCDHHS announced new actions leveraging the state’s Medicaid program that will encourage hospitals to relieve a potential $4 billion in existing medical debt for approximately two million low and middle-income North Carolinians and ease the burden of medical debt in the future.

“As we strive for a healthier North Carolina, we know people with medical debt often delay preventative care and needed treatment for illness or injury,” said NC Health and Human Services Secretary Kody H. Kinsley. “These actions will lessen the emotional and financial burden for families, provide hospitals with more resources and strengthen the health, and wellbeing of all North Carolinians.”

NCDHHS submitted a request to the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to approve a set of conditions hospitals must meet to be eligible to receive an enhanced amount of Medicaid funds. These conditions include relieving existing medical debt and establishing policies to prevent the accumulation of medical debt for low- and middle-income North Carolinians.

Once approved by CMS, hospitals that implement a set of medical debt relief and mitigation policies will be eligible for enhanced payments under the Healthcare Access and Stabilization Program (HASP) (hospitals that choose not to implement the policies will be eligible for HASP payments at a lower level). These policies will provide relief to consumers through forgiveness of existing debt, establish protections against the accumulation of future medical debt, and prevent problematic debt collection practices going forward.

Medical debt is a growing burden across the United States. A recent investigation found that up to 41% of US adults are estimated to have some form of medical debt. North Carolina hospitals currently hold an estimated total of more than $4 billion of debt and often expect to receive only a small fraction of the original value through collections practices. NCDHHS has also partnered with Undue Medical Debt as the preferred facilitator of medical debt relief. Additional information is available in the Frequently Asked Questions on the effort to relieve medical debt in North Carolina.

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