Subhi Agrawal
Less than a week after NBC News reported on Atrium Health’s aggressive tactics in pursuing former patients’ medical debts, including placing liens on their homes, the nonprofit announced it would cancel those obligations. Atrium’s parent company, Advocate Health, stated that approximately 11,500 liens on homes across North Carolina and five other states will be released, with some liens dating back over 20 years.
Belk Struggled To Pay His Debts
Advocate Health stated it is changing its policy as “the next logical step” after a 2022 decision to halt filing lawsuits and property liens to collect medical debts from patients. The company declined NBC News’ request for an interview regarding this change.
In its recent coverage of the nationwide issue of medical debt, NBC News highlighted Terry Belk, a 68-year-old Charlotte resident. Belk struggled to pay up to ten thousand dollars in bills, Atrium Health pursued legal action against him. In 2005, Belk signed a deed of trust with Atrium, granting the company the right to receive $23,000 from the sale of his family home.
Belk expressed his shock upon receiving a phone call from an Atrium Health executive on Tuesday, informing him that his debts would be forgiven. “There’s no way this would have happened without national coverage by NBC News,” Belk stated.
Rebecca Cerese, a health policy advocate at the North Carolina Justice Center, expressed her pleasant surprise at Atrium’s decision and hopes that other hospitals will take similar actions.
Medical Debt Relief Program
According to KFF, a nonprofit health policy research organization, Americans collectively owe about $220 billion in medical debt.
From January 2017 to June 2022, North Carolina hospitals filed lawsuits against 7,517 patients and their family members to collect medical debt, according to a study by Duke University School of Law and North Carolina’s Office of State Treasurer.
In July, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper announced a medical debt relief program that all of the state’s 99 eligible hospitals agreed to join. The program will forgive medical debts incurred by Medicaid beneficiaries dating back to January 1, 2014. Additionally, it will relieve medical debt deemed uncollectible for patients with incomes at or below 350% of the federal poverty level, as well as past medical debt exceeding 5% of a person’s annual income. Nine Atrium hospitals in the state are participating in this initiative.
However, that program did not assist many former patients with medical debt from earlier years. For example, Belk indicated that his debt was not covered by the governor’s initiative.
“For Us, There Are No Profits”
When NBC News previously reached out to Atrium Health regarding Belk’s situation, a company spokesman stated that the health system has used litigation against patients “as a last resort.” He noted that Belk signed both the deed of trust and the judgment voluntarily.
The company statement stated, “As the leading, nonprofit health system in the Southeast, Atrium Health works to ensure access to high-quality care for everyone in each community we’re privileged to serve. For us, there are no profits — just outcomes, in the form of improving health, elevating hope and advancing healing — for all.”
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