WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Governor Roy Cooper visited Winston-Salem Tuesday to host a roundtable on medical debt relief.
He 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.
While the Debt Jubilee Project has supported thousands of North Carolinians in the Triad area. there are approximately 90,000 people in Forsyth County with more than $2 millions of combined medical debt, and about 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," Cooper said.
Cooper and the NCDHHS announced new actions on July 1 that leverage the state's Medicaid program, encouraging hospitals to relieve a potential $4 billion in existing medical debt for about 2 million low and middle-income North Carolinians.
"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," NCDHHS Secretary Kody H. Kinsley said. "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, 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.
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