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Secular Society donation to give thousands in Southwest Virginia clean slate with Ballad Health
Secular Society donation to give thousands in Southwest Virginia clean slate with Ballad Health
Tonia Moxley 17 hrs ago
More than 26,000 people in Southwest Virginia will soon have overdue bills owed to Ballad Health and its legacy companies discharged, with no strings attached. ... The debts were abolished by a $3 million donation from The Secular Society, a Blacksburg-based nonprofit, through a partnership with New York-based RIP Medical Debt. Using donations, RIP purchases unpaid medical accounts for pennies on the dollar and then forgives the debts.
“The Secular Society sought to restore peace of mind and creditworthiness to people living in Southwestern Virginia who incurred cumbersome medical debt when they sought the basic human right of health care,” according to a society news release. ... Beneficiaries of the project are expected to receive notification letters later this month, the release stated. ... Those helped included thousands in the coalfields region of Virginia. And the list also includes over 100 in the New River Valley.
{snip}
RIP was founded by two former debt collection executives in 2014. According to its website, Craig Antico and Jerry Ashton decided to use their expertise to create a way to forgive unpaid and unpayable medical debt by using donations to buy large bundles of debt and then forgive it. ... The Secular Society was founded in 2013 and donates private funds to a host of community organizations and efforts, many of which benefit women. The Roanoke Times has received a three-year, $300,000 grant from the society to fund investigative reporting.
Neither RIP, nor the Society, work directly with individuals seeking medical debt relief.
{snip}
Tonia Moxley 17 hrs ago
More than 26,000 people in Southwest Virginia will soon have overdue bills owed to Ballad Health and its legacy companies discharged, with no strings attached. ... The debts were abolished by a $3 million donation from The Secular Society, a Blacksburg-based nonprofit, through a partnership with New York-based RIP Medical Debt. Using donations, RIP purchases unpaid medical accounts for pennies on the dollar and then forgives the debts.
“The Secular Society sought to restore peace of mind and creditworthiness to people living in Southwestern Virginia who incurred cumbersome medical debt when they sought the basic human right of health care,” according to a society news release. ... Beneficiaries of the project are expected to receive notification letters later this month, the release stated. ... Those helped included thousands in the coalfields region of Virginia. And the list also includes over 100 in the New River Valley.
{snip}
RIP was founded by two former debt collection executives in 2014. According to its website, Craig Antico and Jerry Ashton decided to use their expertise to create a way to forgive unpaid and unpayable medical debt by using donations to buy large bundles of debt and then forgive it. ... The Secular Society was founded in 2013 and donates private funds to a host of community organizations and efforts, many of which benefit women. The Roanoke Times has received a three-year, $300,000 grant from the society to fund investigative reporting.
Neither RIP, nor the Society, work directly with individuals seeking medical debt relief.
{snip}
1 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
