Health / Finance
Systemic Dysfunction

Jerry Ashton ... What If There Were a Medical Debt Cemetery?

Burgess COMMENTARY
Excellent ... delighted to see this reporting about one of the highly profitable but value destroying parts of the modern economy. This is a powerful example of all that makes profit is not by default also good ... rather it reflects the awful reality that more profit often comes from doing really bad things to people and society. Peter Burgess ... http://truevaluemetrics.org
Peter Burgess

CONTRIBUTOR What If There Were a Medical Debt Cemetery? 12/08/2016 11:34 am ET

Jerry Ashton ... Veteran and gadfly of the collections industry, medical debt patient advocate and co-founder of RIP Medical Debt.

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What if we could take the billions of unpaid – and arguably unpayable – medical debt owed by America’s citizens and deposit it, along with negative credit reports, into a very deep grave?

Thanks to an alliance between industry leader Global Debt Registry (GDR) and the non-profit charity, RIP Medical Debt, that grave is being prepared.

“We at RIP have been at the forefront of searching for solutions to eliminate what the collections industry calls ‘Zombie Debt” – debt which goes from collection agency to collection agency for years until the unfortunate debtor either pays…or dies. This is the debt we were created to forgive, and we want that forgiveness to become an official record,” CEO Craig Antico states.

“These accounts are pursued relentlessly, regardless of the financial capabilities of the patient and the heavy emotional impact this has on their lives,” he explains. “With GDR at our side, and our donors providing the funding to help us buy the destructive debt, this practice of never-ended collections will itself come to an end.”

Some history

Neither RIP nor GDR are newcomers to this problem of addressing debt, and putting it to rest.

Antico was a pioneer in the debt buying as well as the collections industry and has long lobbied against the practice of pursuing debt beyond the statute of limitations.

“Creditors have the right to collect on an account for as long as they wish, even when it doesn’t make economic or ethical sense and causes great stress,” Antico says. “This is the point where we step in. Those who are resource challenged or in hardship cannot fight the system; we fight for them by using the economic muscle of our donors and partners – purchasing their medical accounts at the same price a collection agency might pay. Pennies on the dollar!”

Mark Parsells‘, Executive Chairman and CEO of GDR, pedigree includes his being the former chief compliance officer of American Express Co.’s merchant division, the chief privacy officer of Bank One Corp., the president of Citibank Online and chairman and CEO of anti-money-laundering/know-your-customer technology and services company Regulatory DataCorp, has a lot to say in this matter.

Mark Parsells

Self-described as a “recovering banker,” Mark is focusing his company’s efforts on solving systemic problems in the much-maligned debt buying and selling industry, in which accounts are often sold to collection agencies without proper documentation. All too often, there is not even a ‘chain of title’ back to the original creditor.

“Consider us the ‘DMV’ of the industry, in that we offer debtor as well as the debt owner (and potential debt buyer) a chain of title that is fully transparent and authentic,” Mark describes.

“In the past, such a tracking system was not in existence – and in collection matters today, judges take note of this. An agency cannot say that a bill is simply “owed.” The court will demand of an agency proof that they likely will be unable to provide.”

Mark’s firm has made a strong pledge: to create a debt extinguishment record that a debtor can go to and prove that his debt is no longer subject to collection activity. This will be a way of expunging, as well as instituting electronic documentation, of non-performing accounts “in a process that will lead to better outcomes for all involved.”

Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants…Justice Brandeis

What attracted RIP to GDR is its commitment to transparency and a willingness to work just as hard for the consumer as for the lender.

Although GDR serves organizations ranging from some of the world’s largest banks, online platforms, regional lenders, debt buyers and collection services, it recognizes its responsibility to be open in its process. They provide a “Debt Lookup” website providing a heretofore unavailable tool for understanding what debt they owe and to whom – is being provided as a free service.

At this site, a person owing a debt can make sure that any individual or entity attempting to collect on a bill presumably owed – whether it be a credit card, past-due payment or even medical debt – is doing so legitimately and legally.

Even more powerfully, the site allows people to look up information about a collection agency, view their account to independently validate that the collector has the correct information being used in their contact, and then act. DebtLookup allows you to create a dispute letter, provides “verification” request forms, and links to connect with government or non-profit organizations for assistance.

