UNC Health Blue Ridge is one of about 100 hospitals in the state that has signed on to offer medical debt relief to patients. Early this month, Gov. Roy Cooper announced approval by the U.
S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to leverage the state’s Medicaid program to incentivize hospitals to relieve medical debt and to implement policies to prevent patient debt from building in the future. The estimated total impact of the medical debt relief program is about $4 billion across the state, Cooper said.
Hospitals that choose to participate will receive a higher level of Medicaid reimbursement under the Healthcare Access and Stabilization Program, bringing billions of additional federal dollars into the state to mitigate the impact of medical debt, Cooper’s office said. UNC Health Blue Ridge said it will participate in the plan and it is proud to support the effort to reduce medical debt. A crowd gathers outside the patient tower on the UNC Health Blue Ridge-Morganton campus for a ribbon-cutting on Aug.
21. The hospital system is one of the systems in the state that will participate in medical debt relief. “We anticipate the plan will help millions of patients across North Carolina,” said Pat Moll, chief financial officer for the hospital.
“However, it will take more time for us to calculate the potential financial impact and to implement the policy.” UNC Health Blue Ridge reports it had more than $100 million in losses from treating Medicaid and Medicare pa.
