Advocate Health Takes Bold Step to Address Medical Debt, Forgives All Debt Linked to Real Estate Liens

As part of its ongoing commitment to make health care more affordable and accessible, Advocate Health, the nation’s third-largest non-profit health system, is taking a significant step in eliminating financial barriers to care. The organization announced in September that it will begin cancelling all judgment liens previously placed on homes and real estate as part of its efforts to collect unpaid medical bills. Advocate Health will also forgive the outstanding debts associated with those liens. 

This move is part of a multi-year initiative to overhaul the system’s approach to medical debt, including Advocate Health’s announcement in 2022 that it would no longer file lawsuits or seek liens or judgments as part of its collection efforts. The organization also has implemented other system-wide policy changes resulting in it being a leader in the effort to solve the nation’s medical debt crisis. Among these changes, the system previously:

• Stopped reporting delinquent medical debt to credit agencies 
• Increased the charity care threshold to 300 percent of the federal poverty level (e.g., a family of four earning up to $93,600 qualifies automatically) 
• Expanded its automatic financial assistance program for low-income and uninsured patients 
• 80% of patients who qualify for financial assistance are not required to validate their eligibility
• More than 168,000 patients received 100 percent charity care last year 

“When we expanded our charity care policy, we immediately began assessing all previous outstanding liens and determined that most of those patients would qualify under our new policy,” said Brad Clark, chief financial officer of Advocate Health. “As the next step in our roadmap to make care more affordable, we are accelerating this process and removing judgment liens that were placed on homes and property to cover unpaid medical bills.” 

“We believe our financial assistance program is now among the most generous in the nation and Advocate Health is committed to being part of the solution to address the medical debt dilemma so many people are facing today,” Clark added. “The $6.05 billion we provided last year in community benefit further underscores our commitment.”

Advocate Health operates under three primary care delivery brands: Advocate Health Care in Illinois; Atrium Health in the Carolinas, Georgia and Alabama; and Aurora Health Care in Wisconsin. The health system will proactively reach out to individuals whose liens are being cancelled, beginning with the oldest cases. It began contacting affected patients and family members in September.

Advocate Health noted that the process of cancelling liens will take time to complete, as it requires collaboration with attorneys and courts in each jurisdiction. More information is available at www.advocatehealth.org/liens. 

In total, Advocate Health plans to cancel more than 11,500 liens, some dating back 20 years or more. For context, Advocate Health currently serves 5.4 million unique patients and conducts more than 33.4 million patient encounters annually. The ability to implement the initiative was facilitated by the organizational strength created by the health systems combining to form Advocate Health.  

In addition, last month, Advocate Health signed onto a statewide plan in North Carolina aimed at forgiving medical debt incurred over the past 10 years. This plan will set statewide standards for providing no-cost and discounted care to eligible individuals. The state is still working to finalize the program, which is expected to take effect sometime next year. Advocate Health will begin eliminating patient balances in accordance with the policies stipulated by the state at that time.