For 15 years, Donna and Gary Lindabury of Vylas, North Carolina, lived with the financial equivalent of an anvil over their heads: medical debt to a nonprofit hospital that at one point reached $200,000.
The debt, owed to Atrium Health for emergency heart surgery Gary underwent in 2009, grew over the years to include nearly $100,000 in interest, Donna, 72, told NBC News. “We were hustling, trying, paying our bills,” he said. “But I just couldn’t afford to pay for that hospital.”
As the years passed and the debt persisted, the hospital system placed a lien on the Lindabury home, allowing it to recover what was owed if the couple sold the property.
“We’ve been so consumed with trying to get through this problem,” said Gary, 80.
Then, in early November, the Lindaburys received a letter from Atrium Health informing them that it would remove the remainder of the lien ($92,262) and release them from any obligation to the hospital.
They were among the beneficiaries of a decision the hospital system announced in September to release 11,500 liens on the homes of people in North Carolina and five other states, some dating back 20 years or more.
“It’s like a miracle,” Donna said. “We thought we would never own our house and that we wouldn’t be able to pass it on to our children.”
A spokesperson for Atrium Health issued a statement saying that the mission of its parent company, Advocate Health, “is to provide access to high-quality care for everyone in the communities we serve, regardless of their financial circumstances.” .
“As a healthcare leader, we have long been committed to programs that help people struggling with medical debt,” the statement added. “Removing home liens to recover unpaid medical bills was a natural next step in our ongoing efforts to ensure patients are not burdened by medical costs.”
Nearly 18% of the U.S. gross domestic product goes toward health care, far more than other developed countries, and about a third of those dollars are spent on hospital care, according to data from National Health Expenditures. And as health care costs rise, more patients are struggling to pay for their health, even those who have insurance.
Americans have $220 billion in medical debt, according to KFF, a nonprofit organization dedicated to health policy research, surveys and analysis. Health care expenses are one of the leading causes of bankruptcy in the United States, according to a 2019 study published in the American Journal of Public Health.
Other research by the Urban Institute found that medical debt is more common in the South and among people in low-income ZIP codes. In 2021, the institute found that three North Carolina counties were among the 10 U.S. counties whose residents had the most medical debt.
Advocate Health’s decision to release thousands of liens on former patients’ homes came after NBC News detailed how its Atrium Health unit aggressively pursued patients’ medical debts.
Judgments for medical debt can last up to 20 years in North Carolina, and according to a study by Duke University School of Law and the State Treasurer’s Office, state hospitals sued 7,517 patients and their families to collect. medical debts from January 2017 to June 2022.
Many of these lawsuits resulted in default judgments and allowed interest charges of 8%, inflating the amounts owed as occurred in the Lindabury case. In total, according to the report, interest charges and other additional fees accounted for 35% of the $57.3 million in total judgments owed by patients.
Under a provision of the Affordable Care Act, nonprofit hospitals must offer financial assistance programs to patients who can’t afford care, but patients don’t always receive information about these programs, health care experts say .
Recognizing the burden that medical debt places on consumers, some states have taken steps in recent years to remedy the problem. Arizona and Colorado now limit the interest rates applied to medical debt, while Delaware recently passed a law prohibiting interest and late fees on these bills. Maryland requires hospitals to reimburse patients who paid their bills but who should have been eligible for financial assistance.
In North Carolina, the Lindaburys are still processing release from their debt load. “It’s like being in prison,” Donna said, “and now you’re out.”
