A national nonprofit has purchased medical debt from Trinity Health Of New England, erasing $32.76 million worth of liabilities for 22,300 patients.
RIP Medical Debt reached an agreement with Trinity, which will result in 39,000 past due accounts being eliminated. The debts belong to non-Medicare/Medicaid patients.
“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,” said Montez Carter, president and CEO of Trinity.
RIP is a nonprofit that acquires medical debts belonging to people who are financially burdened. The nonprofit’s criteria requires an individual or family’s income to be no more than four times the federal poverty level, and/or the medical debt must represent 5% or more of their gross annual income.
In 2022, the federal poverty guideline was $13,590 a year for an individual, plus $4,720 for each additional family member.
According to RIP’s website, it uses donations to purchase debt in bundles, millions of dollars at a time at a fraction of the original cost. A donation relieves about 100x its value in medical debt.
RIP will notify recipients in writing if their debt is being abolished, starting this week. Recipients cannot request debt relief.
The top locations where medical debt is being abolished by this partnership are Hartford County, New Haven County, Tolland County, Hampden County (Massachusetts) and Litchfield County.
According to Trinity, RIP is not a collection agency and will not attempt to recoup any payment from families or individuals.