Applying this to medical – and especially military and veteran medical – bad debt

What especially intrigues Mark about RIP is our approach to medical bills owed by veterans as well as active duty service people. When he reviewed the campaign RIP has launched to locate, buy and then abolish unpaid military medical debt, he signed on immediately.

(You didn’t know such debt existed? Read The Parades are Over. Where Are Your Vets?)

“I strongly support and have a great appreciation for the military, people we should all honor and thank for their services every day for their defense of our freedoms. Until RIP came along, there was nobody defending veterans insofar as their medical debt problems were concerned. That RIP has embarked on a program to help deserving members of our forces – whether veteran or active – deserved our attention,” Mark declares.

“The key to be able to provide useful extinguishment reports is to have an independent and indisputable chain of title,” he adds. “Right now, GDR does not have clients in the medical space. By working with RIP to persuade medical providers to use our service, GDR will ultimately be able to provide consumers the same protection we have provided in the credit market.” He stops to firmly make the case. “We always say that we track accounts from ‘cradle to grave.’ When we say grave, we mean it.”

Antico completes the thought. “Purchasing medical debt owed by our military and first-responders (now adding up to over 50,000,000 people) sends an important message. ‘We, the people, stand by you. We appreciate the sacrifice made by you and your families.’”

One such example of enthusiastic support is Larry Rivkin, a 95-year-old WWII decorated bomber navigator who, when he learned that such debt existed and that a charity was there to abolish it, proclaimed “I’ll donate to that!”

Antico emphasizes the importance of GDR devoting time and technology to support its efforts.

“Not only will Mark and his company provide irrefutable proof that our forgiveness process has put an end to that debt, but they will help us put a headstone firmly in place.” He emphasizes:

“Civilian or military medical debt, we bid a glad Rest In Peace to this unwelcome scourge and salute our donors and technology partners for making this possible.”

Author note: This is the second in a series of blogs elaborating on the powerful team of specialists in a number of industries who are coming together to bring their collective knowledge to design and put into action better ways to handle medical debt. Featured first in this series in an article titled: “Combining High Tech with High Touch. The Cure for Harmful Medical Debt?” is ARxChange and its CEO, Joe LaManna.

Comments

THE BLOG Combining High Tech with High Touch. The Cure for Harmful Medical Debt Collection Practices?

10/31/2016 04:26 pm ET

Jerry Ashton ... Patient Medical Debt Advocate Blogger and Author

In a multi-part series titled “Medical Debt Collections: High Tech, High Touch - High Time,” I am chronicling the role of companies, organizations and individuals who are, out of the public eye, devoting their energy to tackling and remedying the damage done by the existence - and pursuit - of unpaid and unpayable personal medical debt.

I approach this project both as a journalists/blogger well known as a patient advocate and as co-founder of a nonprofit, RIP Medical Debt, that has a singular mission - to locate, buy and then forgive personal medical debt. A billion dollars’ worth of this debt, to be exact.

RIP notably came to the public’s attention this summer when we were selected by John Oliver of HBO’s Last Week Tonight to receive a donation of almost $15,000,000 in medical debt. John Oliver had purchased a portfolio of debt for over 9,000 individuals in Texas as part of a scathing criticism of how this debt is bought and sold within the collections industry and the sometimes unsavory recovery techniques used.

Nice press - but, what has this to do with the ARM (Collections) industry?

As my co-founder Craig Antico and I have discovered in our quest to retire unpaid medical debt, this exercise in social good would be impossible without an “alignment of stars” - partner organizations willing to operate from their heart (high touch) as well as from their head (high tech) to stem the social and economic damage of being sick and broke...and hounded.

If it is true that it takes a village to raise a child, it will take a universe of such partners and benefactors to raise America’s consciousness regarding the need to address and resolve the issue of medical bad debt.

The coalition that RIP is imagining, and which is coming into existence, is a network of seemingly separate universes: technology, medical groups, hospital, governmental, societal, debt buying and collecting, big data, university research, sister charities and targeted philanthropy.

Let me introduce one of these universes to you.

ARxChange

2016-10-28-1477673105-1532714-JoeLaMannaARxChangePortrait.png

ARxChange is a New York based analytics company that bills itself “The Nation’s Centralized Patient Receivables Marketplace” and is the brainchild of partners Joseph LaManna (above) and Dr. Jim Zadoorian.

It was the self-pay and carrier segment that caught the attention of these two entrepreneurs, one a marketing whiz and the other a hospital/health care expert and holder of three patents in the sorting, ranking and valuing of debt and receivables.

