CONNECTICUT, USA — Trinity Health Of New England has teamed up with the non-profit RIP Medical Debt and is canceling the medical debt of over 22,000 people.
Trinity announced that the agreement would abolish over $32 million worth of the non-Medicare/Medicaid debt of individuals previously served by the health organization.
“Working directly with providers like Trinity Health Of New England is an amazing win-win-win scenario,” said RIP Medical Debt President and CEO Allison Sesso. “Our valued hospital partner is compensated for some of the care it provided (without having to sell accounts to a debt collector), patients are relieved of the financial and emotional burden of debt they can’t pay, and communities are uplifted as a result.”
RIP Medical Debt acquires medical debts belonging to financially burdened people and then abolishes them. The organization then notifies the recipients in writing.
According to Trinity, medical debt relief can't be requested and is source-based, meaning RIP Medical Debt can only abolish debt for past-due accounts belonging to providers like Trinity that are willing to engage with them.
There are two criteria that RIP Medical Debt follows for relief: The individual's or family's income can't be more than four times the federal poverty level, and/or the individual's debt must be 5%, or more of that person's gross annual income.
In 2022, the federal poverty guideline was just over $13,500 a year for an individual plus an additional $4720 for each family member.
“Our Mission and Core Values call on us to care for the whole person – body, mind and spirit,” said Montez Carter, PharmD, FACHE, President and CEO, Trinity Health Of New England. “High levels of medical debt challenge our past patients on all three levels. Partnering with RIP Medical Debt allows us to relieve those patients of their medical debt to Trinity Health Of New England while recovering a portion of that debt to help us continue providing the care our patients and communities need in a responsible and sustainable manner.”
Here are details on the debt erasure:
- RIP purchased 39,000 past-due accounts from Trinity Health Of New England. The accounts belonged to 22,300 individuals and totaled $32.76 million in face value.
• Per RIP’s criteria, these accounts belong to those currently least able to pay.
• The top five counties where this partnership is abolishing medical debt are: Hartford, New Haven, Tolland, Litchfield, and Hampden County, Mass. Debt in these counties accounts for $27.1 million of the total.
• RIP is not a collection agency and will not attempt to recoup any payment from families or individuals. No strings are attached; the qualifying accounts' debt is fully abolished.
• This relief does not apply to debt individuals may owe to providers other than Trinity Health Of New England.
Recipients of debt relief will be notified by letter in an envelope from RIP Medical Debt, starting this week, according to Trinity.
The full roll-out of letters may take a couple of months due to the volume of accounts being processed. These letters will include information on the past-due account(s) that qualified for medical debt elimination. These letters are the only official notice of debt abolishment, and once the individual receives the letter, there is no further action they need to take.
Jennifer Glatz is a digital content producer at FOX61 News. She can be reached at jglatz@fox61.com.
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