Herbert L. White
An article in the Sept. 26, 2024, edition of The Post gave Audrey Pride hope.
Advocate Health, Charlotte-based Atrium Health’s parent company announced it would drop property liens as a method of collecting on debt starting in 2025. Advocate Health also vowed to drop lawsuits and judgments against clients for outstanding debts as part of a 2022 pledge to change how it collected on delinquent accounts.
“I was so elated, like, ‘Oh my God, it’s not just us,’” Pride recalled.
Pride’s husband Clayton incurred medical debt of approximately $20,000 in 1991 – before they married. Three decades later, they were shocked by a bill that tripled without their knowledge.
“We had to work with somebody about this bill, but it seemed like we could never get on top of it because it was one thing after another,” said Audrey, 63, a retired Mecklenburg County probation officer. “It was always something with my husband and his health. He had knee operations, hip operations, prostate. It was just always one thing after another.”
Medical debt left the couple on a financial cliff. Audrey said by the time Clayton, 69, sold his parents’ west Charlotte house in July 2024, Atrium Health demanded nearly $60,000 to settle its account.
“Ain’t nobody said nothing prior to this,” she insists. “When he went to the signing, it was like, ‘You owe this, this and this” … and so you won’t be able to get your money because you have to pay these people first. I’m in shock, because I basically handle all the affairs when it comes to bills and all this other stuff.”
Advocate Health committed to forgiving more than 11,500 liens among its 5.4 million clients.
“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,” Brad Clark, Advocate Health’s chief financial officer said in September. “The $6.05 billion we provided last year in community benefit further underscores our commitment.”
Before the hospital holding company announced its policy change, Clayton Pride, who was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, offered to arrange payments in exchange for dropping the lien.
Audrey, however, insisted on challenging the bill.
“I said, ‘First of all, we don’t owe this amount’ – that I know because it was like twice what they (were) asking,” she said. “And I said, ‘Second, this was resolved if I’m not mistaken, and we’re not going to pay this.’ So, then they put everything on hold. It was a shock.”
Atrium’s lien was still unresolved when Clayton’s sister Theresa died in September. Her share from the sale went to probate.
“She died before she even received” proceeds, Audrey Pride said. “This is a horrible nightmare, because that money was pending and all this other time, she didn’t … get the money.”
While health care reform advocates have long pushed for universal health care, health care in the United States is also incentivized by profits. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act makes opens better health care access for people with pre-existing conditions, but medical debt was $220 billion in 2024 according to the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker.
“That’s a struggle, right?” State Rep. Terry Brown of Charlotte asked. “I don’t think that it is enough, but I also don’t know where to draw the line at and see where we would go. I think in a perfect system health care would be something that’s covered. You don’t have to worry about it, you don’t have to go out and pay thousands, and in some cases, tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket for life-saving treatments. But that’s not a system that we operate under right now.
“I also don’t know how much of that onus we should be putting on the providers, and how much that onus should be putting on the government to set some regulations and checks in place. I would be in favor of looking at some legislation here locally in North Carolina that would put some guardrails and some limits on what types of lawsuits healthcare providers can bring to collect on unpaid debts.”
Audrey Pride said their experience may have been resolved to satisfaction, but understands vulnerable clients are at risk of financial ruin.
“I think about the senior citizens who were not as diligent as me, who paid, who found a way, who didn’t have the strength, who just said, ‘You know what? Just take it, because basically, that’s what they did,’” she said. … “I feel like they’re always left the dust. People always like the babies, and they forget about the seniors. I feel like there should be something in place for our seniors that you should not just be able to rip them off.”
Brown believes Advocate Health’s new approach is good, but there’s room for improvement.
“I’ll say, not only as a lawmaker, but just as a person, I think it’s really good that companies like Atrium are forgiving some of these debts,” he said. … “The one thing we want to make sure in North Carolina is everybody’s healthy, and we want to make sure that people aren’t sacrificing their lives to save their lives, for lack of a better terminology
