The executive directors of nearly two dozen community-based orgranizations across North Carolina are urging health care providers to follow the lead of Advocate Health and cancel liens for thousands of homeowners with outstanding medical debt.
The organizations, which include the N.C. Justice Center, NC NAACP; Action NC and others, sent letters to CEOs of Community Health Systems; Lake Norman Regional Medical Center and Davis Regional Medical Center; CaroMont Health Shawn Howerton, Sampson Regional Medical Center and HCA Healthcare urging them to lift the liens.
“By cancelling liens for homeowners across the state, you can demonstrate your commitment to our shared goals of ensuring better health outcomes, centering wholeperson health, and creating stronger communities,” community-based organizations said in the letter. “The home is a vital cornerstone of the American dream, upward economic mobility, and intergenerational wealth for families. Getting sick or into an accident is already stressful enough, but to lose equity in the family home because of an accident or illness is nothing short of devastating.”
The organizations noted that many of the homeowners who lost substantial equity in their homes due to medical debt are older adults, people of color and people with lower incomes.
“To lose equity in a home from medical debt after decades of dutifully paying a mortgage and preparing for retirement is an indignity that no one should have to experience,” the organizations said. “We are urging you to live up to your mission of taking care of patients, restoring their health, and maintaining dignity for all who seek your care. “
Advocate Health, the nation’s third-largest non-profit health system, announced earlier this month that it will begin to cancel all judgment liens previously placed on homes and real estate as part of its efforts to collect unpaid medical bills. The health care system will also forgive outstanding debts associated with those liens. In all, Advocate Health plans to cancel more than 11,500 liens across six state, some dating back more than 20 years.
“When we expanded our charity care policy, we immediately began assessing all previous outstanding liens and determined that most of those patients would qualify under our new policy,” Brad Clark, chief financial officer of Advocate Health, said in a statement. “As the next step in our roadmap to make care more affordable, we are accelerating this process and removing judgment liens that were placed on homes and property to cover unpaid medical bills.”