North Carolina Hospital System Cancels Debt for 11,500 Consumers

By Consumers for Quality Care, on October 9, 2024

After an NBC News report detailed how Atrium Health pursued patients who owe medical debt, including by placing liens on homes, the hospital system announced it will release these liens, immediately benefitting 11,500 consumers across six states, according to NBC News. 

This news follows Atrium’s 2022 decision to stop filing lawsuits and property liens against consumers with medical debt. 

In last month’s reporting of the issue, NBC News highlighted Terry Belk’s heartbreaking story. In 2005, Terry and his wife, Sandra, who was suffering from end-stage metastatic breast cancer, signed a deed of trust with Atrium Hospital to continue medical care. Although Sandra unfortunately passed away in 2012, Atrium still has a $23,000 claim on Terry’s home equity. 

Belk received a call from Atrium, informing him that the lien on his home would be removed.  

Americans owe $220 billion in medical debt. In North Carolina, 13 percent of adults owe medical debt, the third highest rate of medical indebtedness in the country.  

North Carolina officials have started to take steps to address this issue. Last year, the state became the 40^th in the nation to expand Medicaid, helping more low-income consumers get the medical care they need without fear of going into debt. And earlier this year, government officials worked with all 99 hospitals in the state to agree to retire medical debt dating back to 2014 for Medicaid beneficiaries. These hospitals also agreed to implement new policies to prevent consumers from incurring debt going forward.  

Confronting a medical issue comes with its own worries – medical debt should not be one of them. CQC applauds efforts to cancel existing medical debt but we urge the nation’s elected leaders to address the root causes of the medical-debt crisis.