Initially, LaManna and Zadoorian focused on helping hospitals dispose of their uncollectibles by serving as a receivables exchange. In that role, they aggregated and packaged this unpaid hospital debt for sale to debt buyers who would then purchase these large portfolios at a significant discount and either collect on them or offload them to collection agencies.

It didn’t take long for LaManna and Zadoorian to realize that their analytics - carefully refined - could move them to the front of the food chain. Why not catch the mistakes or problem accounts early on and ensure that the poor and in hardship would not be sent out for collections?

It is that focus that attracted the attention of RIP’s CEO, Craig Antico, himself a pioneer in electronic debt marketplaces and a former collection agency owner in Westchester county, NY.

“What RIP is all about is making sure that people with low income or in hardship (earning less than two times the poverty level or owing more than 5% of their annual household income for medical bills) would not land in the collection queues of companies motivated to pursue debt regardless of the personal or medical circumstances of the debtor,” Antico says.

“Having a world-class partner who will run each portfolio through their scoring mechanism, now we can be sure that each patient meets our criteria for forgiveness in each and every case where we purchase medical debt for forgiveness. ARxChange makes that possible, and practical,” Antico adds.

The importance of industry partnering for social and economic good

“Partnering with RIP is a complement and natural evolution of our ARxChange business model...a business model built on helping healthcare providers ensure accurate and prompt payment from insurance carriers...and ensuring that those that have the economic wherewithal can retire their obligation to the institution.

ARxChange and RIP prove that the ethical and fair treatment of patient populations can peacefully co-exist in an environment where payment for services provided is treated with equal import.”

He continues, “Hospitals are facing extreme financial challenges today, and it will get worse. Self-pay, the portion of the bill for which the patient is responsible, is growing thanks to the unforeseen rise in the cost of co-pays and increased deductible limits that have spiraled out of control. In some cases, families have seen deductibles increase by thousands of dollars.

“Uncompensated care has traditionally proven to impact from 5-10% of a hospital’s revenue base. By 2020, this is expected to increase to as much as 40-50%. A recent DeLoitte study shows that in 2010 the insurance/patient payment responsibility was 90/10%. In 2015 this responsibility shift is projected to be 81/19%. And, in 2020, 63/37%.”

This effect is already being reflected in the headlines as rising Obamacare costs are rising. The more this patient is submerged financially, the more like he or she will find themselves either forced into bankruptcy (over 60% of all personal bankruptcies in the U.S. are medical bill related) or at the receiving end of collection calls which will seemingly go on forever.

“Our mission is to keep those accounts out of the hands of the bill collector,” Antico says. “Our donors provide us the funds to seek out and buy these receivables - oftentimes in competition with some very large agencies - and then put that debt to rest.”

An ARxChange and RIP focus: military and veteran medical debt

From the time that RIP made its website and mission public, we have been aware of a segment of our population that most of us would never expect to have to deal with unpaid medical debt - our military. We brought that need to ARxChange’s doorstep and got an enthusiastic reception.

(By way of history, in a Huffington Post blog titled “The Parades Are Over. Where Are Your Vets?” I penned last year, I had this to say:

“It is now RIP’s intention to include veteran debt in our campaign. It was a development that, even I, as a Navy veteran, had not considered. After all, our government is supposed to be responsible for those who serve and have served, right? Not quite, not all that well, and sometimes not at all, I discovered.

The statistics are shocking: over 500,000 homeless vets seek shelter each night; over 50 percent of returning vets suffer from PTSD; many find that their long-term health care needs outlast their Veterans’ Affairs health care and...in 2010, some 1.3 million uninsured veterans had out-of-pocket medical expenses exceed their disposable income.”)

There is a literal industry has formed in response to military and veteran economic distresses. Everything from individual Internet “fund me“ campaigns on through to major nonprofits such as Wounded Warriors.

As part of this rescue, RIP Medical Debt and ARxChange are focusing uniquely on the issue of unpaid and unpayable medical debt incurred by active military personnel and veterans. LaManna was emphatic in its importance.

“During a time when more and more pressure is placed on military families across the country impacted by multiple and repetitive overseas deployments, who better to reward with our initial ‘Medical Bill Amnesty Program’ than those members of our community bearing this burden.

“And,” he adds, “to do so with grace and dignity.”

Follow Jerry Ashton on Twitter: www.twitter.com/WrittenOffUSA