RIP Medical Debt & Communities Joined in Action Announce Year Long Partnership 

RIP will support the CJA annual conference & collaborate with CJA members on localized debt relief and policy work.

RIP Medical Debt (RIP), a 501(c)(3) national nonprofit whose mission is to end medical debt is pleased to partner with Communities Joined in Action (CJA) in a year long collaboration. The goals of this partnership are to empower CJA’s members with an understanding of RIP’s work and how medical debt impacts communities in need; and also, to pilot three localized collaborative actions where RIP and selected CJA member organizations will learn from one another and push for not only imminent debt relief, but also systemic change at the local level.

As part of this collaboration, RIP will:

  • Sponsor the annual CJA national conference Sept 19-20, 2022, with a focus on building equitable communities.
  • Support three “Catalyst Conversations” webinars that present the RIP model and subsequently how CJA members can potentially partner with RIP to tackle the goals of building equitable communities and eliminating locally sourced, burdensome medical debt.
  • Collaborate with three CJA member organizations in a local, collaborative action to: source and eliminate qualifying medical debts (for those two times or below the federal poverty level and/or with debt that is five percent or more of annual income), promote/advocate for reform to address upstream causes of medical debt and to highlight the stories of local debtors to help remove stigmatization and increase the resonance of this collaborative action.

To launch the partnership, RIP and CJA will host a free series of three Catalyst Conversations via webinar: From Kitchen Tables to Corporate Boardrooms: Finding Local Solutions to Eradicate Medical Debt, Increase Economic Opportunity, and Improve Health in Our Backyards 

The three webinars will provide context on how RIP’s model works and also how the nonprofit works with partners. Content for the webinars includes: 

  • April 13th, 2022: Scope and impact of medical debt as a social determinant of health
  • April 27th, 2022: Interventions and policies to relieve medical debt
  • May 11th, 2022: Community Impact Pilot Program and opportunities for further learning on medical debt

More info on local action collaborations: they aim to eliminate burdensome medical debt by promoting and advocating for reforms to address upstream causes and elevating patient and partner stories that illustrate the burden and impact of medical debt. CJA will facilitate the establishment of agreements under which RIP will contract with, and compensate, three CJA members with the following key work areas in mind:

  • Engaging local health systems to donate or sell their qualifying medical debt.
  • Add to existing research on the financial, social, and emotional impact of medical debt.
  • Engaging and securing regional funders to sustain this work.
  • Aligning RIP with the local public policy desires of partners around insurance, financial aid, etc. 
  • Publicizing the efforts and impact of these collaborations with the local and national media, especially focusing on the stories of relieved debtors.

For more information, contact: Sarah Gillen (medicaldebtcommunitypilot@gmail.com)

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About RIP Medical Debt

Since being founded in 2014 by two former debt collectors, RIP Medical Debt has acquired — and abolished — more than $5.6 billion of burdensome medical debt, helping over 3.1 million families by addressing a major social determinant of health: financial hardship. RIP partners with individuals, faith-based organizations, foundations, and corporations and empowers their donors by converting every dollar donated into an average of $100 of medical debt abolished. RIP also partners with hospitals and health systems, physicians, and other organizations to acquire medical debt for abolishment. RIP rose to national prominence on an episode of HBO’s “Last Week Tonight” with John Oliver in which RIP facilitated the abolishment of $15M in medical debt. In December of 2020 philanthropist MacKenzie Scott donated $50 million to the nonprofit to help uplift struggling communities. To learn more, visit https://ripmedicaldebt.org.

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