Health groups buy up $110M in medical debt to help clear bills for Arizonans

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) -- Thousands of Arizonans and those in four other states will soon have some of their medical debts cleared after two healthcare providers announced that they are buying up $110 million worth of medical debt to help eliminate it.

SCAN Group, a not-for-profit health care, has announced it will eliminate more than $110 million in medical debt from approximately 70,000 people living in Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, and Texas. The group teamed up with CareOregon to make the debt elimination happen. Both groups will pay more than $345,000 to debt acquisition company RIP Medical Debt which will then buy those collection accounts for pennies on the dollar, thereby eliminating balances for tens of thousands of people.

Those who qualify are those with a household income at or below the poverty level with debt that’s 5% or more of said income. Nationally, 1 in 5 households owes more than $4,600 in medical debt. A variety of resources are available for those experiencing extreme medical debt, from financial and legal advice to government and crowdfunding. Click here for more details on RIP Medical Debt.

RIP Medical Debt says they have already eliminated $8.5 billion worth of medical bills for about five million people across the country.

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