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'It would take a lot of pressure off': New debt plan could be gift to NC cancer survivor


'It would take a lot of pressure off': New debt plan could be gift to NC cancer survivor

A first-of-its-kind state initiative is expected to help people with big hospital bills they can't pay and to reduce the risk that more North Carolinians face the same plight.

In exchange, this state's 99 hospitals will receive billions more in federal Medicaid money.

For many North Carolinians, the damage is already done. Among them is Durham resident Kerry Holbrook. Duke University Hospital doctors saved her life, she said, but bill collectors have harassed her.

Hospital bills fill Kerry Holbrook with so much anxiety that when they arrive in the mail, she no longer opens many of them. She simply stacks them in a cabinet where a pile with dozens grows taller each month.

The former preschool teacher, now 61, has battled breast cancer and a number of other medical problems. But her current income, all from disability payments, amounts to just over $2,600 a month. Once she pays for rent on her one-bedroom apartment in Durham, food and other expenses, she has no money left, she said.

After enduring a double mastectomy and many other treatments for breast cancer since 2013, Holbrook has racked up tens of thousands of dollars in debt from Duke University Hospital. She's always had health insurance, but she's had costly deductibles and copays, too.

She's grateful to the doctors and nurses at Duke for saving her life.

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But collections agencies have hounded her for years, she said, and at one time they were calling her every day or two. She had to ask her brother to co-sign for a car she bought 10 years ago, a 2012 Hyundai Elantra, and she's not certain what she'll do if that car dies.

"The whole thing is one big morass for me. It doesn't give me a moment's peace emotionally," she said. "Medical debt affects every aspect of a person's life. It's certainly affected every aspect of mine."

Duke is no longer asking her to repay much of her old debt, she said. But the hospital system is asking her to pay more than $3,200 for her more recent tests and treatment.

Asked about Holbrook's situation, Duke Health sent a written statement saying staff "make every effort to work with patients to ensure they receive appropriate financial assistance." The health system had taken steps previously to reduce Holbrook's debt and are ready to do so again, the statement said.

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"This patient did qualify for financial assistance at a 70% discount, and the remaining balance was moved into bad debt when no further applications for assistance were made," Duke's statement said. "We have reached out to the patient to help them complete a full application form for additional discounts."

Under North Carolina's new relief plan, patients with hospital debts that are more than two years old -- and incomes as low as Holbrook's -- will be entitled to debt forgiveness.

After an Observer reporter informed Holbrook about the program, she began to think out loud about what it might mean for her.

"Emotionally it would take a lot of the pressure off," she said. "Because I wouldn't be getting the calls from collections agencies."

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