North Carolina Hospitals Sign On to Relieve Medical Debt
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Summary
Governor Roy Cooper and Health and Human Services Secretary Kody H. Kinsley announced that all 99 eligible hospitals in North Carolina have joined a state program aimed at relieving medical debt for nearly 2 million residents, with an anticipated impact of approximately $4 billion. The initiative, leveraging the Healthcare Access and Stabilization Program (HASP), will implement policies to alleviate existing debts and prevent future accruals, particularly benefiting low- and middle-income individuals. Participating hospitals will focus on automatic charity care qualification for certain public benefits enrollees and enforce debt forgiveness for Medicaid recipients by mid-2025, along with other measures to curtail aggressive debt collection practices.
