Folwell: Atrium’s debt relief comes too late for many
Statement from State Treasurer Dale R. Folwell, CPA, Regarding Atrium Health’s Decision to Cancel House Liens for Medical Debt as Part of Payout from the Department of Health and Human Services
(Raleigh, N.C.) — I am glad that Atrium is finally doing the right thing by cancelling medical debt and the punishing liens they have put on people’s homes. Unfortunately, it comes after many lives have already been ruined and thousands were thrown into generational poverty. It also took a big government payout in the form of hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ dollars being funneled to the hospital cartel to do what they should already have been doing – providing charity care equal to the value of their $1.8 billion in tax breaks. As we have shown in our peer-reviewed studies, North Carolina hospitals make almost 11% in excess profits while some nonprofit hospitals billed more than 60%, and sometimes 80% of their bad debt to disadvantaged patients likely eligible for charity care. CEO Gene Woods and the entire Atrium board should be held financially accountable for the impact their policies have had on patients’ upward mobility and the increases to their cost of living. Additionally, their medical credit card company should reimburse all previous patients their exorbitant fees and interest they’ve charged over the years. Now is not the time to applaud Atrium for finally doing the right thing after years of financial abuse.
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