North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper speaks at a campaign rally for President Joe Biden, Friday, June 28, 2024, in Raleigh, N.C. RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina state government is seeking to rid potentially billions in medical debt from low- and middle-income residents by offering a financial carrot for hospitals to take unpaid bills off the books and to implement policies supporting future patients.
But to qualify an acute-care, rural or university-connected hospital would have to voluntarily do away with patients’ medical debt going back ten years on current Medicaid enrollees — and on non-enrollees who make below certain incomes or whose debt exceeds 5% of their annual income. Cooper said the plan has the potential to help 2 million people in the state get rid of $4 billion in debt, much of which hospitals are never going to recoup anyway.North Carolina’s restrictions on public mask-wearing are now law after some key revisions“Large medical bills from sickness or injury can cripple the finances of North Carolinians, particularly those who are already struggling,” Cooper said in a news release.
North Carolina legislators last year created the enhanced Medicaid reimbursement payments for hospitals — called the Healthcare Access and Stabilization Program —alongside provisions that expanded Medicaid coverage in the state to working adults who couldn’t otherwise qualify for conventional Medicaid. More than 479,000 people already have enrolled for the expanded Medicaid offeredCooper’s proposal doesn’t require a new state law and won’t cost the state any additional funds, but the U.S.