There is no way to apply for this program. Undue Medical Debt performs an analysis of hospital debt portfolios and identifies qualifying accounts. All accounts that qualify (typically a significant percentage of accounts) will have their debt canceled and will be notified without taking any action. They can only cancel medical debts if hospitals and health systems located in the area sell or donate portfolios of medical debt to Undue.

In some cases governments are using American Rescue Plan act funds from the federal government, designated for economic relief after the worst days of the pandemic. Others are using general funds that have been appropriated for the express purpose of medical debt relief. Undue is a sub-recipient of these funds and leverages them to buy qualifying debt as it becomes available.

Participating hospitals will enter into a Business Associate Agreement and a Non-Disclosure Agreement with Undue Medical Debt to protect the confidentiality of patient health information and other aspects of the transactions. The hospitals will send account data files to Undue for analysis. Once accounts for qualifying individuals have been identified, hospitals will make decisions on selling and/or donating accounts to Undue. Some hospitals may decide to make their participation public. Others may keep their participation confidential. Either way, patients will be notified of their debt relief.

These programs will focus on patient accounts that are anywhere from 18 months to 7+ years old (measured from the date services were provided) and after the billing and collections process have been completed. Importantly – even though collections activities may have stopped – the medical debts remain outstanding and may continue to have negative economic and health impacts on residents. Overall, the impact on hospitals’ finances will be positive if they sell medical debt to Undue for cancelation.

Each municipality is different so there’s no guaranteed timeline. Due diligence is essential to ensure both the government partner and local providers are aligned with the program’s goals. Governments provide the funding and providers like hospitals furnish the qualifying medical debt and Undue facilitates the debt abolishment so coordination is key.

Any hospital located in the area of interest can partner with Undue Medical Debt and participate. Nonprofit, for-profit and government run providers are all welcome to sell or donate medical debt. In certain cases, government funds cannot be used to acquire medical debts from government run hospitals. In those instances, Undue Medical Debt would raise and/or use funds from its donor base to acquire that medical debt.

Yes, if a provider has past-due accounts for individuals not in the area of interest Undue Medical Debt will use private funds to acquire those qualifying medical debts.