The MetroHealth System and the national nonprofit Undue Medical Debt are pleased to announce an agreement that will help erase $200,047,208 worth of medical debt for 290,761 of the health system’s patients in Northeast Ohio.
Impacted residents do not need to apply, and there is no application process. Instead, debt relief recipients will receive a letter from Undue Medical Debt, a national nonprofit, indicating which debt(s) have been eliminated. Undue Medical works with hospital systems across the country to let it purchase large, bundled portfolios of past due medical debt belonging to those least able to pay. Instead of trying to collect, Undue Medical erases the debt. Those who qualify for medical debt relief are either four times or below the federal poverty level or those whose medical debts are 5% or more of their annual income. Letters to recipients are arriving in the area now.
“MetroHealth has never turned away individuals who need care because of their inability to pay – and that will never change,” said MetroHealth President & CEO Airica Steed, Ed.D, RN, MBA, FACHE. “We are proud to partner with Undue Medical Debt to bring additional relief to the individuals we serve. As a health system, we are committed to tearing down barriers that prevent far too many members of our community from living their healthiest lives. This partnership is just one of the many ways we are lifting the health and wealth of the communities we serve.”
Cleveland City Council passed legislation in April 2023 to provide Undue Medical with $1.9 million in federal pandemic recovery funds. At the time, it was roughly estimated this funding would eliminate about $181 million of Clevelanders’ medical debt for about 50,000 residents. However, the projection for number of individuals served has been exceeded. This funding is being used to erase $136,859,290 in debt for 133,093 Cleveland residents who are MetroHealth patients. In November, City Council announced it had worked with Undue Medical to erase more than $33 million in debt held by another local hospital system. City Council will continue to communicate on future debt abolishment.
Undue Medical used private donations to acquire debts of MetroHealth patients outside of the Cleveland city limits.
“City Council members are thrilled this is helping so many Cleveland residents by removing a huge weight or burden from their lives, and we thank MetroHealth for supporting this initiative” said Councilman Kris Harsh, who helped bring the initiative to Council and co-sponsored the legislation. “I’m grateful for the unanimous support of my colleagues to fund Undue Medical and proud this initiative is having a positive impact for so many more Clevelanders than we had expected.”
Undue Medical was founded in 2014 with the purpose of strengthening communities by abolishing financially burdensome medical debt. Since then, the organization has helped relieve more than $10.4 billion in medical debt for over 7 million individuals and families.
”We are extremely grateful to MetroHealth for collaborating with us on this community health initiative to erase medical debts for those most burdened and also to the Cleveland City Council for funding a large portion of this debt relief effort,” shares Undue Medical Debt president and CEO Allison Sesso. “This relief, made possible by a collaboration of invested stakeholders, will remove a barrier to future care and hopefully also lessen the mental health burden associated with carrying debt.”
