News

News items.

Aug

2022

100 Million People in America Are Saddled With Health Care Debt

A recent investigation by Kaiser Health News and NPR reveals that 100 million Americans have significant medical debt. This is far more pervasive than previously reported.

“Debt is no longer just a bug in our system. It is one of the main products,” said Dr. Rishi Manchanda, who has worked with low-income patients in California for more than a decade and served on the board of the nonprofit RIP Medical Debt. “We have a health care system almost perfectly designed to create debt.”

https://khn.org/news/article/diagnosis-debt-investigation-100-million-americans-hidden-medical-debt/

Featured photo from Pexels/Pavel Danilyuk

Jul

2022

Families Sued for Nursing Home Debts

Recent reporting by NPR reveals that in upstate New York, it is becoming common for nursing home to sue friends and relatives for the care of residents – and this is common in other areas, too.

In New York’s Monroe County, where Rochester is located, 24 federally licensed nursing homes filed 238 debt collection cases from 2018 to 2021 seeking almost $7.6 million, KHN found. Several nursing homes did not file any lawsuits in that period.

The nursing home industry has quietly developed what consumer attorneys and patient advocates say is a pernicious strategy of pursuing family and friends of patients despite federal law that was enacted to protect them from debt collection. “The level of aggression that nursing homes are using to collect unpaid debt is severely increasing,” said Lisa Neeley, a Massachusetts elder law attorney.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/07/28/1113134049/nursing-homes-are-suing-friends-and-family-to-collect-on-patients-bills

Featured image courtesy of Alpha Stock Images – http://alphastockimages.com/

Jul

2022

Surprise Ambulance Bills

Families are being broadsided by unexpected ambulance bills — often out-of-network and aggressively collected. NPR reporter Bram Sable-Smith followed up in this story for All Things Considered.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/07/27/1113563630/the-ambulance-chased-one-patient-into-collections

Featured photo from Rodnae Productions/PEXELS

Jul

2022

NC Medicaid Expansion Delayed – Again

May 26, 2022: The NC House declined to act on the Senate’s proposed Medicaid expansion act, proposing their own version instead. Their proposal calls for yet another study, then for legislators to come back to Raleigh in December — after this fall’s election — for the actual vote approving the changes to the Medicaid program.

Read about it in NC Health News:
House speaker adds another Medicaid expansion plan to the mix

Jul

2022

NC Considers New Rules for Medical Debt

NC legislators are discussing new legislation which would relieve medical debt, especially for poorer families. House Bill 1039, “The Medical Bill De-Weaponization Act,” is intended to provide strict guide rails for hospital and medical systems regarding aggressive collections of medical debts.

Read about it on NPR:
North Carolina considers new laws to ‘de-weaponize’ medical debt and protect patients

Jul

2022

Check Your Credit Report for Paid Medical Debt

New rules for credit reporting of medical debt are now in effect – here is how to check your credit report to make sure it is accurate.

Read on CNBC:
Settled medical debt is now dropping off credit reports — here’s how to check your record and make sure it’s right

Jul

2022

Some Medical Debt No Longer on Credit Reports

The three major credit reporting agencies – Equifax, Experian and TransUnion – have announced a change to how medical debt will be reported. Medical debt paid within a year will be dropped for the report; later on, debts under $500 will not be reported at all. However, debts which have not been paid in full will continue to be reported. The good news for recipients of Debt Jubilee Project is that once the debt is paid, it will be removed from credit reports and no longer drag down credit ratings.