TOLEDO, Ohio — ProMedica has partnered with a nonprofit organization that will eliminate millions of dollars in medical debt for qualifying patients.
The health system reached an agreement with RIP Medical Debt that will eliminate $222 million in medical debt accrued over seven years for more than 108,000 individuals served by ProMedica.
It's the largest single medical debt relief effort of its kind in the Toledo area, according to ProMedica.
RIP Medical partnered with Mercy Health in October of last year to relieve over $7 million in debt.
RIP Medical, founded in 2014, uses data analytics to pinpoint the debt of those most in need of relief. ProMedica said it worked with the nonprofit to identify the patient accounts that qualify for the debt relief.
ProMedica said those accounts belong to patients with incomes four times or more below the federal poverty level. It also applies to patients whose medical debt is 5% or more of their annual income. The relief provided cannot be requested or applied for, and those who have debt eliminated will receive a branded RIP Medical Debt letter in the coming weeks.
“While ProMedica already has strong financial assistance policies and programs in place to help reduce the cost of care for qualifying patients, we realized we had an opportunity to do even more by collaborating with RIP Medical Debt,” said Kevin Sharp, vice president of Revenue Cycle, Acute and Clinical Services at ProMedica. “For a variety of reasons, some qualifying individuals did not apply for financial assistance, causing them to accrue medical debt. Through this collaboration, which includes the support of our local elected officials, we’ve been able to identify qualifying individuals with medical debt and help provide some welcomed relief.”
ProMedica said Toledo City Council and the Lucas County Commissioners allocated $1.6 million to RIP Medical Debt to allow for the nonprofit to purchase medical debts for the city's residents.
Toledo City Council allocated $800,000 of American Rescue Plan funds to RIP Medical Debt. The Lucas County Commission allocated $800,000 from the general fund to the organization.
Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken said the commission has paid $76,000 so far, which will go to help over 7,000 families.
"We were able to relieve 7,700 families of over $14 million of debt," Gerken said. "That's a lot. Basically, we spent $10 per family to relieve $14 million of debt."
Gerken said this is the first round of debt to be forgiven.
"This is a reinvestment of real money, into real people, into their real lives," Gerken said. "I think those are the best investments."
According to ProMedica, they provided more than $84 million in "free or discounted charity care" to help prevent medical debt for qualifying individuals in 2023.