Advocate Health Takes Bold Step to Address Medical Debt
This move is part of a multi-year initiative to overhaul the system’s approach to medical debt, including Advocate Health’s announcement in 2022 that it would no longer file lawsuits nor seek liens or judgments as part of its collection efforts. The organization has also implemented other system-wide policy changes resulting in it being a leader in the effort to solve the nation’s medical debt crisis.
Among these changes, the system previously:
• Stopped reporting delinquent medical debt to credit agencies
• Increased the charity care threshold to 300% of the federal poverty level (e.g., a family of four earning up to $93,600 qualifies automatically)
• Expanded its automatic financial assistance program for low-income and uninsured patients
o 80% of patients who qualify for financial assistance are not required to validate their eligibility
o More than 168,000 patients received 100% charity care last year
“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,” said Brad Clark, chief financial officer of Advocate Health. “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.
“We believe our financial assistance program is now among the most generous in the nation and Advocate Health is committed to being part of the solution to address the medical debt dilemma so many people are facing today. The $6.05 billion we provided last year in community benefit further underscores our commitment,” Clark said.
Advocate Health operates under three primary care delivery brands: Advocate Health Care in Illinois;Atrium Health in the Carolinas, Georgia and Alabama; and Aurora Health Care in Wisconsin. The health system will proactively reach out to individuals whose liens are being cancelled, beginning with the oldest cases. It began making contact with affected patients and family members earlier this week. Advocate Health notes the process of cancelling liens will take time to complete, as it requires collaboration with attorneys and courts in each jurisdiction. More information is available at www.advocatehealth.org/liens.
In total, Advocate Health plans to cancel more than 11,500 liens, some dating back 20 years or more. For context, Advocate Health currently serves 5.4 million unique patients and conducts more than 33.4 million 2 patient encounters annually. The ability to implement the initiative was facilitated by the organizational strength created by the health systems combining to form Advocate Health.
In addition, last month, Advocate Health signed onto a statewide plan in North Carolina aimed at forgiving medical debt incurred over the past ten years. This plan will set statewide standards for providing no-cost and discounted care to eligible individuals. The state is still working to finalize the program, which is expected to take effect sometime next year. Advocate Health will begin eliminating patient balances in accordance with the policies stipulated by the state at that time.
About Advocate Health
Advocate Health is the third-largest nonprofit integrated health system in the United States – created from the combination of Advocate Aurora Health and Atrium Health. Providing care under the names Advocate Health Care in Illinois, Atrium Health in the Carolinas, Georgia and Alabama, and Aurora Health Care in Wisconsin, Advocate Health is a national leader in clinical innovation, health outcomes, consumer experience and value-based care. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Advocate Health services nearly 6 million patients and is engaged in hundreds of clinical trials and research studies, with Wake Forest University School of Medicine serving as the academic core of the enterprise. It is nationally recognized for its expertise in cardiology, neurosciences, oncology, pediatrics and rehabilitation, as well as organ transplants, burn treatments and specialized musculoskeletal programs. Advocate Health employs 155,000 teammates across 69 hospitals and over 1,000 care locations and offers one of the nation’s largest graduate medical education programs with over 2,000 residents and fellows across more than 200 programs. Committed to providing equitable care for all, Advocate Health provides more than $6 billion in annual community benefits